burning bridges

photographer unknown

Generally, I don't like to do it, and it always blows me away when a company like Vitalaire does it. It's been two weeks since I lost my job, and while I'm okay for the most part, it's taken it's toll on my confidence.

You see, the Regional Director had spent over thirty minutes going over the "upcoming meeting" with me, which was to include the CPAP specialist, Bill and the respiratory therapist and mostly deal with safety and how I was to spend the last three months of my contract so that they could re-organize the Red Deer office.

The same day, the Regional told the others that there would NOT be a meeting. When Bill called him about it, he was told to stay away. The following Monday, the respiratory therapist was told to stay away, presumably to keep me from talking to her. I spent the day alone.

On Tuesday Morning, I was trying to get some points together for the meeting and also trying to finish up some paperwork when TWO managers showed up from Edmonton. At this time, I STILL thought the whole branch could meet to discuss some of the problems - but they brought chairs into my office, left the others out front, and shut the doors behind them.

All they really had to do was let my current contract expire, but I think they had to make an example of me. Anyway, what a shitty way to handle things.

Today I have an interview with the competition, and I hope that I get it. Even if I don't get a company car, I'd be okay with that. I just hope that their hourly wage is close to what I was making before! Bill and I want to buy a decent car this year.

Wish me luck! I really need it.

summer

The last few weeks have been brutal at work.

Omar was never friendly, warm or helpful toward me before, but once I kept having to work overtime, things deteriorated fast.

It's a vicious cycle; Bill's truck suffers some kind of breakdown (lately it's been the lift at the back. Once that goes, just try getting anything in or out of the back. It's very dangerous as well and must be fixed immediately.) When that happens, he will dispatch me to deliver to the hospitals and depots on his route. Invariably, this adds two to three hours to my route, which means I work through my lunch and at four o'clock, I have to call Omar.

"Hi Omar, Kate here. I'm into overtime."

"Why are you working overtime?"

"I'm delivering to the Prairie Depot."

"Why?"

"Bill delivers to them on Tuesday but that is the day his lift broke and he had to get a rental. He didn't arrive until after 6:00 pm and by then everything was locked up and he couldn't deliver."

"I meant, why are YOU doing it?"

"They called the answering service last night. They're out of oxygen and need it today."

"You didn't answer me. Why are YOU doing it?"

"No one else can do it."

"Why isn't Bill doing it?"

"He won't return from the east until 6:30 tonight. Prairie is another 90 minutes to the south, which would put him over the fourteen hour limit."

"This is unacceptable. I will have to come up there to see where these inefficiencies are coming from."

The thing is, he knows. Bill keeps him apprised and often leaves him messages breaking down all the details of the breakdowns and resulting changes to our routes. He's always friendly and helpful toward Bill, but openly hostile toward me.

At the end of last week, things got even worse, and I had to refuse some unsafe work. I just hope that everything can start to settle down a bit after this!

Some good news I have is that I recently gave up caffeine, as it's been causing reflux since I quit smoking four years ago. I've been trying to figure out what my pain was all these years, and one day Jamie saw the topic discussed on Dr. Oz.

I looked into it, spoke to a pharmicist, and went decaf the next day. What a difference! I had a few days of withdrawal but I feel pretty good now.

Our whole family was able to go camping last weekend - it was fun, even though it rained the first night. We rented a little cabin out by the lake near my parents farm. We had a fire and Jamie made S'mores (which I tried for the first time) and the next day, we all rented paddle boats and cooked ribs on the fire outside.

As I write this, Bill is unloading the dishwasher and Jamie is still asleep. Em is staying with Bill's sister out on the farm, so it's a lot quieter, lol. I think I see some laundry in my immediate future, so happy Saturday!