[SzczerbiakManiac]

continued from part 1

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Well, a lot's happened in the last two days!

Yesterday [Wednesday, April 9, 2003]:

I decided to start listening to the messages on my machine again, both the store manager (SM) and territory manager (TM) left a large number of very unpleasant messages about how I should be disgusted with myself for leaving them in the lurch with the irate mother*, and that I was a 'bad' employee and worthless sack of shìt. The list of personal and professional insults was quite long, and I got it all on tape. Both the TM and SM told me that I was never welcome at the company again, and they will tell all the other petrol stations in the area about me.

* I didn't mention this in my last post, but when I left the store after the incident, Vinegar Boy's mother followed me out saying how I "got what I deserved". As soon as I was outside (and out of the range of our in-store cameras) I let her have a huge blast of bile. Not my best moment, and I'm not proud of myself, as I don't believe in using foul language in front of women. But I forgot myself this once.

Had meeting with union rep at 11 am and explained the situation. Took the answering machine tapes with me. He got a union lawyer on the phone then and there, and she came over in less than five minutes.

Lawyer says I have a very good case, as the answering machine tapes alone indicate I was forced out of the job due to hostile working conditions. She gets all the papers I need to sign and goes off to file them with the court.

I get home and get swamped with phone calls from my coworkers asking what the hell happened. The SM is telling them not only Vinegar Boy's version of the story, but that I told the SM and TM to "get fücked", so they had to fire me, but they all wanted to hear my version of events. That last part, about swearing at them, is NOT true. I held my tongue until I was out of the store.

By 4pm, the lawyer calls me to tell me she had already served my ex-manager (at home, no less), the TM and head office with papers indicating intent to sue etc, and had subpoenaed (if that's the word) the security camera footage from the sale that started it all, the initial incident with the mother, the first meeting between the manager and the mother, and the final incident where I walked out.

4:30pm, I'm now getting messages on my machine from the manager telling me he was joking about firing me and that he wants me to come into work as usual. TM calls and leaves message that it has all been a huge misunderstanding, and he wants me to come in so we can work it out. How spineless can you get?

5pm comes and I get a call from the owner who is very upset. My ex-SM had left him a message after I walked out (and before I left my message with his wife), which basically went along the same lines as the lies he was telling my coworkers. But, as he had only just got home from interstate, he ended up getting the SM's message, my message, and the union lawyer's message all at the same time. Ouch! That's gotta hurt. We arrange to meet tomorrow after he has had a chance to look at all the footage.

Today [Thursday, April 10, 2003]:

Another meeting with the union rep and the lawyer (Super Lawyer!). Basically updating me on everything the lawyer did yesterday—which I already know—and detailing their own conversation with my ex-SM who is now apparently claiming it was all a huge misunderstanding on my part, and that he never told me to never come back. The union guy told me he then started playing back one of the nasty messages the S.O.B. had left on my answering machine, and that my ex-SM hung up immediately.

Meet owner. He had reviewed all the tapes and, if anything, was even more pissed off than I was! I find out what I've suspected for a very long time—the manger was related to someone at head office. In fact, he is none other than the territory manager's nephew!

That explains a lot.

The owner tells me he only hired him because the TM promised to keep a close eye on him, and having a TM on your side can mean a lot of fringe benefits for a site owner. But, the owner—great, GREAT guy that he is—decided that enough, was finally, enough.

HE GAVE MY EX-MANAGER 24 HOUR’S NOTICE!!!

This was totally unexpected! For the first time in this whole stupid affair (it started with a moronic kid drinking vinegar, for the love of all that's holy!) I was stunned—but in a good way.

The owner has also issued a formal complaint to head office about the TM for his actions in the whole affair, because he left the company wide open for lawsuits, not only from me, but from the Vinegar Boy as well by playing along with the whole thing.

Now, the owner and I aren't really friends—we don't know each other well enough for that—but we do understand each other very well. We've both been in the industry for longer than is probably good for us, and neither tolerates any bullshìt. Beside, I'm the only person he's ever hired who has lasted more than a month working the Thursday—Sunday graveyard shifts.

He told me that he understands my actions, and supports me 100%, but asked me to hold off the court action until we get a response from the head office about what is going to be done about the TM. I agreed—provisionally. I told him that I would settle for nothing less than the TM being stripped of his post, issued with a written warning about his behavior (two of these and you get fired), and getting a public apology from him.

The owner told me he wanted to see that too. So, for the time being we've come to an agreement.

I phoned my union guy and he was okay about it—besides, now that all the legal paperwork has been filed, nothing else was going to happen for a long time anyway, until a court date had been set.

Now I’m waiting to see what head office will do. If they let the TM off the hook, I’m going for his throat. But – and this is a big but – if they hang him out to dry like he deserves, I will consider the matter settled.

My anger isn't directed at the company per se, but at two individuals who did a very mean thing. One of them has now lost his job and will probably never work in the industry again. The other….we'll see.

You know, looking back over all of this, I can’t help but to be struck by the sheer absurdity of it all. What started with a kid who is so unimaginably stupid as to drink vinegar ends up with me walking out, my store manager getting fired and—whatever happens next—a lot of change is about to happen in my life.

I think of all the stuff I've done at work, all the insane events I've witnessed, all the insane people I've dealt with, and all it took was a bottle of vinegar to change everything. There’s probably a lesson in that somewhere, but I'll be buggered if I can see it.

Friday, April 11, 2003

Not much happened today, just a couple of things to note.

My ex-ex-manger gave me another round of calls today and boy was he ever pissed—he still hasn't learned not to leave nasty messages on answering machines. The tapes on my machine are filling up so fast I had to buy a five pack from the local electronics store to keep up.

I had a lawyer from head office call me. I let him speak to the machine, as I've once again changed the message on my machine to say, "Any conversations regarding my previous employment should be directed to my lawyer at ******"

It seems they want to set up a meeting.

Seeing as how the last meeting I went to for these people resulted in me being ambushed, I'll let Super Lawyer Lady field this one.

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Well, it's been a very busy week for me, but I wanted to wait until I had something concrete before I posted again. Though I'm not superstitious by nature, I was worried that I might jinx things.

That said, I am now very happy to report that I have some very happy news.

I took copies of the answering machine tapes of my ex-manager to the union rep to hand on to Super Lawyer Lady for advice. I'm not too worried about anything he would do, as I'm twice his size, but his rantings were really starting to annoy me. Especially when he started ringing in the middle of the night. Super Lawyer Lady took the tapes to the cops and they apparently paid him a visit. I also had to swear a statutory declaration about the calls and how they were getting harassing.

I now have a lovely written statement from the cops (a Notice to the Victim). And my ex-manager, if he ever calls me again or even comes anywhere near me, will be hit with an A.V.O. (Apprehended Violence Order) quicker than he can blink.

Since then, he's been no more trouble, and I have an official document to show any future employers why I don't have a reference from him.

Just this morning, I was driving along the road and had to pull over when I started laughing again over the sheer absurdity of it all.

I hoped throughout all this to settle things without having to go to the media. But, if head office tried—even once—to screw me over, I would have started singing so loud they'd have bled from the ears. I've been doing everything I possibly can to retain the moral (and legal) high ground in all of this.

It is because of past nasty experience that I too keep a few months' worth of pay in the bank. I've been screwed over before by bad management and bad managers. More than once.