“Then I’d be free at last, free at last
Great God Almighty I’d be free at last”
And away he goes! My husband “R” has finally, finally, finally been released to go to his new and very exciting position at work! A manager at work has done everything in his power to hold R back for *years.* But finally, R is free!
R runs a mail inserting machine like no other person. He can get the numbers like no one else. He can run machines that hardly anyone else can run. The manager in question (not even really his boss!) did everything he could to keep R from advancing his career, caring not one teeny tiny itsy bitsy bit that R is a human being and should be allowed a chance to better himself. All this selfish man cared about was himself and his numbers for the his department.
R has gone on many interviews to try and move to another position in the company and this manager stopped him. We only suspected it was him for years, but then bit by bit we got proof. But there was nothing we could do. Technically a manager is allowed to keep someone in his department if he believes it would harm his department to do lose that person. But what about the moral side of that? Not to speak of Karma?
But the branch of the company we work for has suddenly gotten TONS more business (the reason for my f*cked up back) and they need quite a few more technicians that can fix the machines to keep them in running order and producing those numbers the company needs so badly.
And as I have mentioned many times through the years, R is “The Machine Whisperer,” and that is the reason he could produce those numbers on whichever machine he worked on.
So he interviewed for one of those technician positions…and he got it!
NOW HERE’S THE THING!
R does not have a degree or anything. No one in the company, or at least the KC branch, has ever ever been promoted to a tech from within. They always hire without. They interviewed R basically because they had to. It is company procedure that when a new position opens, they have to post it and let anyone interview for it.
They tried to make it tough. First he had to pass a written test. And R sailed through it (to their shock). Then they had him take machine apart, clean it, and put it back together (he’d never done that to a machine like that). And he did it! With flying colors! Then he interviewed with the BIG boss of the mechanics/technicians department and R blew the man away. And that man let the HEADS of the company know that he wanted R!
See, one of the biggest problems is that when they hire from without, these men come in with no real knowledge of our equipment, especially when we’ve altered and changed the machines with trial and error to make them better. And these new employees don’t know the company’s ways. But R knows so much already, because with his help, he was actually one of the people that helped the top techs make those alterations that made our machines work better in the first place. Better than the manufacturer intended!
Can you tell I am proud of R? Bragging about him a bit here?
Okay…so he gets the job. And the manager of the mail inserting department somehow delayed R from taking the new position for weeks! And that was a lot of money R was losing. The job comes with a considerable raise. And all the overtime R is willing to work (which of course means time and a half and even double time). But finally that SOB couldn’t delay R anymore.
That selfsame man did not show up for R’s congratulations party last week at work!
But now, finally, R is off to work! He’s there now in the time I’ve typed all of this. And Noah and I are so excited for him. So proud. The grind and the chains R wore under that man really was wearing R down. I won’t go into R’s personal business, but it was bad. Really bad. His moral was so down. It was terrible.
But now R is free!
The scheduling is going to be difficult on the The Three Bears. He will work every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from six in the evening until six in the morning plus every other Wednesday night.
So does it make any sense that I am bouncing with joy for R…and a little depressed at the same time?
Most of all I am just proud and excited. He is going to be so much happier. He will be so challenged, and he is at his best when challenged. He’ll be doing something different all the time. He will truly be able to be…The Machine Whisperer! And a happier R will be a happier Three Bears.
And he won’t be on nights forever. They are going to be opening more day time positions. I think this is his training and trial, you know? It is usually slower at nights, so he can learn the TONS he is going to have to learn at nights and will be ready for ANYthing when he goes to days…whenever that is.
Good luck my husband, my heart and foundation!
I love you and am so so so so proud!
