9.8.1992

I had to get hold of my union representative this week as I had a major blowout with Mr. Temper Tantrum. My union rep. is a guy by the name of Bert. He's a short, round man with glasses and a goatee and he is slimy like a used car salesman. He's got a bad reputation among grocery workers in the union for doing a poor job representing them when they've filed a grievance against their employer. Bert rolls over like a dog for the companies and sells out the union workers most of the time it seems.

Last week I put in a request for a couple of days off. I asked for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. As long as you get your request in to the management before a weekly deadline the store managers will do their best to meet your request. Anyway on Friday the weekly schedule came out and Larry (who wrote the schedule) gave me my requested days off. Cool. He had to put me down as being off Sunday on both this week and last week's schedule since our work weeks always start on Sundays. Well, Mr. Temper Tantrum apparently decided to re-write next week's schedule for some inane reason and he didn't bother to look at the schedule Larry had already wrote up. So while I was off for three days having a good time Mr. Temper Tantrum schduled me to work Sunday and I was already gone on my trip.

When I got back home my parents told me that work called all afternoon on Sunday trying to find out where I was. I was angry and called down to the store and got hold of The Colonel. Colonel said someone had scheduled me to work three in the afternoon that day until nine at night. Closing shift. Dustin stayed longer to cover the shift and because he thought I blew the store off he was an asshole about staying. He gave a message to The Colonel for me, "Tell him to fuck off". I mentioned to The Colonel that if Dustin doesn't cool it next time I see him he's gonna get punched. I haven't seen Dustin yet since this all happened but if he acts up I'm gonna choke the shit out of him. For reals.

Dad of course decided to start a fight over this because I'm a bum. He took it upon himself to call around to all my friends houses trying to find me that afternoon and insisted on telling everyone that I had delibrately "missed" a shift at my job. That really pissed me off. It's nobody's business what happens at my work. Dad didn't have any right to tell anyone what was going on even if he does "Pay the bills around here". I should have known better than to leave my phone book laying around in the house. Dad loves to meddle in my business whenever he gets the opportunity. I've taken some precautions to make sure he doesn't speak to any relatives of girl(s) I'm seeing now. The guy will do whatever he can to fuck things up for me.

Getting back to Mr. Temper Tantrum, I was scheduled to work a weird night crew shift from four in the morning until opening at eight. I woke up early and made it to the store by three. I wanted to find a copy of Larry's schedule that did in fact have me scheduled for Sunday off. I went up into the manager's office on the second floor at the back of the store. Twenty minutes of heavy rummaging turned up Larry's schedule tacked to the wall behind the book keeper's desk. I snagged it. It felt good to have that copy in my hand as well as Mr. Temper Tantrum's jacked up schedule. Now I had concrete evidence of Mr. Temper Tantrum's incompetence. He fucked up, not me.

Mr. Temper Tantrum showed up at the store around seven. He walked by me a few times on the sales floor and said hello to me. It was like he didn't even remember the Sunday schedule incident. I delibrately ignored him when he tried to talk to me three times. Finally he said to me "You're awful quiet today". I replied "I'm kinda angry with you Mr. Temper Tantrum". "Why"? He asked. I glared at him and said "Because we apparently had a little incident over the weekend in regard to my schedule and some days off I requested. Larry gave me Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. You scheduled me to work Sunday and I missed the shift." As the words were escaping my lips he turned that bright red color and blew up like a volcano. He yelled in my face "If you want to be pissed off at me I'll give you plenty of reasons to be pissed off"! Then he stormed away before I could get another word in edgewise. I went back to stocking the shelf in front of me and then Mr. Temper Tantrum reappeared as if he used the teleporter in Star Trek. He was holding a copy of his rewritten schedule and told me he could not honor any of the days off I had requested. He gave me no reason. It's funny because I rarely ask for days off, I've been working here at Petrini's for a few years and I've only requested a few days off with weeks of advance notice for the managers. I've been reasonable in asking for days off.

I told the union representative Bert everything that happened and gave him both copies of that week's schedule as well as a dated photocopy of my original day off request. Bert wasn't too pleased with the situation and he assured me he will investigate what happened and talk to Mr. Temper Tantrum. I just hope Bert doesn't flake on me like he's done to a bunch of other people around here. So far I haven't been written up or reprimanded for missing that Sunday shift. I would have expected that to happen by now and it's almost an admission of guilt on Mr. Temper Tantrum's part that it hasn't happened yet. I don't trust Bert much so we'll see where this goes.

I'm off for the next couple of days so I'm gonna go buy myself a good cigar and spend some time looking for another job. Petrini's is bullshit. A bunch of our guys are looking into a lawyer so they can collectively sue Mr. Temper Tantrum for harrassment. The guy really is that much of a problem. I think our employees should sue both the store director personally as well as our main office since they are both liable for creating the shitty work environment we have at the store now. I hate the people at the main office anyway. They are systematically destroying our stores with their shoddy business decisions. Petrini's will be bankrupt before I know it. It would be wise to jump ship before SS Petrini's heads to the bottom. She's sinking fast!