Oi! Kids these days

For those who remember Sleeper B from earlier, he fell asleep on the job again 2 weeks after the first incident. Again, it was on a Friday, the day after payday. You can guess the scene when I let him go.

I was traveling on business Mon and Tues the following week, so I let one of my Leutenants interview and hire the replacement. On top of needing a replacement we also expanded by 2 more that week, so we hired 3. Lt A has a poor track record hiring, but I gave him instructions on what to look for, mainly I wanted more mature workers this time. Hiring sub-25's hasn't been working too good. Since he did the screening interviews, I don't have any good stories. He narrowed 8 down to 3. 2 I agreed with, the 3rd I was sceptical of, but Lt. A wanted to "give the young man a chance." So I relented. This past Thursday was his 2 week anniversary. In that 2 weeks, he has been tardy 4 times, 3 20 minutes or more.

Today (Saturday) we were scheduled to run the entire plant. At 8:03 the night shift man due to be relieved by "C" came up "Where dahells my relief?"

Lt. A said "He'll be here, so you go on. I'll cover the job till he gets here." At 8:20 I told Lt. A to call his house. 5 minutes later he reported "He said he appreciated the opportunity for some overtime but he would pass this week."

"Did you explain to him it wasn't optional?"

"No, I just told him it wasn't good."

So I called his house. A female answered. "Can I speak to C please?"

"He ain't here"

"O.K. give him a message. This is Mr. D, the Big Boss at work. Tell him if he isn't here by 9:00 to not bother coming back."

"He cain't get a ride"

"That's not my problem"

At 8:58 he came in. This is where it gets interesting.

I brought him into the office. "C, I need you here. This a 3 shift operation, and it needs to run 24 hours a day. Do you understand the importance of being on time?"

"Yessir, but the man in the other part over there don't fuss about it so much so the people I ride with don't have to get here early."

(To clarify- I take direct control of the new part, which is really the future of the company and let the manager of the "other part over there" run the day to day operations and minutia, like attendence. I will get involved a little more now.)

"Then drive yourself"

"I don't got no car"

"You told Lt. A in your first interview, and me in the follow-up, that you had a car"

"I know, but my ex has dat car and I don't get to drive it"

"I hate to be cold, but that's not my problem. Running this plant is my problem. Your 90 day probationary period ends June 8th. I will allow you one more tardy because I know shit happens, but 2 tardys and you are gone. You will not get any raises during this time."

''Mr. D, I'll work late all you need me to, but I really like to do things on Saturday"

"Then you need to go find another job that's just part time"

"Mr. D I got 5 kids. I got to have a good job. I need to make more than I'm making now."

Shock. "How old are you?"

"23"

"23 and you have 5 kids?!"

"Yessir. Me and my first lady had 2, then while she was pregnant with the 3rd I went looking for a little action on the side and got another lady pregnant, and my first lady threw me out. The 2nd lady had twins, we livin together now but the judge is making me pay a lot of support to the first lady."

After I recovered I said "Well, that's really none of my business. You made your choices, it's your problem to deal with the results. What I said earlier stands. 1 more tardy in the rest of your probationary period and no raises."

"Come on Mr. D. You ain't gonna hold it against a guy cause he needed a little action are you? She'd done cut me off at da house."

And I thought I had problems.