Mandatory meetings.

I took the day off as I scheduled an appointment with my dentist. It’s what I believed to be a major procedure so I wasn’t sure if I would need some time to recover. Just to be safe, I figured I would allow a day for myself to heal. Plus, my general physician prescribed me a drug called Hydrocodone for possible pain afterwards. I’ve never had root canal therapy before so why take the risk of having to go in later today either possibly suffering or high as a kite.

As I was sitting in the dental office waiting room this morning, I found myself rationalizing over a choice, “Would I rather be here or working today.” Surprisingly, the answer was that I would definitely prefer to be right where I was over the other option. How messed up is that? I don’t particularly enjoy being at the dentist at any point and many people would flat out rather do pretty much anything else. I on the other hand welcome a root canal over cooking tickets and bumping elbows with my cohorts. Hmm, maybe that should tell me something. Just wanted to get that out there as I thought it was an odd choice.

Anyways, I wanted to post about this one incident. It’s actually really petty but since we just covered a stupid conversation last post that I had with a certain member of the front end management, I thought I’d insert another discussion we exchanged just last night.

I was on line doing my thing and the orders were particularly light. She comes back and is reminding everyone that there is a mandatory meeting tomorrow morning. Haha! I have a legitimate excuse and don’t have to waste my time with this one, but she doesn’t know that for some reason. Excellent communication management team!

I realize this after I smirk at another cook and say, “Have fun at the meeting!” She overhears me and asks me what that was supposed to mean. Hmm, she must not know. I think I’ll mess with her a bit.

I say in my mild tone, “I won’t be attending the meeting tomorrow.” She retorts, “Oh yes you will.” with an evil grin now emerging and actually pulling up one of her chins. I reply, “No, seriously, I’m not coming.” Her grin changes to a scowl. Sweet, here we go! Her temper is beginning to unfold. She spurts back, (paraphrasing here) “You WILL be there or you WILL be subject for termination. At the very least, you will be written up! These meetings are MANDATORY. That means you are REQUIRED to be there!”

Wow, thanks for clarifying what mandatory means, sweet cheeks. I thought it meant for funsies. Let me see how far I can push her. With a dumb look on my face I exclaim, “I thought I was exempt from the mandatory meeting.” She’s at the point of losing it here, come on, come on, give into the dark side and let me have it, I’m begging you. Nope, she only spits back, “Everyone includes you too!” Fuck it, I’m going all in.

I, again with my honest bewilderment face engaged, calmly respond, “I know everyone includes me, but I just thought I’d let you know that I really won’t be coming. That way you all can start without waiting for me to show up.” That was it, the final straw. We are coming up on meltdown. She looks at me with a blank expression, apparently in disbelief of our verbal exchange. She then says, “In. My. Office. Now.” Okay, my fun is over now. I’ve taken it to an acceptable level and feel her blood pressure is high enough.

While I’m walking off line I blurt out, “Rex (we’ll call him Rex, the GM) said that my dental appointment was a valid excuse and that I didn’t have to come. I don’t know what the big deal is?” She stops dead in her tracks. Oh shit, I think she now knows what I’ve been doing this whole time. In a hopeless tone she mutters, “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” I innocently reply, “I thought you knew and I was just trying to remind you.” She looks me squarely in the eyes and without saying a word, I know what she’s thinking, and it isn’t flattering. She then turns around and leaves the kitchen.

You damn right she knew what I just did but was probably exhausted with our conversation and didn’t want to continue it further. That’s what you get for messing with me the other day about retarded breaks. She didn’t care about the break and just had to flex her power over me and, of course, be right. The same thing just happened again, including her inevitable submission. So far, I’m 2-0 in our battles. There will be more to come, of that I am certain.

Oh yeah, and what is with being written up? That’s another stupid concoction to try to pacify employees, at least in my experience. The only thing I can think of when someone says that is The Office episode where Dwight has his system to discipline his subordinates. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out. Now we’re getting off subject so I’ll end this here and tell the remainder of this story later on tonight or tomorrow perhaps. Yes there’s more. Isn’t there always?