Autism and Employment (another PennSilverTaco thread)!

Just shy of 39K miles…

 

This 2023 Chrysler Pacifica has the highest mileage I’ve ever seen since I started working at Enterprise…

 

Amanda is presently driving it, for the price of a compact car!

 

On Friday, a 2025 Nissan Versa came in, and I was shocked to see that it did not have keyless entry despite having power locks; I am thinking that somewhere along the line, somebody managed to lose the key fob…

 

Rental vehicles generally get about 25K miles in their first year or so of service, so this one is just a baby…

 

I drove it to the Souderton branch and exchanged it for a BMW 3-series…

 

BMW HVAC systems are a bit confusing to operate at times…

 

@ABA180

I ended up bringing the white Versa back from Souderton, and it has a great factory stereo for a base model!

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

To say that I still pretty fucking sore about what happened at the nursing home last Thanksgiving would be the understatement of the decade, but karma is a bitch and the nursing home is getting exactly what it deserves.

That said, I don't know if I told anybody in great detail about the time I got two "written coachings" on the same fucking day maybe three months into my five-month stint as a dishwasher. So, let's get one thing straight. EVERYBODY GOES ON THEIR PHONES WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WORKING! That said, I don't know why I got singled out. I had no idea that I was headed towards not one, but two, of these writeups. The two "written coachings" were basically for being on my phone when I had nothing to do, and for leaving the dishwashing area in less than stellar condition at the end of the night. Please hear me out...

The whole phone thing was just me being on my phone and playing games or whatever when there literally nothing else to do. The other one was because I basically said "fuck it" and left at 8pm-8:30pm numerous because, well, let's see...

• I would cheat and use the heavy-duty wet/dry shop-vac to unclog the drain, purely out of laziness. This did get the job done, but one of the chefs got pissed because I would empty the shop-vac into the drain in his work area, and it would stink. He talked to the managers and got the shop-vac taken away, though I later sweet-talked them into letting me use it again.
• Amanda would help me once her work was done, but she got bitched out by the boss because unintentionally racked up overtime.
• Once the dishes were washed, it was often at or past 8pm, which was when my shift was supposed to be over; I would do a half-assed mopping job and leave.
• Almost everyone would be gone before I was totally done, and by the time I finally finished Amanda and I were the only ones left.

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

What really ticks me off about being written up was how they handled it. There was absolutely NO NEED to have all three managers in that tiny back room with me, standing over me while I signed off on my own writeups. It was nothing short of intimidating; I can't remember if that was in August or September, but that's about the time I started seriously looking for a new job. I only took the job because (A) Amanda worked there already and it would make life a lot easier for both of us, and (B) one of Amanda's supervisors who she absolutely loved told her to beg me to take the job. I DID NOT WANT THE JOB; I wanted money and nothing more. Within a week or two of getting the job, the transmission in my Tacoma started to shit the bed at just past 200K. Washing dishes at the nursing home allowed me to pay for a replacement transmission without dipping into my savings.

I also feel as though the job was misrepresented to me to get me in the door. Maybe a week before I started, Amanda told me that her supervisor told her to tell me that I would have to work double shifts back to back on weekends until they got another part-time guy. We were in her landlady's living room, and I about blew my stack; Amanda calmed me down and somehow managed to convince me to still take the job.

On my first Saturday shift, I had a meltdown that probably would have gotten me fired from any other job, but they were desperate enough to keep me on that I got my way; I flat out refused to work anymore 12-hour shifts, and I never had to for the rest of my time there. Amanda and I had pretty much the same hours, and when we worked weekends, we had the Friday before and Monday after off. When we had weekends off, we worked the Monday before and the Friday after. It really wasn't bad.

However, the Monday after my first and only weekend double shift, I had a road rage incident that was shocking even for me. I was at a 4-way intersection, ironically right in front of the Enterprise branch where I would be hired just over six months later. I was waiting to turn left from North Main Street onto West Swamp Road; Amanda was in the front seat, and it was a nice day so we had the windows down. There was a young guy in a newer Toyota Venza with dealer plates in front of us. The left arrow turned green, but didn't last long. The idiot in the Venza slammed on his brakes and made absolutely no attempt to get through the intersection even though he had a yellow light; I slammed on my brakes and made the tires chirp, while simultaneously laying on the horn and screaming "YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" The car behind me almost rear-ended me.

A woman on my right going straight heard me swear and said "you got that right" in agreement. I was livid, and when you combine that with my sleep-deprived state, it's a recipe for disaster. I followed the guy into the parking lot of the Toyota dealer around the corner and started screaming at him; I didn't get out of my truck, and when he wouldn't even roll down his window, I left.

 

Yup, I remember thinking back then there's a reason they can't keep people around that job. Turns out there was a few reasons as I see it, between the crap pay and the micromanaging stuff.

 

The pay wasn’t terrible; not great, but not terrible. I would have kept the job if I actually liked it.

 

Sounds like normal life for me.
Smoke and mirrors, and pony shows.

Some days, I'm the one pissing people off.
Other days, it them pissing me off.
I like to keep things even......

 

What do you think about the three managers hovering over me while I signed the write-ups…? That is honestly when I started looking for a new job; I was actually doing my online training videos for UPS while cleaning out the walk-in freezers, BEFORE I gave two weeks notice!

 

Well, if they were all 3 there. Then they all 3 know why you were wrote up.
Then you can't play dumb if you get caught a 2nd time. Can't play it off like it's the only time you got caught.
I don't think it was personal. It's just how the corporate world works.

My brother is the head supervisor at a steel mill.
It's the same way there. Warnings and Terminations are multi person things.
It's a cover your ass thing. The more eyes and ears there are in the room, the less chance "one" party fabricates a story.
They even have cameras in the offices. You get hired, written warnings, and fired in the same room.

Me, I HATE management.
I HATE telling people what to do.
And I am generally a nonconfrontational person.
I let things slide a lot. Too much......

But when I've had enough, I'm over it.
Be gone. Be mad. What ever......
At the point I've had enough, I don't care about your feelings.
And that's where I'd be a liability to a company.

 

I’ve never been written up at any other job; I also thought I was about to be fired after the meltdown just a week after starting the job. The fact that they caved after I flat out refused to work any more 12-hour shifts should have been a warning sign!