monogodo

I'm supposed to go home from work in 6 minutes, but I'm not leaving for another 30 minutes -- I have time to make up. If I work 40 hours in a week (or 32 in a holiday-shortened week), I get a bonus that effectively gives me a 50¢/hour raise. I was late a few times this week, so I need to make up that time to get it. I also should be working, but I don't feel like it, so yes, I'm padding my hours by posting here.

We have a new guy at work. Our previous runner, G, wanted greater responsibility and greater potential for pay increases. The only way he was going to get that here would have been if either E or myself left and he took our position, which wasn't going to happen. There was a retail location with an opening in b/w production, and an in-house whose contract ended. The guy at the other in-house wasn't qualified for the retail position, but G was, so they did a swap, M came here, while G went to the retail location.

M is an older black man, probably in his mid-50s. I figured he'd be a good worker, being of the older generation that doesn't slack off. I guess the stereotype of the lazy black man is more powerful than the stereotype of the hard-working Baby Boomer. He started bitching about the job from Day 1. It was too much walking. He wasn't told that he had to walk outside two times per day. He'd never had to walk this much in any other print-industry job he'd had. At one point he even said, "I just want to do the bare minimum to get paid and go home," in front of our manager. He also was extremely stupid. We'd have to show him things 3 or 4 times before he'd get it. He seemed to have a hard time grasping simple stuff, like how to collate 6 stacks of paper. I preferred that he sit at his desk than get in my way, but I couldn't say that.

He lasted 2 weeks.

B, our manager, moved him to a different in-house where the environment was more to his liking. We went one day w/ a relief runner, then a day w/o any runner at all (that sucked, we couldn't get anything done), then 2 days with a new relief runner, then another day w/o a runner. We then finally got our 'permanent' runner, a new guy, D. He just finished his 2nd week (or so, considering he started on a Wednesday, and Monday was a holiday). He caught on to the routes after 2 days. He is sharper than M is (and G, for that matter), but not quite as sharp as I'd hoped. But then, if he were really on the ball, he wouldn't want to be a runner, so I guess it's ok.

Some examples:

• E told him to collate some stacks of pages, starting at one end and working towards the other. D then asked, "what do you mean?" E had to explain to him again what he meant by 'collate.'
• He delivered a large quantity of boxes using a folding handtruck, and returned it to its standard position. Then, when he had to pick up a large quantity of boxes, using the same handtruck, he had to take two trips, because they wouldn't all fit on it. They would have if he'd unfolded it.
• When he uses the drill, he puts 4 or 5 pieces of chipboard under the stack of paper. He drills the three holes, rotates it 180°, drills 3 holes in the next set, then throws out the chipboard. I showed him that he only needs to use one piece, and by shifting it to the right, he can drill up to 18 sets per piece of chipboard, as opposed to the 2 sets he's getting out of 5 pieces.
  

He's also going through a divorce. He has two daughters, both under the age of 6. His soon-to-be-ex-wife accidentally deposited her paycheck in their joint account instead of her own account. He didn't have an account of his own, so at lunch, he went to the bank, closed the joint account, and opened a new account. I overheard his half of the conversation this afternoon when he was explaining to her about the accounts, and that they needed to meet up this evening so he could give her the money she had deposited. He was speaking to her like she was a child who had done something wrong.

Ah, well. Life goes on. For the most part.

I feel the need to say something about the London terror attacks, but at the same time, I don't want to. All I'll say is this: A man whose blog I read lives in London, and avoided the attacks because he was running late for work. I'm happy that he's ok, and that I don't know anyone who was injured/killed. It sucks that it happened. I hope it doesn't happen here, but I'm not going to live in fear.

Well, time to shut down the machines and head out. I should get just over 32 hours for the week, qualifying me for the bonus.