Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Monday, Jul. 19, 2004 - 11:39 p.m.

A bird? A pillow? Which is it?
I swear to you people, in the last week, this house has fully become an ever-revolving part of the Circle of Life. I'm pretty sure we are the hub.

I got up this morning and headed to the second bathroom, and on the way there, I realized the living room floor was covered with small grey feathers.

I stopped dead in my tracks, staring dumbly down at the hundreds of small and mostly small feathers and one rather sizeable one, and I heard myself saying "Oh. That can't be good." Which woke TB up, who had fallen asleep on the couch, and he explained the cat brought a bird in earlier this morning and then let it go and caught it again. Which I can't believe I slept thru, coz believe me, it was the Lion King in there, and I don't mean the happy singing parts, I mean Scar shoving Mufasa down the cliff and blaming Simba part, with what had to have been a great deal of violence and some gnashing of teeth, judging from the sheer number of feathers covering the floor. I swept it all up and then got in the shower and headed to work, but I couldn't help thinking.

My life has become one long, neverending episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Katie Stands Up
There's this guy at work who constantly bitches about the job and never does one second more tape time than he has to to meet the minimum work requirement (for the slow people). He feels he should be paid more and promoted, and he never wastes an opportunity to make sure you know it. He's the kinda guy who knows the work is temporary and still manages to looked shocked when informed a project is drawing to an end, then drives Jonny C nuts by whining about not having any money and what's he gonna do now, and can't they help him find another job with another production company? In short, a monumental whiny baby, with a ton of abrasive thrown in.

So on Friday, our supervisor asked him how many tapes he can actually log in a day, because he spends literally half his day surfing the web, working on personal projects, writing email, and returning calls to people who are looking to rent an apartment in the apartment complex he "manages" in exchange for a free apartment. He said he could do 8 - with the proper incentive. Like what? our supe asked. Well, like if he could log his quota and leave. Our supe was not pleased, but we are really weeded, so he appealed to this asshole's sense of decency and asked could he please, for just the next 2 weeks, up his ante from 4 tapes to 6 or 7?

Why, The Ass said; what's in it for me?

What's in it for me. The litany of this asshole's day. Seriously, I have heard that more times in the last week or so than I ever thought I would in the entirety of my life. What's in it for him, I am thinking, is that the jerk will get to keep his job. My supe was pretty pissed about it and came to me to vent, because he and I have been working together for about 1.5 years now, and he was at a loss, this being the first time he has ever supervised adults and met with that kind of fuck-you-buddy bullshit from an employee. Plus, he knew that it would pretty righteously piss me off, too. And it did. Jonny C did not take it well, either, and he had a chat with The Ass. All of which brings us to today, when The Ass goes "Psst!" and waves me over so he can whine at me that he doesn't think it's fair they asked him to do more tapes, and then tells me he would be more than willing to do a lot more tapes IF they let him go home early, but since they won't let him go home after 4 or 5 hours of work, why should he actually work past when he finishes his 4th tape, around 1 or 2; why should he actually do work the entire shift...what's in it for him?

Those of you who have been reading this here blog for very long can probably imagine how well that went over with me.

Now, normally what would have happened is I would have let this asshole whine, not really offering much in the way of opposition, in the hopes of avoiding confrontation. But not today. I have pretty much reached the point where I have had it with people walking all over me with their pointy little fuck you shoes, and this dick pisses me off. So I said, frankly Assboy, you're being a jerk. Which met with some shock, but I was not to be deterred. I continued, keeping my voice very level and quiet - which in and of itself was a major feat; I am not a quiet person, especially when I get mad. I pointed out the work shift is from 9 to 7, not from 9 to 2, and that the rest of us have to be there for 10 hours, so if he expects to make the same pay, he has to work the same time, and that as I am a person who consistently works extra hours just to make sure I get my work done, it would behoove him to motivate his ass to work the full shift, and that frankly, his attitude made me want to punch him, and btw, wasn't he asking to be promoted?

This met with much whining about how he wasn't being promoted though, and it was unreasonable to expect him to work harder than he had to to finish 4 tapes, and that it wasn't his fault I worked longer hours than he did, that it was unreasonable to expect me to do so, and I shouldn't do it. Okay, I said, again, that makes me want to punch you. When you treat our supe with disrespect and walk around here saying you are so much better than this and don't have to do it, you also treat everyone else here with disrespect and say you are better than they. Especially those of us who give a damn about actually doing our work properly and well. And gee, I am simply just not down with that, so you really oughtta think long and hard about the next thing you say, because you're not winning any points at all with me right now. And he quit talking, and I went back to work, and that was the end of it, other than Jonny C overheard part of it and told his boss, and Assboy pretty much screwed himself out of any promotion he might have gotten, because if there's one thing people in television don't like to hear, it's that anyone else working in tv, let alone a lowly logger, thinks he's too good for the work.

And I am thrilled as punch I actually spoke my mind to a person AND kept calm doing it, without a single care that the person might get pissed off and think I'm a bitch or yell and argue or "come to blows" over it. I didn't even get a little bit nervous. No heart pounding or prickly feet or anything. And that is a HUGE step for me. :)

Peace out,
Katie

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