Flames Every Where

WOW! There was a huge car fire in one of the garages that I work at recently. I was like nothing I have ever seen before. I was at home after being home from work for a couple of hours. I received a call from one of the cashiers that work for me. She was really frantic and running around showing signs of difficulty breathing. I asked her what the problem is and she replied FIRE! I soon became very nervous as I heard the word FIRE repeated a number of times in the background. I automatically thought that someone got hurt and the office is completely destroyed, the sounds this cashier were making wasn't helping the situation out any. My heart is racing and all the horrible thoughts of this fire really hurting someone. I quickly jumped up to throw on some clothes to go and see the damage.

As I was speeding to get there with my wife in the car, she was advising that I slow down so we do not have a traffic accident. Giving the fact that she is pregnant, I did slow down. When I got to the parking garage there was a car that looked to have been grey at one point and now is all BLACK and almost non existent. There must have been close to 60 emergency personnel at the scene. At first I was unable to access the location because security would not allow this to happen, but i explained who i was and that I had to make sure that this structure was not too damaged they let me through.

The scene was like something out of a movie. Patrons where lined up to see what was going on and taking pictures from a far and gossiping with each other. Evey once and a while there is something exciting happening here besides problems with customers etc. When there is people come running. Even the police officers had their camera phones out and taking pictures as well as video taping. I am sure this will end up on YouTube of something like that. The thing that surprised me was that there was no other cars on fire near this car. When the owner of the car was contacted she was devastated. I felt bad for her because they had just lowered their insurance policy to save money. So most likely this car will not be replaced, Ouch!! She was also set to go on her vacation the following day after she got off from work.

That went smoother then expected.

Well today was the day when I finally had to let "P" know that these games that she has been playing are to stop. This morning when I arrived at work this person was already in a bad mood. No good morning from her, no hello not even a gander in my direction. After finishing with my paper work I called "P" to my office so I can address the issue at hand. I approached with the surprise visit we had from the senior VP's. Her reaction was shocked, she must have know that they were not happy with her appearance. She quickly started to make up a story about how her uniforms were not clean and bla bla bla... I cut her off before she was even able to get on a roll with her barrage of lies.



I said "P" your attitude at the work place has to improve along with your appearance, her face dropped. I then told her that I know about how she and "C" were berating me while I was not present. Her face dropped even more. I could tell she was very upset, her face was bright red, and she was grinding her teeth. I handed her the write up slip and she began to read. I told her the next time she is in this office for poor behavior, she would be either suspended without pay or terminated. She began to tear up, at which point I felt kind of bad but I had to stand my ground and let her know this was not to be tolerated. To my surprise she signed the disciplinary action form without conflict. The sad part about this whole thing is that myself and "P" used to get along. But she became real close with "C" and i believe that C had a real bad influence on her. Either way this is a business and I can not take these things personal. The rest of the day at the parking garage went pretty smoothly, all the staff was were doing their jobs very well. I soon found out that "P" went and told a few people that I wrote her up. All of employees were shocked to hear this. All day people were going beyond the call of duty and executing their jobs flawlessly. I hope this carries on for a while this way I will not have to micromanage these people as I do now.

Employees make things so hard!!

Today started off like any other day when I arrive at work. I got to work and started to audit some of the cashiers paper works. It was a relatively slow day after a crazy lockout from yesterday. I had an operations meeting with some of the senior members of the company and they did a surprise visit to the locations in which I am to manage and staff etc. Well for a while I have been having some issues with one cashiers in regards to her wearing her uniform on a daily basis. This person is a veteran at this location. I try give this person some respect for being an employee of ours for so long, but she just does not want to follow the rules. She is a union Representative for the other employees. Yes they have a union behind them!! After giving this cashier the benefit of the doubt for so long I come to find out that she is trying her best to turn some of my best employees against me. Thank god I have treated these few excellent employees of mine with respect because I am sure they would have turned if I wasn't a good boss to them. These employees might not make the money they want to make but when there is overtime available, that is who I turn to first. They never say no, unlike the veteran I spoke of earlier. Any ways back to this old hag of a woman we will call "P" for now.

P is a cashier that has been with the company for about 20 years. She is so close to retirement age and she can't stand that she is old. This lady puts on make up like you would not believe, it does NOT help her in the least bit. I know this is wrong to say, but the things this lady plots behind my back piss me off. I can't show you a picture but picture a turtle (because she has no chin) and the thing that hangs from the bottom of a turkeys neck (she has a lot of wrinkles). Yeah, it is that bad. I do think this is one of the reasons why she is such a grumpy person. P is what I would like to call a self fish person. I always do what I can to help out all of my employees but wants to be the only one that gets to leave early for a doctor visit, and be the only one to have all the holidays off. Once again she is a veteran, she should be able to enjoy such pleasantries. God forbid I help out another person, she gets upset. Lets put P on hold for now and discuss another veteran who we will call "C".

C has been an employee at this location for 23 years!! C has worked her way up from being a office clerk to be my assistant manager. She went for my position but she was denied. Remember now I am 27 years old, when I was 4 years old she was working at this location, jeez!! Now I am her boss and have been for a few years now. There is a sort of jealousy feeling I get from her about me being in the position that I am in and making the money that I am making. I have heard through the grape vine that she thinks I am too young to be a manager there. I do not listen to these rumors going around the office. Once again I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. C is a veteran and feels that she is entitled to certain things that the company does not allow. Well I am a company man, I follow the rules so there will be no problems down the line. So C has always been a custom to having 6 weeks off a year for vacation, when the company only allows maximum of 3 weeks. A few weeks back I have told her because of staff shortage, I could only give 2 weeks in a row as opposed to 3. She was not happy. The actions of C at the time was uncalled for and not professional at all. I could have easily fired her for her reaction to the decisions I have made, but I did not. Now things have gone too far and I am playing them by the book. Since then C and P have been on trying their best to give me a hard time.

Well guess what I am the operations manager for this location and they will be finding out the hard way. I have started to hold these few employees accountable for there actions and soon will get whats coming to them. Today I found an accounting error on P's report which can be construed as stealing, guess what this will be a write up on her file. The games are stopping these people will be treated by the book, veteran or not!! Well I will let you know P's reaction tomorrow. C is on her "2 weeks" vacation now but when she returns she will be facing some changes of her own.

Until next time.....

Please help me understand!!

Today is lockout. For those who do not work in the parking industry this means that anyone who has not paid for their monthly parking passes will be denied access through the parking garage gates. I don't know what it is with people at these locations. The lockout dates are basically the same every month and have not changed since I have been employed there. Every month I run in to problems with the same 5,000 people complaining because their parking card does not work. Every month that goes by these people are locked out and they get angry because of this. Now mind you we had special signs made to make people aware that the end of the month is coming and parking passes need to be renewed. Do you this that these Delinquent individuals read these signs? NO! I know the signs are in a position which is very visible because the only people we get in to ask questions about the signs every month are those who have applied for the monthly deduction option and are paid all year long. This leads me to ask my self if these people can read, but there can't be that many illiterate people there... after all this is a large hospital with a lot of doctors and nurses and a lot of college students.....

These troublesome patrons that are causing problems for the parking garage staff and myself are paying a lousy $.50 a day when the math is done per month. Now I understand that we are out on Long Island where parking spaces should not be an issue but come on people, $.50 a day. The people who have a legitimate grip I feel about paying for parking are those who are visiting a dying patient in the hospital. A lot of the time I do feel bad for these people. They are going through a traumatic situation which will bring upon them a large amount of debt down the line and yet they are still required to pay either daily rate or apply for a monthly card, which is more then what the actual doctors and nurses pay!! This is strange and unfair.... I don't know. Those poor cashiers who work in those tiny little booths have some serious war stories and they can probably start a blog of their encounters. I have seen first hand that a person driving a jalopy will mostly likely pull out the money they probably do not have to pay their fare. While a person driving a 100K Mercedes-Benz will give us a hard time for a $2.00 ticket. I don't know... Please help me understand.

One last thing. Why do people feel that just because they park in a parking garage, they feel like anything that happens in the garage is the fault of the person operating the garage. I had a lady come in the office today to complain that her car got hit in the garage while she was walking to her car. She then says to me that "I felt bad so I let the person go without getting their information." Then she proceeds to pull out of her parking spot and smashes in to someones else's car. This person happened to be a director of a department in the hospital and drive one of those 100K Mercedes-Benz I mentioned earlier. This "Director" was furious and did not let her get go because she felt bad for her. Oh Yea, this is a parking garage where everyone parks their own vehicle. We do not drive any of their cars. So this lady comes in to my office after this accident occurs and starts screaming.... "Why are these spots so **** small." I just crashed my car because of those small spots, she says to me. Now she wanted us to pay for her damage and the damage on the 100k Mercedes. I chuckled a little bit, and explained to her that we do not drive your cars and you are responsible for any damage you create to your own personal vehicle and anyone else's you hit. I don't know... Please help me understand!!

Am I wrong for thinking the way I do? Well until tomorrow. I am sure I will have some more stories to add to my BLOG.