My Work Rant

You know I was going to put it down one day about the
gig, right? Well here it is:

From the moment I got to the section in the building
where I was to work, I knew I was going to have to
watch my step so I wouldn't slip on the banana
peels...

I hate calling names, but there are a few 400 pound
gorillas and a whole bunch of monkey business going on
over here at Big Oil.

Now my approach getting settled into the new gig was
modest and relaxed, all I wanted to do after sitting
through one PowerPoint presentation and film after
another in a classroom setting for a few weeks was to
get in the middle of doing what I was being paid to
do. I didn't know much about the methods taken to make
things work in my department with proprietary software
and procedures but I understood what we do as a
department and why. I just had to get my hands dirty
and use the tools like everyone else. I needed my
hands on experience and I was excited to get my hands
dirty.

Now as most of you know, I am a truck driver. Did my
thing over the road for a minute in my last
incarnation. Our department's responsibility here at
Big Oil is to make sure out customers never run out of
fuel. We are the ones that coordinate the movement of
things from refinement to you pumping it into your
automobile, and that's all you need to know. We are
good at what we do and that's why we're about to shed
#2 status and be big folks on campus.

Our jobs are important. We must work collectively in
order for us to do our thang which means we must work
in close quarters and constantly communicate with our
peers to keep the big wheel a turnin'. In environments
such as this you have to get to know everybody because
we all work to keep that big wheel from squeaking by
adding our own grease. Active participation from
everyone is a must, but what happens when folks get
all exclusive with their shit? How does work get done
when folks get a little too personal with co-workers
and/or knows all the business?

What if you're the new cat and there is one important
greaser that doesn't even care if you got your bucket
of oil?

I am the new guy. There are 2 other new folks and the
other two are natives of the area and have small degrees
of seperation to a few that have already embedded
themselves here at big oil. No relation, but this is a
smaller place and most of these folks worked together
in some form in the past. There are no favors here.
Everyone that is here has earned a spot, but that
ain't my point.

I am the odd man out. I look like a yankee, act like
one and definitely speak like one. The one thing that
I have that others don't quite have is an advanced
education of how things work here due to the fact that
I have driven a few fuel loads in my day, worked in a
distributions depot for damn near a decade and have
dibbled in the hardware/software package we're
migrating to in the future. I got recruited based on
those factors and I ain't mad at that.

Imagine how it feels to have everyone already know
your background before you get a chance to introduce
yourself. Imagine how it feels to have a chosen few
purposely ignore you based on what they think they
know. I haven't endeared myself to anyone here but I
have gotten to know literally a few folks around
here and I was told of the exclusivity and cliques
that exist here at Big Oil. I needed that info.

There are two people in particular that are on my team
that have refused to introduce themselves to me, less
look me in the eye. I have gone above and beyond the
call to speak, acknowledge and even ask for assistance
from these individuals to no avail. I could give less
than a damn personally, but because we are on the same
team (what about work productivity, lost revenue and
overall cohesion?) and I am not yet proficient with
how things go down, the company stands to lose
hundreds of thousands of dollars daily as long as the
clique-ish behavior continues.

If I'm responsible for the transfer of product with
limited training, I am bound to get in a few jams. If
I cannot get the help I need, we lose money ultimately
based on my judgement. I will be forgiven for some
lapses in judgement until I reach a certain threshold,
but what happens after that? One day I'm not going to
be the rookie and it will be on me to determine major
decisions when it comes to a customer, client or employee
in the 4 regions my teammates and I oversee.

That's the thing about this job. Sometimes
you have to make the call. That's how much trust Big
Oil has in it's employees. We train you, help you grow
and then depend on you to continue the trend of
generating revenue by maintaining the high standard
set by those that have proceeded you.

So the day I walk into the bullpen and hear the
cackling of the office hens going on about a
co-worker's private affairs in the most negative
manner ever established in office gossip history and
later that day I see and hear you as you creep around
the corner and whisper to these same hens with ridicule
and negative criticisms about a 2 minute conversation I
had with with a co-worker about a movie trailer as if
my tastes and behavior is unsanitary, how am I supposed
to act?

You would know if you took the time to get to know me.
Even if it was on the surface, at least you would know
how I would respond.

But because you never took the time even in distrust
to get a peek at personality quarks you don't know if
I'm some uncoof negro hellbent on bringing you down
with a gossip campaign of my own.

I could not give a damn and get gangster enough to
have a crackhead or a homeless person assault you in
the parking lots they magically appear in after 6pm.

I could be a war veteran readjusting to society with
this being my first taste of interaction with the
general public. The most constructive criticisms
placed on a frazzled person could be the straw that
mentally breaks the camel's back.

I could just be plain ghetto and pop you in the mouth
repeatedly until the two big security guards come and
haul me off to the underground brig.

I could take it in stride and make a pass at you
thinking it's a cute invitation to break you off sexually
and pass the sordid details on to my lunch buddies.

See, since you never made the effort to even know my
name but knew all about what degrees I have and where
I supposedly came from you really don't know me, and
that's the scary part. I now have you wondering if
your actions will come back and bite you in your ass,
especially after I confronted you, confusing you
because you thought I didn't hear or didn't know you
are a crab.

In a barrel.

If you knew me, you would know and understand that I
was recruited to come here and excel beyond where you
are. That I have already been assigned a corporate
mentor where as in your vested tenure you never
applied for an interdepartmental transfer. That even
though I indicated to my superiors that I may go back
into the trucking industry I was still invited to come
and let Big Oil win me over with great pay, nice
benefits and the opportunity to move up and on due to
my education and background.

If you knew me, you would have know that I have damn
near photographic memory when it comes to code and
software maintenance and that I memorized things so I
wouldn't have to ask you a damn thing and cover my
assets and the teams in the same breath.

If you knew, you would already know that I could quit
today, walk away from this semi-lucrative job and not
get foreclosed on in a matter of weeks. Because I chose
to educate myself I could go elsewhere and be all right
financially. That this was plan C by accident and
plans A and B are on serious standby meaning I have
options which leads me back to you wondering what I
might do.

I think because you and your cohorts are so wrapped up
in that colored shit, you will never rise above where
you are now in your career and as a person, and that I
will never stoop to your level and dignify your
remarks with lewd behavior. The fact that I feel sorry
for your children because they have you as a parent
and that limits them as human beings as you have been
limited, and all that is you will fall and burn while
the rest of the world moves forward not even knowing
your name.

Continue swinging from the trees little monkey while
the rest of us laugh at you as you sling shit and
dance. I'll continue to frown upon me working in a
corporate environment and yearn the time when I was my
own boss, traveling the interstate.

I think I just made a career decision!