Tiresome Day

There are good days... and there are bad days. Some say one bad day can make 100 good days seem irrelevant. Whether or not that is true for all, it is certainly true in this instance.

Days hadn't exactly been awful, but they weren't exactly good, either. Kiernan felt he was becoming a little more lax with what he was allowing to let slip at his job; a sign that he was not doing well mentally and emotionally. He never could explain why he felt the way he did sometimes, he just... did. Eventually his mood would improve, but sometimes he would be in a slump for weeks or even months at a time.

He loved his job when he was able to be kept busy. Some of his co-workers were people he had grown to enjoy the most, despite only "hanging out" with them either during shift changes or if he was working late or they were coming in early. However, it was one person in particular that made things pretty miserable for most people involved. Unfortunately, that person was their supervisor.

They had such a high turnover, it was rarely more than two months (usually less) before a new person would quit. Of the entire staff, only 4 of the 11 people had been there for more than a year. One was planning on retiring that coming summer, but Kiernan was entrusted with that information and it had not been brought to the attention of his supervisor yet.

Official reasons for past co-workers leaving had to do with things like driving distance or a better paying job, but underlying reasons always had to do with how much the site supervisor was disliked. He had his days, but more often than not he came across as narcissistic, belittled others on a regular basis, would argue over the most trivial things, would rarely acknowledge he was at fault for anything, and had absolutely no filter for what he thought about others. A couple of weeks ago, his supervisor had made a remark about Kiernan's physical appearance - something he struggled with on a daily basis, and ever since he noticed he had been on a steady decline in his mood.

Previous co-workers had sent e-mails to the branch manager, numerous phone calls happened, yet nothing was ever done and nothing continues to be done. Kiernan didn't mind his job at first, but when he came to first shift around 2 years ago, he had somewhat become the unofficial assistant supervisor. He would go back out to work after hours to help out with issues, take phone calls from co-workers in distress, and do everything in his power to help his fellow co-workers out if they had questions or complaints all in an attempt to save them the trouble of calling their supervisor. He would make a big fuss about having to come out late or early, not say a word while he fixed an issue and walked back out, abandon clueless new people on occasion because he would forget they needed help, or be overly exasperated that anyone dared call him when he wasn't on the clock.

Kiernan remembered staying late on several occasions just to listen to the next shift complain about things that had happened involving them and the supervisor. A few times he didn't make it home until 2 hours after he had signed out for the day. Although two of those people were now no longer there, he still heard complaints from other workers on almost a daily basis. It pained him to not be able to do anything, and after all this time, it had been such a huge drain on his mental health. When people are constantly complaining about a site supervisor and have been basically ever since he started, then there has to be an issue with the supervisor. If it was one or two people, maybe not so much. But when the few who had been there the longest in addition to most, if not all, new hires, have continual complaints, then it needs to be addressed.

It had crossed Kiernan's mind more than once, wanting to find another job. But he was going to hold on for as long as he could. A fellow co-worker who absolutely does not get along with the supervisor was on first shift with him and the supervisor, despite being able to work at any time throughout the day and week as long as his 40 hours were met, restricted himself to working just day shift. Kiernan wasn't going to leave his co-worker to working alone with their supervisor; besides, the only reason he came to first shift was because Kiernan was on it. Kiernan's co-worker had stated several times that if he hadn't been on first shift when the second spot opened up, he wouldn't have even considered switching shifts. So ditching his co-worker, especially this close to them wanting to retire would be disrespectful, in his opinion.

The end of summer couldn't come swiftly enough. With the number of emails and complaints in general growing in regards to their supervisor, Kiernan hoped something would be done about it by the time his co-worker retired. He didn't care if they brought in someone new or selected someone from already employed people; something had to give. He wanted the best for the site, both those who worked in that office as Kiernan's co-workers and those that had to interact with Kiernan and/or his co-workers on a daily basis. The main redeeming quality about the supervisor is he knew his stuff and had been there for over 10 years, though he had only been supervisor for only 3 or so of those years. They had switched companies a little less than 2 years ago and since the newer management had shown some interest in finding a resolution to the site's supervisory woes, more have been speaking up about how they have been treated.

Kiernan recalled two females that had worked there for a little while; one had to have emergency heart surgery and one gal tried her best to tell him what happened and to inform him she wouldn't be at work that day. What did the supervisor do? He was completely non-empathetic and told her she needed to give him more notice if she wasn't going to make it to work, despite her being in the ICU. Another incident with the second gal involved the supervisor's best friend bullying her until she cried and walked out while on shift; it wasn't the first time something like that had happened, either. A verbal talking-to was all that happened as far as Kiernan knew. Another incident with the supervisor's best friend that Kiernan remembered, was not once, but twice, he came into work reeking of alcohol. He pointed it out and nothing was ever done; he had been told that, "Oh, he was just drinking the night before, so that's what you smelled." Right. If he had been drinking the night before, then he should not have reeked so strongly of alcohol. If that much odor was leftover from the previous night, then he should not have been at work. But, what did Kiernan know? Most of his job seemed to be a joke at times these days with preferential treatment.

He didn't get paid enough to work with said supervisor and to listen to everyone's beefs about him and to sneak out to the work site after hours to help with problems. He did it because he cared about his co-workers, but there comes a time when enough is enough.

Change was on the horizon. Kiernan needed it, for his own sake. Whether it be a change of pace at his current place of employment or new opportunities elsewhere, he was going to be sure that at the latest by the end of the year, there would be changes to his life and line of work.