CompositesCompositesCompositesI worked at a composite company for three years. The stench of carbon fiber and frekote release filled the air, all while working next to 265 degree ovens made it difficult to breath and somewhat fearful to work without a respirator. I started out at the lowest yet important technician position there was, namely “prep and pull.” Eight months later, I was being promoted to one of the highest ranking production positions because of their appreciation for my detail oriented work ethic. Working there taught me many valuable things in life including self-discipline, that trust is fragile, and that having a college degree makes the work life much more tolerable.
Waking up and showing up at work by 5:00 am seemed like a stretch for me at first, little did I know that would be the least that would be expected of me. Since I was in a high position in production, I was relied upon to solve other workers problems around the plant, as well as push quality parts out of the door of my own. I worked a lot of overtime, which took tremendous discipline, and found myself all alone in the shop after everyone else had gone home trying to meet my quota for the day. This dude once said, “for every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward.” There was one week where a critical due date was close, and I had to work a seventy hour week.
By the next Wednesday, I had over the eighty hours required for each pay period. This always brightened my day a little bit, since I could expect at least a thousand dollar check. It didn’t take John Doe (the president) long to kill that thought. He came out of his office to send me home, this cut off a whole15 hours of overtime that I would have earned. Not only that but we ended up getting a shipping bonus that month which I contributed over $30,000 by myself, but was cut out $100 of it since I only had 30 hours the week I got sent home. I brought this issue of mine up to Steve and he simply said, “rules are rules.” From then on, I never trusted him enough to put in so much hard work and effort because I could never expect any award. With all the stress I had dealt with, and long work days, I knew that without a college
a person would lose the day which was a significant thing.
I had to pay back the bonuses I owed to John Doe, but I didn’t take any big action (see a recent article over at the Huffington Post ). I was still feeling pretty bad about it, as well but it was nothing that I felt would have changed much. I also didn’t take any big action because John Doe made my life a lot easier with it. I didn’t feel guilty, nor did I care that he had made my life a lot harder or that his time went to waste. There was a way to get back to working without having to pay back the bonuses I owed. It wasn’t good that John Doe wanted to be like me, because I think he wanted to do his best, but I believed in him for the money.
’John Doe is in jail and he doesn’e have to pay me back $120,000. He will be out until January, so I can expect him to pay back the $12,000 that’s left over from when he was there to cover his first overtime payment. He’s on a probationary list and I can expect him to face prosecution for overstating that he owes money that he owed on his final day or the next business day when he left. I don’t have to worry about that, as long as there is one (or two) of them coming up, it ain’t gonna be a big problem.
I gave John Doe $30,000 to fight the new lawsuit, and over the next few weeks, I am going to run his salary at $300 a month, and I’m going to go up against him on a personal basis. I will spend as much money as I can. I will take all of that money he gave me and put it into a savings account that I will sell or take to a better retirement account. He will have money to buy cigarettes, and a job to go round in and out to buy food to eat. That is going to be easy with money left over so soon.
I really believe that it is time for John Doe to go to jail. I have worked under a lot of great people, but there is one that really makes me angry. In order to put out a firebrand man in office he must go to jail for what he did. He is a jerk at best, a coward on worst actions. John Doe has nothing to offer. You think we all have nothing to offer but an endless stream of worthless, empty promises? Well, wait a second: he won’t even make it from there either. I know what you are thinking right now: John Doe is going back to being a jerk a bit, maybe even a jerk at best.
I know John Doe is going to take legal action and lose his job for this stupid ass thing that he did. He did not want to take that $30,000 a month salary from me for anything that he was doing in order to fight off court action. If