My Old Boss

Today, one of my former coworkers from my days at WinCo Foods (Ryan) stopped by with his family. Naturally, I had to say hi to him while I took his order, and he told me our old boss from the deli (Ruel) has left the building.

From what I heard, the boss quit of his own accord, but he was on the brink of getting fired anyway. That's the rumor, at least.

Well, I was a bit surprised, but not by much. I was even wondering how much longer the man would last since he was prone to doing things for which we'd get in trouble in a snap. It was almost like a double standard: we can't do it because we're the employees, but he can do it because he's in charge.

I don't want to paint him as a bad guy, but out of all the bosses I've had thus far, he was by far the worst. He was the reason I quit WinCo in the first place.

He wasn't the devil incarnate or anything, but let's just say he was one of those people who probably aren't cut out to be in charge. To summarize, he treated us more like machines than people (working us as hard as possible for as long as possible, and practically breathing down our necks the entire time), he focused much more on what we did wrong than what we did right, he almost never expressed any appreciation for our hard work (I, for one, was lucky to hear a simple "great" from his lips), he would do things for which we'd get written up if we did them, and he promised way more than he delivered; he was more talk than action.

In my case, the straw that broke the camel's back was when he gave me only five or six hours a week (the entire week) while everybody else on the deli team got more, and he got a nice, cushy 40 hours on his plate. I was literally the bottom of the barrel, and he kept promising and promising and promising more hours, for at least six months straight, but nothing happened. Even when I applied for an additional position as a cashier, my luck didn't change.

Talk of more hours still left me and my bills unpaid.

It got to the point where I might as well have not been there at all, so after finding another job elsewhere, I officially threw in the towel. I've a sneaking suspicion they were trying to get me to quit on purpose.

Unfortunately, WinCo does have a high turnover rate. Employees are going as quickly as they're coming, and that's not good for a business in the long run. From what I was told, WinCo doesn't like to hang onto anybody for too long because the longer you work for them, the more they'll have to pay you.

My mom suspects they were discriminating against me, and I could have even taken them to court for it.

As far as I understand, my only real "crime" was not being as fast as they believed I should be. Yes, I knew I shouldn't take all day, but I'm a naturally cautious person and some things do require a little time and care; plus, you shouldn't hurry with things like wet floors and full garbage cans and piping hot trays of food. You want to get the job done right the first time, because fixing it later costs more time, money, and trouble.

Other than that, I did everything else I was supposed to do. I always did my assigned tasks, I never left until the task was done (unless they excused me and had someone else finish it for me), I never complained or talked back, and I was always punctual; I never missed a day of work and only had to leave early once due to throwing up. Sometimes I went a little into overtime (and more than a little) but I figured it was better than having a messy deli the next day. I even did the little important tasks that almost everybody overlooked, including the boss, like checking the temperature of the meat, cleaning the slicer, checking the outside floor for any spills or slipping hazards, and checking the soup pots.

But, clearly, I wasn't good enough for them, so they worked me as little as they could (and worked me as hard as they could when I was there), until something just had to give.

Now that my old boss is gone, a part of me wishes him luck while another part says, "Good riddance."

WinCo is still a nice place to shop, and I'll still buy stuff from there from time to time...but I have no intention of ever working there again. Once was enough.

Here's hoping I can make it with Kneaders. All grueling work aside, Kneaders has been better to me than WinCo's ever been. As far as I'm concerned, WinCo's loss is Kneaders' gain.