Nightmare's End

 

I ain't gonna work on Kelsey's farm no more, no, I ain't gonna work for Kelsey's pa no more.

Kelsey being the daughter of the owner of the trucking company I used to work for. Over the years of my employment she has taken on a larger and larger role at the company, presumably in preparation of taking over when her dad finally retires. It was she who was the architect of the ruse that swindled me out of thousands of dollars.

Today was my last day. I ended up leaving early. I had gone over to say goodby to one of the other drivers. During the course of our conversation I learned that slips had been sent out to sign up for direct deposit, months ago. I never got any slip to sign up for direct deposit. I have been asking for direct deposit for years. Kelsey always says, "We're working on it." Literally, for years; it's that hard to get direct deposit. Now they have it and I wasn't told about it. I went into the dispatch office and asked. They said I should have goten a slip. I said, "Whether real or imagined I feel snubbed," layed down my fuel cards and walked out.

And that's not the last of it. I had six vacation days due me so last week I took five days off, to use them up before my departure. After I left Stone Belt today I took my check to the bank and found that I'd only been paid for two days. I just got off of the phone with Justin, the guy who does payroll and he assures me that I only had those two days coming. Well, isn't that a fine how do you do.

I figured that was the end of it but while I was typing that last paragraph my phone rang. It was Justin. It turnes out that there was a "clerical error" and I will be getting paid for the other three days that I took off. They're afraid of me. No, actually they're afraid of the Department of Labor, but I have no appetite for confrontation. I'll let them dig their own grave.

I have such a work ethic that I was feeling guilty at first, leaving early, but after this last little bit I hope that they really needed me this afternoon. Maybe Kelsey's pa will have to get out and pick up a couple of loads, wouldn't that be rich.

So it's over; not just working for a bad company, but my entire driving career. When I'd tell people that I was moving on I'd wanted to say, "I'm quitting while I'm ahead," but couldn't, because I wasn't done yet. Just like when I used to drive into a stressful area and I'd think, "I've always survived before." Just because I'd done crazy shit and come out unscathed in the past was no guarantee that I was going to do it again. We always survive, until we don't. So until I'd actually hung up my keys I couldn't say that I was ahead. Why, who knows, quitting early today might have actually saved my life. But now it truly is over with and none of the terrible things that could have happened did. I'm done, and I'm ahead.

The nightmare's over.

 

Light at the End of the Tunnel

 

I turned in my notice today. I gave them a week. They only deserve a week. My girlfriend thinks I'm being too generous, that they don't deserve a notice at all. She wishes that I'd wait until the busy season and then just walk out.

She's got a point. They did me wrong. But waiting until the busy season, as quickly as it will actually be here is out of the question. I've already waited enough. The final straw occured back in November. I started looking for another job back then, and was inundated with offers. Drivers are in demand. But I quickly found a position working in a stone mill, not driving at all. I jumped at the chance to get out from behind the wheel. The only problem was that the job wouldn't begin until the spring. One more winter at Stone Belt, one more winter in hell. The worst part was that my employers must have thought that I was all good with their schinanigans, that I wanted to stay. NOT.

Believe me, there are a lot of things wrong with my current job. I've recounted some of the challenges in these pages but what I've described are problems endemic to just being a flatbed truck driver; like having irregular and often long hours, working out in the elements, rain snow or heat wave, and having to deal with traffic. There are many flaws with the company itself, and not all of them trivial; things like bounced pay checks, expensive and poor insurance, inconsistent expectations, and logistical choices that make the job harder, not easier. Oh, I've got a good one, though it is trivial: The yard is across the street from the sewage treatment plant. I don't usually spend a whole lot of time there, but I know it when I do! Welcome home.

There were some good things about the job too, and I've recounted some of those here. Things like driving around Southern Indiana, meeting the people at the quarries and the mills, as well as other places, and keeping active climbing up and down on the trailer, throwing straps and chains and pulling tarps. But the main reason that I stayed with this job was the weekend. I have enjoyed having both Saturday and Sunday completely off. That's rare in a driving job.

And then I discoverd what they'd been doing for the last five years. I took them at their word but something happened that made me investigate and what I found out was that, to make a long story short, they'd been lying to me and cheating me, and everyone in management was aware and complicit. Oh, it's been hard to show up and work for those people these last few months. Afraid that I'd expose them they gave me $4,000 back pay, but that only covers two of the five years. Still, they must think I'm down with it because I really don't know any other way to do my job than well. Then there's the customers who don't deserve a disgruntled employee treating their freight lightly, and of course the safety issue, it's important that the loads I pick up for the other drivers are adequately secured. But I didn't want to start another job somewhere else just to quit in the spring, so I've stuck it out.

It's over now though, if I can just make it through Friday! Light at the end of the tunnel. I'm taking a couple of weeks off and then starting my new job. I'll be starting at the same rate of pay that I now enjoy (not really that great by industry standards for drivers, but I lose nothing), will have a regular schedule working 4 tens and a half day on Friday. Overtime every week and a good start on the weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday off still, I won't have to work out in the elements, and won't have to do crazy stupid stuff like climb around on an uneven load covered with slippery plastic while I try to pull tarps in the wind. The only downside that I can see right now is that it will be boring, a line job, repetative. There are challenges with every job, of course, that's why they call it work.

I'll let you know how it goes.