Weekend check-in

Tesla7891 · 2022-04-30T15:50:15+00:00

Had taken a new job that I was overqualified for. I had been sitting at home not wanting to go back into my career work for about 2 months because I think its given me PTSD, insomnia, and depression (truck driving), and just reluctantly applied to a basic job in a factory. I didn't need the money for survival, but just didn't want to be draining money and using up all my savings either. But I got fired yesterday, for being 4 minutes late. I never had been until that day. It was my first week, but I don't show up any earlier than when I start getting paid. And honestly, I wasn't relieving anyone because the factory ran just on the day shift. I found out some employees who didn't have cars and were dropped off much earlier than their shift, couldn't clock in until 5 minutes before their shift (though management didn't stop them from setting up work stations, cleaning etc. while they waited). But this manager I guess has such old school mentality that he thought everyone is supposed to show up 10 minutes early, even though those 10 minutes aren't paid, and share "good mornings" and listen to him talk about himself. Very religious this guy was, only in small town america will you still find this kind of derangement. I'm a nice guy but I hate those organized religious types. They never took the time to learn about motivation and how connected it is to a psyche and not just money. He thinks showing up 10 minutes early is fair, but he gets to move around the floor all day, get off his feet 10 times a day, and got paid probably twice or three times as much as me on salary. I would be working one machine all day that is too loud to have a conversation with anyone around, didn't even go to the bathroom most day, and was getting carpel tunnel and blisters from the machines. The employer also hired two of his sons. He probably learned the skillset of his job in a on-the-job training environment, he was an old man who likely learned his mechanical and work skills in an age when employers actually trained to improve their employees' skill sets. That was the biggest detractor for me, and I definitely took the joy out of being in front of me from him when I said I was expecting to learn something there but quickly learned the first day nothing was trained to the workers. But again, simply because my body and look fits into a soldier archetype, I think he just wanted me to be a dumb fool, being a brown nose as if it was the army.
He really probably wasn't going to fire me for being 4 minutes late once, but was insistent it was a warning, because after he had the chat with me I went to others say "four minutes in any sense is not late, but especially if I'm not relieving anyone". That is essentially what got myself fired, cause he pulled me aside at the end of the day, and started with "I busy but I can hear things around the factory...and I don't think its going to work out if you don't take my warning seriously" I'm so tired of men of a certain age imposing their unwritten, out dated, old-school rules on the younger generation. This kind of everyday misandry that men impose on other men. I'm not that naive, I'm in my 30s. Why is it alright to be 5 minutes late to this job? Because of suburban sprawl and me commuting from the city, and 20% more cars being on the road in the last 30 yrs, getting to work is slowed by some asshole on their phone or some soccer mom in an SUV driving a vehicle they don't have the spatial awareness for. All things he didn't have to deal with when he was my age and adding jobs to his resume. Or because it wasn't a pattern with me. Because when the job doesn't offer health benefits, sick leave, fair pay, and I was told the building could get to over 100 degrees F in the summer, and when I was looking at the staff and no one seemed to be there for more than two year, its clearly a terrible job to be working at, which is why he has two of his kids working there. Of course none of that makes any sense to a guy like this. He's was very religious, he's a follower personality, his two boys were named old testament names, Jeremiah and Christian. He'd never challenged any authority that he'd ever met, so when he was an "authority" he expected me to just follow him, blindly.
I'm looking back on it now, and while my thinking didn't escalate to going to my timecard to prove I hadn't been late until yesterday at ALL, I'm realizing now just cause I didn't immediately find him and say "good morning" to him each time, he thought I just showed up late.. but I haven't talked to my parents in years, I've become very independent, this kind of thing is not a social custom for someone to make to any authority to me. I either like someone or I don't, and small talk with someone I don't like never goes well.

Can you believe that? But I'm still very upset. Yes, the working conditions were bad, and I only wanted the job to clean my memory of my bad driving experiences, and get back to a good sleep schedule, but I was going to quit after a few months anyway. But in my week, my production numbers were stellar. I was fast. A lot of the employees were on their phones either touching screens or fiddling, but I didn't take my phone out of my pocket for the 1st 2 1/2 days.

Cheeseybellend · 2022-04-30T13:04:20+00:00

It's sunny, a bank holiday 3 day weekend, I think it's all good. Lad at work quit though, so will be a stressful few months, no more working at weekends since daughter cried one weekend that I wasn't hanging with the family enough - no-one wants that feeling of letting your kids down.

surrealstrength · 2022-04-29T19:31:44+00:00

Trying to hold myself together. But the thoughts start clouding me at night. But I know the only way is through so I'm just walking head first into the fog. I think a lot of y'all will relate to it. Optimism is like a thread that gets thinner the farther i walk. But as long as i can tug on it and figure out a way I think I'll be fine. Thank you mods and the members of this sub for being helpful. Brothers, please don't shy away from sharing your thoughts. We got y'all.

Title	Weekend check-in
Author	mensupportmenmod
Upvotes	21
Comments	10
Date	April 29, 2022 4:00 PM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	/r/MenSupportMen
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MenSupportMen/weekend-check-in.1113875 https://theredarchive.com/post/1113875
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/mensupportmen/comments/uep492/weekend_checkin/