I am retired from a federal agency and receiving a retirement check. However, after a few years of doing nothing I got bored and decided that I wanted to feel 'useful' again.
I applied for a security position with Wackenhut in Pharr, TX. And was hired on Oct. 8. The first two weeks of work were great. However, on my third week I was transferred to a General Electric site where they paid me $1 more per hour.
I immediately became aware that my supervisor, she holds the rank of Lt., had been at this same site for the last 2 years and had decided to work with Wackenhut rather than look for a job in Diesel Mechanics which had been her first career choice. She has never worked in a position that called for professionalism.
We worked together for a week and our conversations were limited to greetings in the morning and very little conversations during the day. Her favorite past time was feeding her face and talking on the phone mostly about how bad these or that employee were doing. She seemed to revel in talking about how she would not hesitate to "write up" or fire an employee. Several of her conversations with me were mostly about reprimanding or firing employees. I got the impression that she was trying to impress me with her bravado in a vain attempt to bolster her ego.
I was a Supervisor for 15 years and had employees under me with 4 year degrees. I learned that to get respect you have to earn it.
In Supervision 101 you learn that you don't discuss other employees problems, imagined or real with another employee. Much less your intended actions, this is highly unprofessional.
The inevitable happened, I was working the 6 pm to 6 am shift and in the morning the Lt. Came in and just as I was walking to my car to go home she called me to the booth we occupied.
She did not ask but rather immediately accused me of allowing an ex-GE employee of entering the site improperly. She stated that the employee had been fired the Friday before and even though GE had not collected his work ID badge from him that I should have known better than to let him into the premises. Of course I asked her why I should be "at fault" allowing someone into the premises if they present the proper ID/Badge.
She started ranting and raving about how I was supposed to know everyone by now (1 week after starting there) with several hundred employee faces to memorize. I told her that it was GE' mistake for not taking away the employee' ID badge when he was fired.
After having spent her initial anger she finally told me that she wasn't sure which of us (there was two of us working the shift in question) had allowed the ex-employee to enter but since it had to have been one of us, myself and the other guard were going to be written up. I told her that I wasn't going to sign anything and asked to speak with the Capt.
She called the Capt. And instead of letting me talk to the Capt. She immediately began using provacative and instigating language completely distorting everything that I had said and finally convincing the Capt. That I was insubordinate and uncooperative. I had only witnessed this type of behavior in children before.
Finally, on the way home I decided that I did not want to work for a company that employed people of such low caliber and character, I resigned and went back to living on my retirement having learned that there are worse things than being bored.
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