Saturday, June 22, 2024

The Ax Can Fall On Any Of Us

So yeah, my co-worker ... I said goodbye to him on Monday knowing I'd see him Wednesday, if not Thursday, but not Tuesday because I had the day off.  I was really busy on Wednesday, however, so if he walked by me on his way to getting coffee or something, I didn't see him.

I was back in The Fourth Department the rest of the week.  It took me an hour or two to glance at his desk, which is just across mine, and see that it was empty.  I checked the calendar; he was not scheduled any days off this week.  Weirdest of all, no one really has spoken about him being "gone."  Well, I did eavesdrop on another co-worker (actually, she was in the same department as him) talking to my boss's boss about how things are going to be done "from now on."

There is software we use to keep an electronic data trail about who we called when we are investigating missing information on the forms we work on.  Through looking up forms that we still needed to work on, he was here, working, up to Wednesday afternoon.  Apparently, he's not working at my company anymore.

No, I did not see this coming.  I have noticed, as I was working back there, that there were some things that he didn't do right.  But so what?  I'm not perfect, either.  I get a list of errors from my boss from time to time.  Meanwhile, I also noticed that his personality didn't exactly mesh with others.  He seemed totally fine with his co-worker and everybody else who worked back there, but sometimes he said something that was met with raised eyebrows.  That reminds me of a longtime co-worker at The Main Department who was fired (I want to say earlier this year, but it could have been last year), and even though I still don't know why, she was given a public warning or two, and then we were told through e-mail to keep an eye out for her in case one of us sees her driving back into the parking lot.  In America, you can't be too sure.  This guy?  He doesn't seem to be a gun-toter, but he is a guy, so who knows?

Yes, those two had, um, distinct personalities, but so do I.  Unless something happened on Wednesday that necessitated an immediate firing, I don't understand why what apparently happened happened.  So, if it is work- or production-related ... well, there's no reason to think that this sudden firing can't happen to me as well.

And you know, I see signs that I could be fired.  My supervisor on a couple occasions yesterday/Friday and/or Thursday seemed pissed at me that I asked her questions.  Basically she told me that I should know to do this and that.  I didn't.  And, I thought it was alright for me to ask her questions.  But she seemed annoyed, and that makes me wonder: Did she have anything to do with his firing?  And if so, would she turn on me if she got tired of me, too?

Oh, another thing: I could have left earlier yesterday/Friday than I did.  I finished up most of work well before my eight hours were up.  But I decided to leave some end-of-day stuff till the very end of my day, and in the meantime I was intently listening to the Euro Match between The Netherlands and France.  And then I took my afternoon break to eat the muffin Mother made for me.  By the time I got back, there were some e-mail replies that came in.  I did them, and I was past my eight hours.  Hey, it's part of the job.

You know, there's another thing: I overheard my supervisor talk to my boss about wanting to stay late to listen to trivia.  That's another thing I do: Listen to trivia on the radio.  That comes on the tail end of my day, and sometimes I don't clock out until after trivia because I put off shutting everything down till after that.  Does my boss hate that?  I know he has ways of forensically investigating my computers.  I think he can tell when I'm interacting with work programs and when I'm not because I am either listening to trivia on the radio or going to the break room.  And we have been told that we can be monitored, so they know when I'm on the Internet.  Which is basically all the time.

Shit.  My time is up, isn't it?  If he can be blindsided out of a job, I can, too.  Why couldn't I?  Fuckin' A, man, I need to step up my looking for a job game.  And stat.

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