Over the past couple of months, when I wasn’t doing schoolwork,
I began to think about the very awful jobs I used to have. Of course, the Army was no picnic by any
means, which I was also pondering about as well. However, these two employers I really
disdained that I worked for, Baker & Taylor and American Sale, were such
terrible, toxic environments that they would make anyone employed with them
want to immediately sign up for the Military.
Seriously! Both these employers
literally treat their employees like cattle, pay them very little for the workload that needs to be done, and expect their employees to literally sell their
soul to the company. For me, after what
I have gone through and on what I know now after being in the Army, I would
never, ever work for a company that acted like two employers. In fact, if I ever did start working for someone
that if they do anything remotely similar to what companies have done, I would
walk out and same quit immediately. Here’s
the breakdown of both of these companies.
Baker & Taylor
This is a book and media distribution center, which was located
in Illinois where I used to live. I
remember when I first looked into the job, I saw they had a tuition payment program
where the company would pay for your schooling.
Immediately, a green light came on into my head and I wanted to get into
that place. I was working in a warehouse
beforehand, so I wasn’t new to that kind of environment. Also, the job was closer to home for me, which
was also another great benefit on my part.
However, it didn’t take too long for me to realize how bad this job was
after working there for less than a month.
For one, the company imposes a quota system for all its workers to meet
per hour. The amount of production the company
demanded of its employees was ridiculous at best. I mean, I understand when you’re a job, you’re
expected to work, hence the point of it.
But, when you demand an extreme amount of production from your workers
and they start getting injured left and right, there are going to be some
problems. I’ve never heard so many cases
of carpal tunnel from employees in all my life when I worked there. Also, this company, after I was working there
for six months, decided to lift their tuition payment program, which was the main
reason why I was working there in the first place. Later on, though, I talked to a few of my
coworkers and they told the company does that intentionally to get new
applicants and employees into the place.
Finally, I will never forget when I found out a coworker of mine that
worked there getting a heart attack while on the job. At first, he was saying his chest was sore,
thinking like he had heartburn. He ended
up ignoring the pain and went to work, but then an hour later he collapsed on
the ground grabbing his chest. The paramedics
immediately came to the company and took him to the hospital. His wife worked the second shift there, as he
was working the first, and she didn’t know what had happened until arriving at
the place. The manager of the section she
worked told her what had happened earlier and said she should go to the hospital
immediately. But, as she left to go to
the hospital, that same manager ended up writing not only her, but her husband
as well, and the following day both were released from the company. I mean, you literally have to be a stone-cold
motherfucker to just think of doing something like that, let alone actually
doing it. What a terrible and inhumane
company Baker & Taylor, and I’m surprised they’re still in operation to
this day.
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| No wonder why people that worked there didn't read books |
American Sale
This joint is a pool and spa recreational store with multiple
locations around the Chicago area. I got
the job here through a friend of my parents after moving out of my girlfriend’s
place a month prior. This was a time for
me to start fresh and get back on my feet.
However, this job was complete garbage right from day one. First off, there was this little black guy
that worked there who was in his forties and still living with and being taken
care of by his parents. He always tried
to act tough and kept pulling my chain the entire time I was there. A few times, I and him almost got into a fistfight. This idiot would do the same thing
with just about everyone that worked in our section, which was spa delivery. However, the worse person in this section was
the manager, who thought he was so high and mighty because he worked for the
company twenty years and I think he got married to a relative of the owner, I’m
not so sure. This guy was completely
lazy, never wanted to teach or train personnel, and always made a big deal talking
about what he did when he first started in the company. There was another manager in the section as
well, but he was in charge of repairs with hot tubs and pool tables as opposed
to delivery. This guy was a huge snake
in the grass, he would literally try to stab people in the back because he
thought everyone was going after his job.
There was never a moment that he tried to go after the section manager
of our department’s job, because he started just after that manager in the
company. It was pretty pathetic, to be
honest, seeing someone literally chase after small scraps because he never did
anything meaningful in his entire life.
Also, one of the guys I would work with, an older man who actually spoke
up against our manager when we were all getting shit on all the time, between
the stores where we had to pick up merchandise, salesman lying the customers
about certain installations we did, and the overall negative customer feedback
we got when delivering hot tubs or pool tables, which is what we mainly
did. This pissed off our section manager
all the time and wanted to try to find a way to get rid of him. However, our manager was afraid to do so
because the guy I worked with was black and didn’t want to deal with a lawsuit
if he fired him. Unfortunately, he did
find ways to make that guy’s life hard by giving us crappy deliveries and
harped on us to work faster even if we got back to the warehouse before the end
of the day. Also, that manager had this
bitch of a secretary who would do the same things he would do to us as
well. In the end, though, he found
something to get rid of me, that asshole.
Yes, I’m talking about you, TG!
You better pray I never see you in public. I GOT YOUR NAME, I GOT YOUR ASS!
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| It was no holiday working there |
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