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Sunday, April 3, 2016

An unwelcome decline

If you are trying to change your life direction and experience resistance, then you are doing it right. If this is true, then the world does not want me to be happy.
  
I'm gonna unload here, so if you work with me, skip this post.

Lowe's has been keeping me so busy that energy for outside projects is down to zero. Delivery trucks often form a line trying to get in. They come weather they are scheduled or not. Taking notes and filing paperwork has reached a new plateau of difficult. Often times I feel like I'm cramming for finals back in college, with furious note taking speed.
Last week, my supervisor skipped towards me while I was untangling several orders. Three bays? Three trucks delivering at once. Sure I can multitask, but this is pushing it.
She wanted a high five while I was holding paperwork and a scan gun. All my control went into keeping my arms by my side.
'Aw, c'mon Will, don't leave me hanging!' she said.
One of our drivers behind her tried to be helpful. 'Dude, she wants to give you a high five.'
'I know.' was the only thing I trusted myself to say.
If my arm started to move, I would have belted her. She had just fired the other receiver the week before and I was doing more than twice the job load. Leaving the back end short staffed during a critical time is (I'm looking for a word... Insane? Asinine? Unforgivable?)
For future reference, an apology goes further with me then a high five.
She left us hung out to dry while we got our heads handed to us. Lowe's does all of it's purchases at once for the summer for the big spring push. All of March has been a big blur as I race from one end of the store to the other in order to count and scan incoming merchandise.
They started to hire replacements, but they are taking their sweet ass time getting there.
Friday can be counted on for several things. Local deliveries only. It's primarily a catch up day for whatever went on during the week. It also allows you to get set up for the weekend.
When the regional distribution truck pulled up I thought it was an April Fools joke. Nope.
We had to pull other people from across the store to unload the truck. Of course paperwork was involved. Shortly after we started, we ran into a problem. There was no place to put stuff.
'You can't bring those pallets onto the selling floor.' One manager cried.
Sorry, you can't have it both ways folks.
Did I mention the twice weekly appliance trucks? Yes, I have help unloading them, for which I am extremely grateful. The short of it is my body can't continue the abuse. My arms and fingers fall asleep within three minutes after I start driving.  That last sentence took several minutes to type. I had to shake my hands out several times. This is why I haven't been posting lately. My job is literally harmful to my health. The cheapass safety belts they give mitigate some of the muscle and back strain. I go through gloves every three weeks because they are made with the cheapest quality material allowed by law. I broke down and bought a pair of gloves so they would last longer.
What does Lowe's do right? It allows me to pay off my outstanding debts. Taking a look at my paycheck on April 1st, (the irony is not lost on me.) 250.00 goes to $ocial $ecurity and $tudent loans. That's not per month, that's every two weeks. So roughly 500.00 a month goes to paying off my debts. I'm not expecting a tax refund this year, nor did I get one last year. You can't escape the government. I've been paying them off for several years and each year I get a statement that says how much I've chipped off. I should be debt free in another 12 years. Almost in time for my retirement. 
Friends and co-workers have already had heart attacks and died either on the job or directly related to our jobs. Hello, didn't I have a concussion not too long ago? 
No wonder I regard my current job as indentured servitude.
Oh, and don't forget my wife's student loan, which we have not even begun to pay back. The vultures are circling...

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