Job rant
Job rant
I have to vent. I'll probably go postal if I don't. Not really, but I'm pissed.
I work at a campus police department as a security officer and relief dispatcher. We have 14 spots for people who do the same job as me but only 13 are filled now. That leaves 3 people for my shift. One of the 3 is a white female who is only a dispatcher. I don't know why, she's perfectly capable of walking. One of them is me, who dispatches and patrols campus. The other is a worthless waste of time and space who is supposed to do the same jobs as me. He's a black male: the only black male we have left on the security force.
(I'm not trying to be racist but the core of this whole thing is race.)
He doesn't do his job. He takes too long to go to a call when he's dispatched to do something. He wanders around on his cell phone all day. Random people have spoken out about him. They don't feel safe when he's too busy talking on his cell phone to pay any attention to people on campus. He gives his girlfriend rides through campus on his ATV (we have Kawasaki Mules). That's a big no-no for liability and insurance reasons. We have this stupid system of magnetic checkpoints we have to hit all over campus. There's a minimum of 120 a day to hit. He never makes that quota. He calls in "sick" when he doesn't have any sick time left. He calls saying he has car trouble when he drives a brand new Dodge Charger. He's late for work EVERY DAY. LITERALLY.
In short, he's worthless.
Whenever our superiors try to talk to him, he starts throwing complaints about discrimination on the basis of race. They won't fire him because they're afraid of getting sued.
I'm always early for work. I've almost always made my quota. The only reason I don't is when he's off or "sick" and I have to take every call. I take care of my calls immediately and move on to other things instead of bull****ting on my phone.
I do my job. I used to go above and beyond my normal duties because the duties are really simple and it gave me something to do. But I don't anymore because he gets away with doing nothing. I'm so tired of all the BS that I've started to do the same junk he does: take my time when taking a call, screwing around on my phone in plain view, skipping a few checkpoints here or there.
The department admins have noticed. I just got an email from my supervisor about my low button numbers. It seems they'll pick on me but not my worthless coworker. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that my immediate supervisor is black...?
I hate my job. It's hell. Working with police SUCKS. I have a degree and I'm not making $20K a year. That's bull****. I've looked for other jobs but the job market in Little Rock is trash. There's nothing good in the paper, nothing good posted online, nothing good posted anywhere. There's NOTHING but truck driver jobs posted everywhere. Screw that. I can't even begin to afford to move out of state because I have no cash flow. The lack of progress in my project thread is enough evidence of that.
I'm just so frustrated with the whole situation but I can't afford to do anything but keep taking it every day because of money issues.
I work at a campus police department as a security officer and relief dispatcher. We have 14 spots for people who do the same job as me but only 13 are filled now. That leaves 3 people for my shift. One of the 3 is a white female who is only a dispatcher. I don't know why, she's perfectly capable of walking. One of them is me, who dispatches and patrols campus. The other is a worthless waste of time and space who is supposed to do the same jobs as me. He's a black male: the only black male we have left on the security force.
(I'm not trying to be racist but the core of this whole thing is race.)
He doesn't do his job. He takes too long to go to a call when he's dispatched to do something. He wanders around on his cell phone all day. Random people have spoken out about him. They don't feel safe when he's too busy talking on his cell phone to pay any attention to people on campus. He gives his girlfriend rides through campus on his ATV (we have Kawasaki Mules). That's a big no-no for liability and insurance reasons. We have this stupid system of magnetic checkpoints we have to hit all over campus. There's a minimum of 120 a day to hit. He never makes that quota. He calls in "sick" when he doesn't have any sick time left. He calls saying he has car trouble when he drives a brand new Dodge Charger. He's late for work EVERY DAY. LITERALLY.
In short, he's worthless.
Whenever our superiors try to talk to him, he starts throwing complaints about discrimination on the basis of race. They won't fire him because they're afraid of getting sued.
I'm always early for work. I've almost always made my quota. The only reason I don't is when he's off or "sick" and I have to take every call. I take care of my calls immediately and move on to other things instead of bull****ting on my phone.
I do my job. I used to go above and beyond my normal duties because the duties are really simple and it gave me something to do. But I don't anymore because he gets away with doing nothing. I'm so tired of all the BS that I've started to do the same junk he does: take my time when taking a call, screwing around on my phone in plain view, skipping a few checkpoints here or there.
The department admins have noticed. I just got an email from my supervisor about my low button numbers. It seems they'll pick on me but not my worthless coworker. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that my immediate supervisor is black...?
I hate my job. It's hell. Working with police SUCKS. I have a degree and I'm not making $20K a year. That's bull****. I've looked for other jobs but the job market in Little Rock is trash. There's nothing good in the paper, nothing good posted online, nothing good posted anywhere. There's NOTHING but truck driver jobs posted everywhere. Screw that. I can't even begin to afford to move out of state because I have no cash flow. The lack of progress in my project thread is enough evidence of that.
I'm just so frustrated with the whole situation but I can't afford to do anything but keep taking it every day because of money issues.
Recognized HCF Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,453
From: Houston, Texas
Don't let your co-worker's poor performance influence how you do your job. You must focus on yourself and quickly regain the great work ethic that you once had, otherwise you risk losing your current income and your self respect. Do your best to take race out the picture. Incompetent people come in all colors.
I only wish that race could be removed from the picture. Unfortunately we have affirmative action in place. We have to have certain people fill certain jobs. Better candidates can be and have been turned away.
The job is incredibly secure. No one gets fired from the department unless it becomes a PR nightmare or unless they REALLY mess up. No security officer has ever been fired except for one who worked a week and called in sick for the next 2 and a half weeks.
My work ethic is still intact. It's alive and well in fact. It just doesn't come out to play anymore at my current job. I feel horrible slacking off at work to prove a point. It's just sad that I'm to the point where I almost welcome that termination letter. The job is miserable.
The job is incredibly secure. No one gets fired from the department unless it becomes a PR nightmare or unless they REALLY mess up. No security officer has ever been fired except for one who worked a week and called in sick for the next 2 and a half weeks.
My work ethic is still intact. It's alive and well in fact. It just doesn't come out to play anymore at my current job. I feel horrible slacking off at work to prove a point. It's just sad that I'm to the point where I almost welcome that termination letter. The job is miserable.
Last edited by WellFedHobo; Feb 2, 2010 at 09:55 AM.
Recognized HCF Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,453
From: Houston, Texas
I only wish that race could be removed from the picture. Unfortunately we have affirmative action in place. We have to have certain people fill certain jobs. Better candidates can be and have been turned away.
My advice to you was given to point out that you should shift your focus from a matter that is out of your control (affirmative action) to a matter that is in your control (your personal job performance and self esteem). When you entirely blame your problems on others, then you take away your own control over the circumstances. Don't worry what your black, white, brown, or red co-worker is doing, worry about what YOU are doing. It's all personal responsibility.
The job is incredibly secure. No one gets fired from the department unless it becomes a PR nightmare or unless they REALLY mess up. No security officer has ever been fired except for one who worked a week and called in sick for the next 2 and a half weeks.
Irrelevant. Set high personal goals at any job you work at and strive to meet those goals. Otherwise, you are sealing your own destiny always to be dissatisfied with your job.
My work ethic is still intact. It's alive and well in fact. It just doesn't come out to play anymore at my current job. I feel horrible slacking off at work to prove a point. It's just sad that I'm to the point where I almost welcome that termination letter. The job is miserable.
You prove nothing by slacking off at your job. Change your attitude or your job, otherwise you will be stuck with respect to professional growth.
My advice to you was given to point out that you should shift your focus from a matter that is out of your control (affirmative action) to a matter that is in your control (your personal job performance and self esteem). When you entirely blame your problems on others, then you take away your own control over the circumstances. Don't worry what your black, white, brown, or red co-worker is doing, worry about what YOU are doing. It's all personal responsibility.
The job is incredibly secure. No one gets fired from the department unless it becomes a PR nightmare or unless they REALLY mess up. No security officer has ever been fired except for one who worked a week and called in sick for the next 2 and a half weeks.
Irrelevant. Set high personal goals at any job you work at and strive to meet those goals. Otherwise, you are sealing your own destiny always to be dissatisfied with your job.
My work ethic is still intact. It's alive and well in fact. It just doesn't come out to play anymore at my current job. I feel horrible slacking off at work to prove a point. It's just sad that I'm to the point where I almost welcome that termination letter. The job is miserable.
You prove nothing by slacking off at your job. Change your attitude or your job, otherwise you will be stuck with respect to professional growth.
^It's not like that at all. Not that kind of guy. That's a stereotype. He's not a stereotype. He just uses the stereotype to his advantage. There's nothing stereotypical about whats going on. It's about a man who uses the race card to his advantage at every opportunity.
RonJ's right about everything of course. It's just so hard to keep doing what I do when he's able to get by with a much lower standard. I have to work twice as hard for less pay.
RonJ's right about everything of course. It's just so hard to keep doing what I do when he's able to get by with a much lower standard. I have to work twice as hard for less pay.
Recognized HCF Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,453
From: Houston, Texas
There are many people like him in the work force. They are a dime a dozen. Don't let them influence your good work ethic. Rise above it and you will grow professionally and personally and get promotions.
There's one more problem with the job. There is no upward mobility. There are no promotions. There's nowhere to go from here. It's a dead end job.
Recognized HCF Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,453
From: Houston, Texas
Excelling at your current job can become a stepping stone to a new and better job. Excellence gets noticed and spreads by word of mouth or letters of recommendation.
Sir Banned-a-lot
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 2,602
From: Pittsburgh, PA
lmmfao sorry, too good to pass up, but yeah, like ron is saying, color dosent matter, just do your job and let him **** his own up.. when it starts effecting your job, then contact upper management, if they dont do anything, contact someone up higher.. everyone has a boss, EVERYONE. if he asks you to do something, say no. report him for carrying his girlfriend around on the atv. i know what you mean about the race card tho. this kid kept calling me a "nasty *** cracka" and he said "my white boy *** better not see him out of school" so i said yeah, i wont see you out of school and punched him in the mouth, he threw a punch and i ducked and missed it and came up with an uppercut to his jaw, he flew back into the desks and busted his head open off the corner, had to get stitches and ****, and his family and my family had to have a conference. they said if im not expelled, their calling a lawyer and saying it was a hate crime.. good for me, they had cameras with sound in shop class haha, so i just got suspended instead of sued haha. anyhow, my advice to you would be keep notifying upper management untill the problome is finished and dont let anyone influence your work.
