A BOSS IS A BOSS OR ?

 

 To me a boss is a leader in his field. Someone to respect, look for direction and assignments.

 I never have had a “bad boss”.  I can say that I have had a “difficult boss.”

He was part owner of the company; and his title was President. The other owners were his brother, who was the head of the sales department, and his father, who really was retired, but still dabbled in the business. Therefore, you could say it was a family run business.

 The brothers were young, but that didn’t stop them from running a very tight ship.

It was as if I transferred back to grade school. Catholic grade school taught by nuns! (If you went to Catholic school, you know of what I speak!)

  Social talking was forbidden; all talking had to be work related. If the president heard laughing, he would come out of his office, and tell everyone that he did not permit a party atmosphere during office hours.

 We had a half hour lunch period, with a morning and afternoon break. That was the only time we could let our guard down, actually laugh, and talk. There were guys that took their breaks and lunch during the same time as the office people. Thank God for them, because they were always cracking jokes or telling gossip about the “Big Guys.”

 Truth be told, it was a very busy office. The phone rang constantly for 8 hours, and customers were always coming and going in the showroom.

 I started out in Customer Service, answering phones, listening to complaints, or doing research. The customers were very nice to deal with in taking their orders, handling their complaints or doing research for them.   

 Not too long after I started working, they gave me another cap to wear, and that was to do the UPS invoicing. I had to make sure I received all the invoices by a certain time, weigh the packages, and charge the correct price, and make sure the invoices were finished before the UPS truck came.

 Weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays were horrendous. People left long orders on the answering machine at night, after hours. During the day, they were calling in their orders left and right. They needed it in their hands by this certain date, if the package got damaged in the mail, or cut the wrong size, there was hell to pay. We were messing with their lively hood, and this was their busiest time of the year. We better correct it and get it out next day delivery.

 We came in early, we stayed late, and we worked our butts off. Everyone received a nice Christmas bonus because of how hard we worked. They recognized, and we appreciated the bonus.

 After Christmas, the owners would take us out for dinner to thank us for our work, and to celebrate a good year. It was a nice time with everyone being relaxed. The next day though, you had your nose to the grind, and everything was as before.

 If you did you job, if you did it right, if you followed the rules, you were left alone. Your review was once a year and that determined your increase in pay.  If you got a very low increase that let the person know more was expected out of them. Oh, some of the guys in the shop were furious. They felt they gave their all and not compensated fairly. Lots of complaints, but nothing changed.

 Through the years, I moved up to doing all of the invoicing, credits, and still doing customer service. In doing invoicing, I started at all crazy times during the holidays. My starting time was 4:30am.

There I was opening up this huge warehouse and office with no one else there but me. The next person would come in at 7:30. I don’t know how I managed to do that, but I did.  

 One morning after I was settled and started to do billing, I heard this noise, like a planking. It kept on, and was becoming annoying, so I got up to investigate. At first I could not see anything, but as I was walking back to my desk, it happened again, as if it were right beside me. I stopped and turned around and saw the wastepaper basket. I looked in it and there was this little mouse trying to get out. Well I was not about to let him out, so I covered the trashcan until Leonard, the shop supervisor came in. He then took it outside and put it in the grass.

 We, my husband and I bought two vehicles from my boss; both of them were good and fairly priced. I just got rid of my favorite in July of 2012. That was my red Jeep.

  My boss ended up being my friend, and he treated me good, but the new office manager that they just hired did not.

She made it very difficult for me to continue to work there. Finding fault where there was never fault before.

  Therefore, after many, many years, and making good friends, I knew it was time for me to leave. I decided to retire early. I was not the only one, two very good, loyal employees from the office also quit.

  After retiring, I found I did not like staying at home. I thought I would see if I could volunteer at the library. Yes, they needed volunteers and were very happy that I offered.   Not long after, someone quit, I was hired for my “dream job”. I can not think of a better way to spend my retiring years, I wish I would have made it my career from the get go.

 The staff is great, the patrons are great, our director is fantastic and books surround me. 

by the way this is also my writing assignment for Writing Our Own Life Story.dee