Thought I would post some of the funny things that happened while working. I tried to sort them by company.
Trailer Wheel and Frame: I was talking with one of the mechanic's girlfriends one night at work. She had brought up their baby. Anyway, we were talking, and the owner came in to the room. He said that I needed one of those (and pointed to the baby). I said that at some point in time I will have one. He asked why I didn't have any with my ex husband, and I started my whole thing about knowing that the relationship wasn't going to work, and I didn't want to have to deal with him after the divorce. The owner said that I should use him for a "service job". Whatever.
Trailer Wheel and Frame: Harry, the General Manager, came in to sign a bunch of checks, and then started to walk out with the pen in hand. I didn't say anything, because I could have cared less if he took the pen. I could have gotten another one from the office supply cabinet. Anyway, he turns around halfway through the adjoining office, and throws the pen back my way, just barely missing me. It hit the phone. He then proceeds to tell me not to take it personal, he was just trying to get the pen back up to me. Guess he didn't want to walk the extra 15 feet to HAND it to me.
Trailer Wheel and Frame: The owner had me program his cell phone for him, since he didn't know how. I put all the important phone numbers in for him, and set up his voicemail greeting. Anyway, Harry called me, and said, "I've been trying to call the owner on his cell, and I keep getting your voice. Why?" (And he was completely serious!) Uhhh...hello.! I cannot believe that I actually had to tell him why he kept hearing my voice on the owner's outgoing voicemail message.
Trailer Wheel and Frame: There was a customer who came by to see Harry right after I started, and I forget his name but it was something like Hamal or something middle eastern sounding. Harry decided to start trying (and I emphasize trying) to speak arabic to this guy, and the guy just looks at him and says, "What are you doing? I'm Greek." the funny thing is that Harry is Greek too. So, to one up himself, he starts going on about ugly greek women are. Hello? First insult the guy, then his wife?
Trailer Wheel and Frame: Harry is a major Hypocondriack. Anytime any of us coughed or sneezed, he thought he was going to get sick. Anyway, one time he came walking in and was whispering. Said he lost his voice because of some infection. Then, he asked me to come over to his office (I had moved my desk by this point in time) so he can give me some work. I went over, then he started questioning me on some paperwork that I still had at my desk. I told him I needed to go get it so I could answer his questions, and proceeded to get them. I came back to his office and knock (I never like to go into anyone's office without knocking first). I didn't hear anything, so I knock again. Then I heard a noise sounding like he fell or something. So I rushed in to make sure he was ok, and found out that he was chunking pens at the door. He was doing it to try to get me to come in! He proceeded to whisper, "I was calling for you to come in, didn't you hear me?" Anyway, I walked in, and he asked me to pick up the pens he had been throwing at the door. I just laughed and sat down. At this point in time, he picked up a Ricola throat lozenge and tossed it at me, telling me to eat it. He then told me to go get something from one of the employees and come back. So, I got up again and leave to get whatever it was that he needed. By the time I came back, there was a customer in his office. I swear, he was talking to this guy just like nothing was wrong with him...he was not whispering at all!!! (he had been whispering the entire time before to me). When the customer left, Harry looked at me and went back to whispering!!!
Trailer Wheel and Frame: It is a well known fact that I have a bad right ankle. I broke it when I was 7, and it never healed correctly. Anyway, I was sitting in Harry's office taking notes, and he handed me some paperwork. I had to stand up and walk over to reach the paperwork, and when I stood up, I twisted my ankle and I fell down. His first words to me were not, "Are you ok?" His first words were, "Oh my God, don't die on me!" Apparently, there was a mechanic who used to work there long before I started who died there at work from a massive heart attack. Harry was talking to the guy when he had the heart attack, and when the guy fell over, he hit the Harry on the way down...
Trailer Wheel and Frame: The owner can be a nice guy when he wants to be. But, he is getting up there in age, and I believe is becoming a little "not all together." He came walking into the office one day, and started telling our accounts payable clerk how he had fasted for 3 days. None of us in the office were exactly skinny, ok? Anyway, he told her that he thought that fasting was a great way to lose weight, and that if you fast for 3 days, it'll add 10 years to your life. She just look at him and said, "you're 70 something years old, you haven't eaten in 3 days, and you're still alive? Why aren't you dead yet? What's wrong with you?" I about died when I heard this one!
Trailer Wheel and Frame: In 2003 I got a divorce, while working at Trailer Wheel and Frame. The owner thought that this is a big mistake. I tried explaining to him my reasons, which are very valid reasons, as to why we divorced, but it was not good enough for him. So much so that we had a bet going on between us. If I did not get back together with my ex-husband within 2 years of the divorce anniversary date, the owner would pay me $100. Whatever!
Trailer Wheel and Frame: Harry's office stuck out into the mechanic's area. During the summer of 2003, one of the mechanics got mad at Harry and drove a forklift into his office, just seconds after Harry walked out. The window air conditioner flew across the room, the lights fell down, tiles came off the ceiling...if he had been in there, he would have seriously gotten hurt.
Interceramic Tile and Stone: Rene, the guy who sat next to me, was constantly made fun of by the other guys...they said he was a little too feminine. Anyway, some of the things he said did not help his cause of being straight. For instance - one day he was talking to one of the trucking companies we frequently used, and told them, "I don't care if there is a naked man running down the freeway - I want a truck here on time!" Then, a few days later, he was on the phone with the same company, trying to get a truck to Las Vegas...He told them that he had 20 people on top of his ass about getting the load there. I just sat there laughing!
Interceramic Tile and Stone: one of the guys who used to work the order desk came back one morning to ask Rene some questions. He was just hanging around, and started to piss Rene off. Finally, Rene had enough, and said, "Juan - if you don't leave, I'm going to take you outside and pull your pants down!" I laughed so hard I couldn't see straight!!
Labatt Food Service: The Operations Manager and Transportation Manager came into my office in October, and laid me off. They told me that the company was changing directions, and that my position was being dissolved. I got it in writing a few days later, when I had the operations manager write a letter of reference for me. But, the General Manager tried telling the unemployment office that I had been fired for insubordination. He gave the 5% of my annual review - the "here's-what-you-need-to-work-on" part of my review, as the insubordination. I had to tell the unemployment case worker that what the GM mentioned was actually part of my review, and only encompassed about 5% of my review. The other 95% of the review was very positive, and that I had gotten the highest raise that the company was allowed to give me. I also told they guy that I had never been written up, never got any verbal warnings, got along with most of the employees most of the time, and that the general manager was not the one who let me go - the ops manager and trans manager were the ones who did that.
