| COMMENTARY PAGE |
| 07/13/01 - Work Rant Part 2 Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special mid-week edition of the Commentary section! What, you ask, is the reason for this unexpected pleasure? Contempt. Pure and simple. See, after writing Monday's column, I thought that if I had blown off all my steam in one big rant, then it would be off my chest, and that's that. But no, instead, it just cracked open a can of worms, one that is too big for just one Commentary page to contain. This is Part 2. I'm not done trash-talking Cameron, not by a long shot. Now, let's establish something first and foremost, something which I'm not sure if I've effectively established yet, if at all. That being - I am a relatively tolerant person. Sure, you might not get that impression by reading my site, since this site mostly caters to my needs for an outlet for all my negativity, but really, it takes a lot to make me hate someone or something. I mean, coming from a guy who voluntarily spent a week sleeping in either a cold, uninsulated fire escape, on the cold stone floor, wearing a t-shirt with my leather jacket draped over me like a sorry excuse for a blanket, or on a studio floor, concealed within the piles of costumes, so as to avoid being detected by the custodians, it sure does mean a lot when I say that I hate someone, when I didn't even really hate the vagabond experience. Okay, so to append to Part One of this topic, not only was Cameron bitching to someone who, along with not caring, had gone through worse, in order to elicit sympathy, he was also bitching to someone whose friend, Laura, has a problematic, and extremely painful tailbone, which has caused her on several occasions to walk like a granny in order to minimize the pain, but despite this, has put forth some very energetic performances in Black Box 2001, including an entire hip-hop dance routine, without ever once bitching about it! In other words, bitching about a boo-hoo story about tough times at the Kits Beach Pavilion is NOT the way to go about earning, or even maintaining, my respect. My best friend, Nick, who is a wiser man than I, once quoted a third person, whom he knew personally, as saying "there are two kinds of people in this world - the ones who get it, and the ones who don't get it." And looking at the business ethics of one Cameron Higgs, I can honestly say, and mark my words, that Cameron does not "get it". We're talking about a man with Food Safe certification who sells month-expired milk, informing the employees not to draw attention to the expiry dates. We're talking about a person who tries desperately to keep me employed there, but proceeds to fire my friends, one by one, over extremely trivial matters. A man who believes that staff morale is irrelevant. A man who, never mind practicing what he preaches, doesn't even consistently preach the same thing he preached yesterday. A man who has already "terminated" me, but declares that that doesn't mean I'm fired. By now, you should understand what I mean when I say, "Cameron does not get it". On busy days, there are seldom any more than four of us working, while on slower days, he feels the need to book seven or eight workers for the day. In fact, here's an amusing little story - after working almost non-stop for two weeks, I was among three others who didn't receive a paycheque on pay day. You would think that since, for those two weeks I was the only consistent full-time employee other than the manager and assistant manager, you would think that I'd be the last person he'd forget to pay. But no, he didn't forget, or so he says. He says that there must have been some processing error and my paycheque was delivered elsewhere. He says he'll straighten it out. I finally get a new paycheque and clearly printed on the bottom of the stub, in blatant non-fineprint are the words: "Comments: Hours not submitted." You know, when I really think hard about it, there really aren't that many people who "don't get it". In fact, I would say that it is those who "don't get it" that are in the minority sample of Vancouver's population. Now sure, the term "get it" is quite open. I basically define it as "an understanding of the basic concepts by which things work". See, ex-employee Katherine "gets it", and she was driven to quit. Why? She made too much coffee. So Cameron had her dump out a fresh new pot of coffee, sparing no ridicule at her expense. An hour later, we sell out of coffee. Now who's the one, in this situation, that "gets it"? Gary was the fastest fish and chips cook we've ever had, and was a great asset to the store. He was driven to quit after Cameron complained that he was too slow. Jacklyn's (sp?) status as an employee is currently in question, too. Why? She's a hard worker, gets along great with the other employees... but she had a nosebleed. So she's gone. Michelle called in sick. So Cameron fired her. Then asked her to work the next day. Heidi would be able to run the store with business smarts. She's a hard worker who works five days a week, which is more than anyone else, other than Cameron, works. Last I heard, she was being demoted from her assistant manager position. One time, Cameron was upset that I was asking for too many days off, and threatened to cut my hours. Do we see a pattern developing? Are we clear, by now, that this is no isolated incident? Cameron simply does not "get it". And the thing about people who "don't get it" is that they tend not to get along very well with those who do "get it". The mere sight of Cameron summons up the crystal clear memory of a very painful wail that a friend of mine used to belt out upon the recognition of sheer stupidity. It has, since then, become something of a mental "idiot alarm" siren. There's no other way to put it - Cameron just doesn't "get it". If he's going through hard times right now, then mark my words, I'm positive that it's his own damn fault. His business decisions are so self-destructive that you'd think he wants to fail. Maybe he's doing that for more sympathy... |