The Big Sit Down

So, faced with the prospect of being cleared to work full time again and having to spend those 8 hours a day at the Riverhead branch of Southern Star Bank, I was thinking another car accident might be better.

Begging Rodney's pardon, but I get no respect from anyone there. I hate working with Latoya. She is a moron who has stumbled into a position of power and abuses whatever perceived superiority she can at any given moment. Everything I do is questioned, I am constantly being bombarded with work seconds before I leave the building, and when I called out sick one day recently because of problems with my back (which is a documented condition) I was told by Jean that "it is getting very difficult to keep you on the schedule." I have called out four times in total, twice because of back problems, once from a migraine, and once because my brakes failed on the way to work and I had to try and get them fixed rather than careening into walls as my method of stopping. I was told that that is not a good track record. (Even though we get about 20 sick days a year, my using 4 in a 6 month span is deemed unprofessional. Go figure.) Those two times I called out sick for my back were because they abused my schedule and made me work more than the time I was supposed to work.

My friend's sister, who works in the industry, has told me that it's not like this at other branches, and that my management staff is being incredibly unprofessional in allowing things to get as bad as they have. I called a meeting with my management team. I sat with them in the break room and told them the following: (summarized for brevity)

"My doctor has cleared me to work full time. However, I have no intention of working here full time, and here's why. I hate it here. Latoya treats me like shit constantly you both seem to have completely disregarded my doctor's instructions about how long I could work, and when I have called in sick I've been given immeasurable grief. I'm here to tell you that I'm requesting a transfer, and if you don't give me one, I'll quit and apply for another job from the outside."

Caroline asked me to explain why I was so miserable here, and I gave her a laundry list of offenses that Latoya had perpetrated against me, arbitrary conditions, standards and restrictions that were being placed on my work that no other teller was forced to live up to or abide by, and general issues that had plagued me.

Jean said "well, you shouldn't have waited to let it all build up, you should have come to me and told me so I could do something about it."

I respectfully submitted that the abuse was obvious to anyone who was not intentionally blind to it, as every one of the other tellers and bankers had mentioned on occasion that I was not being treated fairly. I also posited that Jean should have done something long ago about Latoya's poor treatment of people without having to have been told.

With this, Jean proceeded to unveil a list of problems that she had with me as an employee; the speed at which I worked (attributed by me to my being methodical and cautious in my approach while handling other people's money), the fact that I called in sick four times (to which I replied that I had missed fewer days that year than her), and the fact that I was not very cheerful to her (to which I laughed, and asked how anyone being heaped with abuse can be expected to be cheery). I wrapped up by cramming her own words right back into her slobbering gob; "Gee, Jean, you shouldn't have waited to let it all build up, you should have come to me and told me so I could do something about it."

For the record, she didn't care for that.

So, that's the lay of the land. Caroline has said she will attempt to make a transfer happen, to which I replied that I already had a branch in mind that currently had an opening. We shall see how fast it happens.

Hallelujah!

After months and months of grueling physical therapy, thousands of accupuncture needles, countless heating pads and hundreds of miles driven to doctors appointments, I have found relief!

Dr. Priolo's colleague, Dr. Colladner, gave me what's called a facet block. Basically, lidocane and steroids were mixed in a syringe and injected directly into the muscle group that has been giving me such problems. She tells me it might not fix the problem completely, but that there is also a chance it might. All I know is I feel pain free for the first time in 11 months! I can stand! I can run! I can pick things up! I can go back to work full time!

Wait.

I can go back to work full time.

SHIT.

Looks like I have to do something about my current job. I don't know if I can take those idiots for 8 hours a day.