A Letter From a Disgruntled Employee

This morning I had another first in my life, I sent out a letter to my employer, lamenting my dissatisfaction with the general operations of their company, and treatment of their employees. Not bad for working for them for only 2.5 hours since my hire date of February 1.

Back in October of last year, I began looking for a job, not because we where on the verge of downsizing from ground beef to dollar store cat food (no, we don't have a cat) but because I had 2 very good reasons to go back to work after 11 years of working for free. First of all, my husband went on salary, which translates into, if the phone rings in the middle of the night and he has to go into work, he's doing it for free. I simply wanted to try and take some of the stress off of him. The second reason is my teenager. Next year she will be a Senior in high school and it's time for her to get some wheels under her, and let mom's taxi retire.I would also like to spoil her a little bit too, perhaps get a prom dress that isn't on the sale rack. And Senior year isn't cheap, the price of her graduation photos is going to make my hubby's eye twitch, and let's not even get into college money. So I wrote and re-wrote my resume several times, actually we are up to the sixth edition, and started looking for work.

I live in a small town, which has it's perks, but there is a down side as well,  unless you want to work at a big box retail store or in the food service industry you have to commute to the big city to work, which means putting your paycheck into your car, by way of gasoline or upkeep. So, when I heard that a craft store chain was coming to our town I was excited, then when I heard that they where having a job fair I was thrilled. Because a) I needed a job and b) if there is anything I know about, it is crafting. I can sew, knit, crochet, cross stitch, make soy candles, scrapbook and a few other things. You would think that would make me an ideal candidate for a job in a craft store right? Yeah, well they did too. I walked into the job fair, handed the manager my application and resume (which I had customized for this type of job) and was hired on the spot, to be an Educational Coordinator. Personally, I would have been happy to be customer service, cashier, stock crew or anything else but to be able to teach was like icing on the cake to me. I was over the moon, and couldn't wait until Orientation, which would be a couple weeks from that day. And on February first I went to learn what they planned to teach me and was told that that was my start date and the store would officially open on March 7th, we will call you with your schedule next week. I was gainfully employed! Yeah..well..

The phone didn't ring. I didn't miss their call, I even took the phone with me into the bathroom when I went in to shower (bet that is real good for your smart phone huh?) I checked my messages several times a day, still none. I cried, I yelled, and I'm sure my hubby thought I was going over the edge, the entire month of February. I was heartbroken. So on the official opening day of the store I hopped into my mom mobile and drove across town to the store. I would not be put off. I walked up to the first available cashier and asked to talk to the manager, the lead cashier was a couple of registers down, and after I told the girl what my problem was she went and whispered in her ear, returning to tell me that she would be with me momentarily. In the mean time, a woman bearing pizza's, announcing herself as a neighbor in the strip mall bringing the welcome wagon in the form of cheesy goodness, came up to the register banks. Don't you know that the lead cashier, scooted around the counter, passing me and looking right into my eyes, and took Ms. Pizza 2013 by the elbow leading her towards the back of the store. My cashier yelled her name twice, and even left her register to run after her to remind her that I was standing right there, just in case she had failing eyesight or I had become suddenly the invisible woman, only to return and ask for my name and phone number, promising that someone would call me that day. Yeah..well.. it's been over a month and the phone hasn't rung. But, my paycheck for Orientation, a whopping $16 materialized 3 weeks later and guess what, there was nothing telling me to get lost with it. Therefore, I am assuming I am still employed by this company.

I have truly flip-flopped on what to do. I would give them mental deadlines to call me, and they would pass. I wanted the job, I was actually thrilled to be hired but you have to take into consideration the following facts. What company hires you and then can't get a cashier that is on break to at least call and tell you, "hey we haven't forgotten about you, but we don't need you yet", or send out a one line email saying the same. Then there is the matter that it took a over a month to send out my paltry little paycheck, that in all honesty wouldn't cover the cost of the yarn I would use for one project even with my employee discount. Hence, my irate letter to the company. This job came along, I still hit the seven different search engines every day to look for employment another job will come along. I'm just glad I wasn't counting on this one to feed my family, and I hope no one else was. Oh and by the way, my oldest daughter sucked it up and went into the store to shop, she said they where rude beyond belief, she got poor service, and she won't shop there again. Now if I had been on the register things would have been different.

ME