I returned to working for Express after leaving my last job and trying to attend college in another state. When no jobs were available to support me and my family while I went to school, I returned home to Pueblo.
I went to work for Express again, and the only "jobs that fit" that they could find for me paid $7 per hour and only lasted 3-4 days. My most recent assignment was a plum job: three hours a day for five days a week. I had told my supervisor, Tanya Quintana, that I needed full time employment, even at $7 an hour, to pay any of my bills. I further said that the current assignment was unsatisfactory and that I wanted to be removed as soon as possible.
In the contract signed by all Express employees, it is flatly stated that you may refuse any and all assignments offered without any negative consequences. It also says that I may, upon request, be removed from any job deemed unsafe, unworkable, or simply unpleasant.
Tanya refused to remove me, saying that "we really need you there". Evidently I was the only one in town who could swing a rake. On May 7, I called in at 3 A.M. After a prolonged bout of vomiting and fever, and said—via voice mail—that I'd be unavailable for at least a couple of days. As the job started at 9, they'd have at least three hours from their start of work at 6 to find a replacement.
On Thursday afternoon, the 8th, someone who was covering for Tanya (so she claimed) asked how I was and what was the latest update. I said I'd continue to be unavailable until about Monday, the 12th. (As of today, the 12th, I'm still coughing.)
On Friday, the 9th, when I went to pick up my check, Tanya demanded to know why I didn't call in Thursday. I reminded her that, on the voice mail, I had excluded myself from at least two days of work. (Just as you have the option of telling your employer that you will be available all week, you also have the option of stating unavailability the same way, not just day-by-day.)
She then asked what I'd told the person who called that morning. However, nobody had called me that Friday morning. The call had come the afternoon before, around 4:45. I explained the conversation (and that I didn't remember the name, but that the caller had said she was filling in for Tanya), and the subject seemed to be dropped.
Today, on May 12, I called in and said I'd be available all week. Whoever answered the phone (they never give names) said that would be fine. A half hour later, Tanya called and said that another 2-day groundskeeping job had come up. I said I wouldn't take it because first, I didn't like the people I'd have been working for, and second, I had a 3 P.M. Appointment to get a screw removed from my wife's ankle on Wednesday, the 14th, which would have interfered with my work schedule.
Tanya then changed her tone of voice and said that since I hadn't called in Thursday, that technically they could (and should) have fired me, but they were going to give me "a second chance". I reminded her that any grievances directed toward me should have been dealt with when they happened, or better yet, when I was there in person on Friday, but one does not argue with The Great Tanya. No, no.
She knows perfectly well that clients have requested me to return, and that my performance has never been less than exemplary. If any rebuttals from her or Express appear here, ask her who it was who, on his first day on his first assignment in impressed his client so much that his contract was bought out and he went full-time after 90 days? (Hint: It was me, on assignment to Timberline Fasteners. And I was doing the job so well, that one month after I went full-time, the higher-ups fired my boss and gave me his job.)
She implied that she was doing me a favor, and that I had no business turning anything down. I said that if she felt it was best, she could go right ahead and do what she felt was in her best interests. She simply said, "Then we'll do it that way, " and hung up.
My unemployment will be ending soon one way or the other (I've already lined up job interviews), so the loss of a "job" (BWA-HA-HA!) isn't the problem. It's that Express has no intention of fulfilling their end of the contract if and when you decide to call them on it. The moment you stand up, they arch their backs, hiss, and bristle their tails at you to make you back down. Keep in mind that, although some people—like I did—can find long-term gainful jobs, most of the time, as a temp, you're a 21st century indentured servant, and you're going nowhere at warp speed.
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