Thursday, February 23, 2006

Anti-leadership

My shift supervisor isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. This week, "Jan" displayed the most crystallizing examples of proving that point, in two separate instances.
First: Upon completion of our daily update Monday morning, Jan failed to mention whether or not we would be receiving a truck full of garments, so I went to ask her before going to my department to attend to the day's work. (After all, receiving is part of my job responsibility.)
"Are we expecting a truck today?" I inquired.
"I don't know," she blandly offered. "Truthfully, I didn't even check my E-mail to find out."
Isn't that your job?
A little more than an hour later, Jan came back to my department. She asked, "Did we get a truck?"
Stunned, I replied, "No, not to this point. So we are expecting one today?"
"Well, I'm not sure," she feebly stammered.
Oy ve!

And in a second episode, Wednesday, I was forced to call off due to a nasty stomach virus. I left a message at 4:00 AM with the building supervisor. (Granted, he may not have delivered said message to Jan, however...)
The phone rang at 10:00 PM, and my caller ID told me it was work, so I picked up. The second-shift super, "Wynona," who is a LOT more coherent and competent, called to tell me that OT had been cancelled for the following day. "Jan would have called you, but she didn't even realize you weren't here until the end of the day."
WHAT??? OK, there's only 40 employees per shift, and only 5 in my department. You're honestly telling me you are incapable of monitoring when someone is absent from my department, reducing the work-force by 20%?!?

Great job, Jan. I feel so inspired.

1 comment:

Sublime said...

Sounds like you could take alot more time off work and still get a paycheck. She might never realize your not there...lol.

Hope you are feeling better.

Take care,
Sublime