Wednesday Morning Smackdown
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First a little background: the place I work at is closing. They made the announcement in January and we are nearing the latest deadline, which has been moved out three times since it was announced. Okay. A lot of the folks that work here came in right after high school and have been here 25-45 years. The majority of them have invested their very lives in this place and I tell you this so you'll have some kind of feel for their perspective in general. This morning a couple of the old timers were talking about religion. The first one was complaining about how he is tired of being preached to by people coming to his door all of the time. The second gentleman is in my opinion a religious zealot; carrying his personal copy of the bible around with him everywhere in the place, and "preaching" to whomever happens to be working with him, sitting next to him in the break room, etc. This should have been a clue to guy 1 that he might be the wrong person to vent to about this. . . The zealot starts in on the 1st guy, quoting him some passage from the bible and telling him how wrong he is. . . and things went downward from there. Now, I was just sitting there in the break room, getting my minimum daily allowance of chemicals and coffee, when all of a sudden the zealot stands up and shoves the 1st guy. Then the 1st guy stands up and the zealot delivers a kick directly to the seeds to the 1st guy, crippling him. By that point I and a couple of other gentlemen had stepped between the 2 of them, but the 1st guy was down for the count. And very sick to boot! Now the zealot has 35 years in this place and to his great misfortune the union rep and site manager both were standing right outside the room when things began to get loud, and they saw what happened. End result; the zealot got fired and the 1st guy is in the hospital awaiting a determination as to whether he's going to have to have surgery to pull one of those seed packets back down. . . Why are they dragging things out and making everyone in the place miserable by working them like dogs? I suppose they should be thankful they have been extended three times already, but clearly the stress is pushing a lot of them to the brink of snapping. . . One of them snapped this morning. . . AFD Heavy Rescue Unit RULES! 
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wow....that must have been hard to watch and hear what went on.
What?? You can't understand what I am saying? I am speaking plain penguin!!
It happened a lot faster than one would think reading the post. I mean inside of 30 to 40 seconds it went from one guy venting to another, to smackdown. And the zealot just went gonzo out of nowhere. The 1st guy told him to go find someone else to preach to, and that brought the shove, the standing up, and the seed kick (with steel toed boots on I might add).
I got up and moving toward them when the zealot shoved him, and before I could get to them the kick had been delivered.
I wish they moved that fast when they were working! LOL!
AFD Heavy Rescue Unit RULES!
Palehorse:
I’m not sure exactly what you want “votes” on, but here’s my $.02. MANY people who live and/or work in theAnderson
As far as the right or wrong of the fight, that seems to be taken care of. It seems that the guy that stared the fight was fired. He was in the wrong. As harsh as that might seem to some, he IS the one who broke the rules.
Perhaps you are asking for a vote on the way the company is handling the closing. Having worked for a facility that closed, I understand your frustration. My facility was under a cloud for SEVERAL YEARS. It is stressful and nerve-racking. But these things are never easy. My guess is that they aren’t “dragging things out”, they are just trying to figure out HOW to end things. When business is bad, I suppose that a company could fold right away and cut their losses. That runs the risk of not exhausting all options that could possibly save the business. They could keep struggling and not tell employees until the very end. Clearly that isn’t fair. It would seem that the only other alternative is to inform your employees, work diligently to save the business and then close when all attempts have been exhausted. It’s tough on everybody (workers, managers and owners) and everybody will be stressed.
I’m not sure what you meant by “working them like dogs” so I made no comment there. Good luck to you. Like I said, I have been there, and it isn’t easy.
Why do they call it "Common Sense" when so damn few people have it?
JLSOhio51:
LOL! I think you're blending topics! Never asked for any votes in this topic, but thanks for your views anyway. Just trying to tell a story here is all.
This is not my first facility closure, nor is it likely to be my last I am sorry to say. I guess the point is they are just closing this facility, and transferring the business to several of their dozens of additional facilities across the world. So what should have been fairly simple to do has proven to be problematic for them; and in the process frustrating for the tenured work force.
Working them like dogs = 12 hour days, 6 and 7 days a week including holidays, at a time when 40% of the workforce has already been sent packing. . . It's complicated but that's the basics. . .
AFD Heavy Rescue Unit RULES!
Wow Palehorse, that was not a very Christian way to act, maybe the stress is just too much for some people to take.
Yep! I agree J4F. . .
Doesn't help things when they offer up severence packages and encourage everyone to find another job ASAP, then deny the severence when they find a job and put in their notice. That's happened at least 3 times thus far. . .
Got them all worked up on top of all the stress. I asked the HR manager if increased security shouldn't be put into place, because tempers are short and they are flaring around here, and with so many already sent out the possibility for this place to become a news story just seems to be there. . . And no one wants to see that. But upper management says it isn't necessary. I hope they are right.
Thankfully we aren't enduring blazing hot temps right now. That will only serve to magnify things I am afraid. . .
AFD Heavy Rescue Unit RULES!
This is the kind of thing that's discussable from so many different levels.
On the one hand, it's so obvious that the "christian" is anything but. He is an example of a hypocrite, one of the guys that Jesus would decry and disavow. He's the kind of dipsh*t that gives christianity a bad rap. I hope guy #1 presses assault charges and sues for battery and damages.
On the other hand, it's clear that management is not providing an appropriate environment for their remaining employees. It may be difficult, but imo it's incumbent on them to provide for safety on the job at a minimum. If their employment practices induce their employees to go postal, then they must bear some of the responsibility for it. Keep good records naming dates, times, places and witnesses with contact information. It could be needed for a lawsuit someday.
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is; but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
AFD Heavy Rescue Unit RULES!
As a Christian, It really bothers me to see guys like the zealot. I have seen many, many times, where people like that, honestly believe they are doing "God's Work", when they preach, peach, preach....especially on manners that should NEVER be preached in an argumentive way and/or by people who have NO business to do so. In my veiw, a Christian's best way to "do God's work"...is by your own actions, and words....be a living example of how God WANT's us to live....that alone can be hard enough for me, let alone, thumping a bible and trying to take a splinter out of other peoples eyes.
The man (zealont) got what he deserves...even if things are stressful....It is times like this, when true Christian values, CAN be very beneficial and helpful for yourself and others.
my 2 cents.
What I got out of the Palehorse's story was one guy offended another guy enough that he recieved a kick in his gonads.
As far as the whole "hypocrite of Christian values", well according to the Bible, when Jesus was offended by business being conducted in a house of God, Jesus took a whip and beat a bunch of people with it.
So I guess the lesson here is that if you offend someone (even Jesus) bad enough they'll punish you for your transgression.