After being hospitalized for nearly two months following heart failure, I can say that I'm glad to be alive and able to blog again. Thanks to Abigail and all the staff at Jobschmob.com for keeping my spot open and working through some technical issues.

 

While in this process of being ill, which began nearly 1 1/2 years ago, I've had a chance to evaluate my employers in an interesting way.

 

One job involved a lot of moving around, so I had to get done. My broadcast job involved some stairclimbing, but was otherwise do-able.

 

My third job was as a transportation specialist with a local taxi company. I transported behaviorally challenged kids that could not take the bus. I was very good at this, and both the company and I made good money.

 

Unfortunately, the owner of the taxi company was about as disorganized as she could be. I think she actually enjoyed the chaos. Adding to this was the company's relationship with dispatch. The dispatch was actually a separately owned message service operating out of a private home that was a complete pigsty.

 

Both the owner and dispatch were notorious for passing the buck. Even routine questions about procedure were passed back and forth between the two. It was a little game they liked to play.

 

I was able to deal with most of this until my illness. Though I could still drive, I wanted to keep my traditional schoolkid responsibilities (which represented a 40+ hours per week).  The owner now thought she could ask me to work additional shifts. I told her I was unable to do so because of health concerns. Plus D.O.T. regulations limited how long one could drive. She didn't like any of this.

 

She tried to reduce the number of kids I picked up. I pointed out that the drivers doing the pickups were not certified. She threw a fit. Why she didn't want me to continue in my successful role is beyond me. Then again her feeble attempts to pick up other women behind her girlfriend's back were unfathomable as well. Did I mention she used drugs?

 

Finally, she began to try and force me out. She would issue contradictary orders and then explode when I pointed out they were impossible to follow. Finally last May she fired me over the phone claiming I hadn't worked on a Saturday. Because I got up to do an AM radio show at 4:30, I had never been available to work on Saturday. All this in the wake of a life-threatening illness.

 

It was a relief not to deal with this loony-tune. About five months later, I suffered a serious relapse. I was found unconcious in my place and nearly. Thanks to the good lord and some dear friends, I survived. I now live in southern New England. I realized that I hadn't received my wage earnings statement from the taxi company so I could do my taxes. A former girlfriend had emailed me that she had seen the owner and she looked really uncomfortable when told I nearly died.

 

So I call dispatch looking to merely leave an address to send the 1099 form to. They of course try to pass the buck and get me to call the owners private cell phone. Great...like I want to talk to this bitch in the first place...

 

Here the call:

 

(phone rings a zillion times...it's an early weekday afternoon)

OWNER:  Ummm...errrr....helloo?

 

ME: It's me. I need my tax stuff mailed to me.

 

OWNER: I'm...uhhh...call dispatch....

 

ME: I just did. They said to call you!

 

OWNER: Tell them...I'm aahhh...(garbled)....incom...unable to...

 

ME: Unable to write?? Maybe I'll let the IRS deal with this...

 

She then hangs up. I call dispatch and tell them to take my information or else. This time they comply.

 

All this crap illustrates that a jerk is a jerk no matter what or how bad they might look or be made to feel. I could have lowered myself and gone into a blistering indictment of them and their behaviors, but they would have probably liked that in some strange way. After all, all their actions had begged for that sort of reaction.

 

If you're in a job or personal situation where you're dealing with uncaring, unsupportive, obnoxious people, get out at any cost! After all, they can't help themselves!