Today I asked Tony where I could get a copy of job descriptions. Tony, being absolutely no-one's fool, knew what I was onto and asked what was bothering me. I put him off, but he tracked me down an hour later and kept prodding, until it came out in a flood of tears and displacement activity- that I didn't like how Media was going, how everyone was so upset, that good, hardworking people were getting fed up and threatening to leave, that Stacey was overworked and had been coughing up blood, that we were all unsupported, that we couldn't talk to Les for fear of our jobs, that we weren't having fun anymore, that morale was at an all-time low.... and also, let's be fair, that Les is a great guy when he's happy, but when he's not, there's this sort of pall over our department, and people tread on eggshells. Stacey happened to come by, about halfway through, and joined in. Tony was very patient, and had obviously caught on to most of it some time before, and had just been waiting for someone to say something. He said that Les was wrong to have put a contract in our workbook that said that we had to have a doctor's note after 1 day off sick (which Tony and Adam removed when it was brought to their attention), and he took a copy of the "What A Senior Should Do" list Les gave Stacey when she came back to work after her bronchitis. He seemed pensive and sort of absorbed every detail.
3 hours later, Les came up to me and said "I think we're going to ahve a pizza party." I had a hunch, but I said "For full-count?" (Our big inventory count is Sunday night, we usually get pizza in.) He said "No, for media... so we can all get together." I gave a blank look (but kind of high-fiving myself inside) and said "Why?" And he sort of went "Well, other departments do stuff, and I wanted to change things around in Media... I know you guys are pretty pissed off with me over some stuff, and I wanted to change it." I kept up the blank stare, and went "Yeah, you're right. I'm not going to say you're not right, because you are." He sort of had a "Um, ok, wasn't expecting you to admit that" kind of look, and said "Well, I know if you're pissed off with me you'll tell me, but not everyone will, so I want to give people the chance to, to clear the air, bitch me out." And I said "No, see, that's the thing, I wouldn't tell you, because I'm not like that. And bitching you out isn't constructive, we want things to get better." In the end, I told him we understood he was between a rock and a hard place, being shat on by Head Office and having to boss around people his own age or older, and we understood that, but from our perspective, he wasn't around, he wasn't available, he wasn't approachable, he just hid back in the warehouse and didn't understand the crap we were going through, didn't give us any support or make hsi presence felt. He countered that he could only change his personality so much, and that someone had to be in the back to get the pricing done. I answered that we didn't want him to change his personality because none of us could change ours either, but that support would work wonders because for the moment, he was being the Anti-Jeff, never coming out on the floor and hiding in the back, and that lots of people could do pricing, Dean could do it, which would allow him to get out more. I told him that he was awesome with the MP3 players, and knew them better than anyone else, so why shouldn't we use that? He seemed to appreciate the fact that I wasn't bitching him out, although I was somewhat mortified that a comment I made last week, about him having a "plastic smile" and us never being able to tell what he was thinking or feeling, seemed to not only have struck home, but maybe even hurt him too. So I was nice to him for the rest of the night (not that that was much longer), because it was obvious he was making the effort, and I'm going to try to keep it up. After all, he isn't a bad guy, just needs to change his command style. He's not irretrievable.
That being said, Customer Who Wanted Me To Find "My Boss's Daughter", go to hell. I'm SUPPOSED to pick up the phone, even if I'm with another customer, you FUCKWIT. And I explained to you that I couldn't make the phonecall to our COMPETITOR, checking up if THEY had your stupid movie, until I cleared the call, since I had turned the ringer off to talk to YOU. I hope your testicles drop off and your daughter decides at age 19 that she wants to be called Bif and buys a strap-on. Yeah, that's right, I said it. Bitch.
Readin' Dark Side Of The Sun
Listenin' to nothing except the washing machine
Thinkin' about bed.
Most recently I was 
