Duck hunting and fishing gets you ahead.

by Richard
(Somewhere in Ca)

I'll make this a brief as possible. My 53 year old boss has a problem with being perceived as a 53 year old man, he enjoys being in the company of those 20-25 years younger, I guess it makes him feel younger. I watched the the favoritism unfold over a period of 4 years between 2 other guys and my boss. One of them was very loud and brash, I'll call him Bob. Bob was a very knowledgeable employee and knew his business extremely well, far beyond his years. He was soon promoted to a supervisory position based on his experience. The area of problem was that Bob was a liar in every sense of the word. He added hundreds of hours to his time card and my main supervisor was completely aware of it. He told me later after Bob had quit that they were at his home one evening and Bob was punched in on a job and charged an additional 8 hours of overtime to that job. Bob knowingly disabled alarms and parameters from the computer controller so he didn't have to deal with things he didn't like. Bob eventually sucked up to a Controller of a particular account we had and ended up taking the business over and started his own company. The very people Bob had stolen from selected him as their Contractor of choice. That's a quick story about Bob. The other guy, I'll call him Bill, was friends with Bob and my direct supervisor, when Bob had stolen the business away from the company I work for Bill and my supervisor hated him from that day forward (or so they say). Now my supervisor became closer to Bill, they were working together 3-4 per week and the rest of us were occasionally allowed to work together only when it was a safety hazard to work alone. My job is physically and mentally demanding however Bill always seemed to get the best jobs and never had to worry about hours, he was always taken care of by my supervisor. I never said a word to anyone fearing I would be perceived as a whistle blower or a cry baby. I eventually moved on to another company and it was even worse there. I gave it an honest year and could no longer tolerate it, I don't drink alcohol, if you wanted to be in the "in crowd" at this place you had to get sloppy drunk with the boss. I went back to my old company and thought well maybe I'm just to sensitive, buck up you big sissy. One day a coworker told me you know Bill really talks down to me and makes me feel stupid, I assured him he wasn't and told him Bill feels he's like a teacher since he's been here for 10 years. After that nearly all my co-workers except for one started talking about the favoritism Bill was getting, I was actually happy since I thought it was just me who felt that way. As time went on all my co-workers began to murmur about the special treatment Bill received. I had actually trained Bill in several areas and watched him cut his teeth in the trade, he still needs to cover some ground but he's been sheltered from the real world in our trade by my supervisor. Nearly 5 years later I was so full of resentment I talked to my Boss and pinned him down, I asked him to man up and be honest with me after a heated discussion, he agreed. I said I'm going to ask you a "yes or "no" question, don't beat around the bush, don't make excuses just answer yes or no, he said Ok. I asked him do you favor Bill, yes or no. He said yeah I guess I do, when I asked him why he avoided the question at that point I let it go. I told him he needed to be fair and he said he was going to do something about it. He never did. I had a straw that broke the Camels back day with Bill recently and laid it all on the line, actually I blew up and completely unloaded on him. The only thing I'm disappointed about is I lost control. Everything I said was the truth and it really effected him in a hard way. Bill and my supervisor were so blind and ignorant to what they were doing I couldn't believe it. My co-workers asked me what I had said to Bill because he wasn't coming off the same way as before, Bill had actually called around and asked if he had offended anyone and if he did he was sorry. I had pointed out in my rage that they were so blind they didn't realize that all the guys were making up nick names for the two of them and there were being ridiculed in a humorous way. I guess I got through because my supervisor called around to a few of the guys and they told him the truth. I found out my supervisor and Bill Duck hunt and fish together often. I also found out we are having lay offs and I'm first on the list according to my supervisor. I already have another job lined up and will be handing in my resignation, sometimes you just have to move on and look for the best. So I guess duck hunting and fishing will get you ahead..... not the truth or job knowledge!


Response from Carl: Thanks Richard. The good news for you is that you have another job lined up which will hopefully be in a better work environment that the one you're planning on leaving. Good luck!

Carl