Friday, August 17, 2012

Jeep Quakes and Corporate Fakes

Seismic activity within the rear end of Jon's Jeep finally required help.  Many things led to this.  Firstly, Jon's giggling whilst hitting bumps on Michigan's pot-hole infested paved roads. He knows I'd yell at him for doing this in my car which has a much stiffer suspension, and does not handle bumps nearly as well.  Also the age of the Jeep and the shocks and allllllll those many 200,000 plus miles.  Basically once the seismograph graduated from funny small action shaking to---Holy Shit--What WAS That?--he had to try to avoid as many pot holes as possible.  He was nearing a 10 on the Richter Scale,  because when it got to shaking as though the entire rear end was going to give, he couldn't really control the Jeep...and this would happen, most of the time, where there was no visible pothole.

Funnily enough, I diagnosed bad shocks while it was still in the baby earthquake stage because I could think of nothing else that would make it behave this way. The mechanic agreed.  Hmmm...maybe I am in the wrong profession?  But, I do NOT however, have enough patience or aptitude with tools to become a mechanic. I get agitated and annoyed and tend to throw things around.

Ruth's Jeep is suffering from the same condition. I told her what to have fixed while riding with her the other day.  I noticed the rear end shaking, asked if the road right in that area normally did that, and noticed she applied the brake.  She said, no, its a Jeep Thing....lol. She thinks cars are magic...and to a large degree, I believe she is correct. Her Jeep is still in baby earthquake stage; but it will only get worse from there.

TSC Corporate decided our store needs to move freight day to Thursday/Friday and feed day to Tuesday. I have no idea why. So this week has been plenty screwed up at work.  Oh, yay, a backroom full of freight on a weekend. Well, corporate knows best, or so they think.  To compensate for the movement of the freight truck, we got dual trucks this week...a day apart.  I moved 5 pallets of dog food on Tuesday and 5 pallets of dog food on Thursday.  Then I had to help fill feeds on Thursday because the backroom had been so filled with freight for three days that no one had been able to replenish livestock feeds.

I also took a stupid "Town Hall" survey for TSC so they can, I don't know, clean up their act or something.  The questions were dumb, multiple choice questions with simplistic answers.  I would have preferred multiple choice with a line to explain my answer.  None of the answers seemed to apply.

"Do you feel valued by your employer?" A. Very   B. Somewhat    C. No Opinion    D. No

What do these kinds of questions really solve?  There were no lines for suggestions.  I know I would feel more valued if I were paid a liveable wage for the amount of work I do.  I moved 10 dog food pallets and probably two full pallets of livestock feed, plus answering questions, cleaning, and using the cash register.  A pallet of livestock feed weights 2,000 lbs.  A pallet of dog food can weigh more or less than 2,0000 lbs depending on the size and number of bags present.  At least 3 of the dog food pallets I worked were double pallets...meaning I should count them as 2 instead of 1 but I never do.  I do 2 to 3 times MORE work than most of the people I work with, yet I earn only about 25 cents more an hour. (Which is classified information and I am not to know the wages of my co-workers on the grounds that I could be fired.)  A company that is really striving for excellence, and is unafraid of investigations based on paying fair wages without discrimination based on race, gender, or age, would not have such a policy since there would be nothing to hide.  TSC is NOT such a company.

I believe this survey is Corporate's stupid, passive-aggressive way of trying to fool their employees into believing that they care while gathering no real information on how to improve their company. 

One day soon, customers will avoid TSC the same way they avoid WAL MART.  People shop at TSC to avoid Wal Mart, believe it or not.  I wonder if Corporate is aware of that fact?  Doubt they even care.



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