Thursday 25 September 2003

Two hours Tuesday pretty much summed up life for me in La Crosse County.

As much as I love working for the Harrah's campaign, APAC is not a good place for which to work. The turnaround there is horrible, the average employee lasting about four months. The thing is, there are three colleges and eight high schools within ten miles of APAC and the pool for new trainees is bottomless. This pretty much allows the management there to treat everyone like shit. In twenty months there I had five different supervisors. I was also warned by a number of people that the corporation would do about anything to screw an employee out of benefits.

As an example, my ex-wife and I had a bit of a feud earlier this year about insurance for Catherine. Since being forced out of my teaching job in January, we needed coverage for the munchkin asap. APAC dragged their feet putting paperwork through, and I wasn't able to pick up Catherine until May. The reason given was that my part-time status wasn't changed to full-time until April, despite me working full-time since January.

When the insurance finally went into effect, another benefit was needed and I inquired into what the delay in full-time status would do for me. I needed some vacation time and knew I was going to be with Catherine for a week in June and a week in August. The June vacation didn't need to be paid as with the calendar falling the way it did I was receiving three paychecks in July. The August vacation time was another matter though. I couldn't go two checks without getting paid for a week. You already know how tight money is here.

I asked our Operations Manager to look into how much vacation time I was due in April. She said she'd get back to me but never did. I asked her again in July and she apologized for not getting back to me when first been asked and said she'd look into it. She never did. When I finally got back from vacation I had to sign an hours verification sheet, and there was no time listed for vacation on it. I talked to Payroll and the Operations Manager again and was told I would hear something before payday. I never did.

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