Working Challenges

I've been working at my current place of employment for over two years now and although there have been some challenges to work though; overall I'd say it's been a good place to work. These days things are a bit more challenging as I have to deal with a co-worker that I converse very little with and it appears he doesn't like me. I try not to let it bother me because my intention was not to get worked up about it. In fact, I've had to deal with this individual back when I worked there as a summer student and although he treated me differently then; there was still something about him that I didn't care much for. He acts like one of those tough athletic-type of persons; namely jocks. This is a great description for him because he was a college football player and he seems to have lived with this mentality to this present day. But I for one certainly do not praise the ground he walks on as some of my co-workers do.

This was an individual I wrote about before in my old Word Press blog; someone that was returning to our crew and a return I was not looking forward to in the least. He had an ongoing feud with my dad about something that was blown completely out of proportion and with which he gave my dad the silent treatment for close to three years. During that time, he treated me as if I was the one to say bad stuff about him. I never did write about how that experience went as he came onto the crew; but I sure didn't enjoy it. After a few months, he was gone and I was jumping for joy. There was one time when he "attempted" to show me a job procedure but never exactly took me through the steps and basically did the job all to himself. But I watched very closely and know how to do it quite easily to this day. But what if I weren't paying attention and missed certain steps? I certainly wasn't going to ask him because he's not the most approachable person in the world. He's one of those kinds of people that like to retain information and keep it all to himself and not pass along some of these tricks to new people below him.

I was in the midst of training as a control room operator at the time he came on the crew. We were in the process of shutting down a major grinding line in the mill and he was preparing to dump a sump. He has a very rough, scratchy, and hoarse voice due to the years of smoking he's done, so hearing him on the radio is very difficult. He also likes to mumble and trail off on his conversation. I swear he told me to shut down the pump to this sump; which I did. Well needless to say, he wanted the pump to stay running; otherwise when it's down and you try draining a sump, you get doused with water; to which he did. Needless to say, he let me know about it later that day as he pointed a finger at me and raised his voice for what I did. I was ticked off and waved him off in disgust. I've kept that incident with me to this day and consider it one of my small victories against his oppression. Not that it was my intention to get him wet under that sump because that was definitely not my plan. But I still am proud for that as I continue to deal with this moron to this day. And like I said, he was gone after only two months, thanks in part to a feud he developed with my boss.

My dad hasn't had a real conversation with this guy for close to three years and he finally got fed up. He's tried to make small talk with him but kept getting pushed away. The two has since made ammends, but which my dad made the real effort to resolve things. He is so bull-headed and arrogant that he would've not spoken to my dad until my dad eventually retired. My dad was the one to make the effort to resolve this ongoing feud. My dad even brought up the fact that he wasn't speaking to me and that I had no part in what took place between those two. He gave the excuse that I'm too quiet, which is why he never tried talking to me; which I find utterly rediculous to this day. Nobody else on my crew seems to have that trouble with me!

With the retirement of our full-time plant operator on our crew, someone needed to come in and replace her. I posted for the job, along with a few others. He was the one to get the job. If he wouldn't have accepted it, then it would've came to me. I was this close to having that operators job. And no, I am not resentful over that because I am still pretty new to the plant and there's still things I need to learn. I still enjoy being on the floor and helping out instead of being confined to the control room all of the time. But still, to lose out to him is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow.

Lately it has become somewhat frustrating at how he treats me differently over the others on the crew. To the others, he makes jokes and talks to them like they're his best friends. Heck, I sit with him in the control room for at least 20 minutes during our breaks and he makes no effort at trying to talk to me. I've tried making small talk to which he usually just replies "yep." Some breaks I don't even go in the control room with him because he doesn't talk; at least out in the lunch room there are people willing to talk to me. And it's not because he's a shy person, because he's anything but. He's one of the loudest and most outgoing persons you'll meet. In fact, he really doesn't care about a lot of things, namely what people think of him. I struggle trying to think of things to talk to him about. I've made many efforts since he's joined the crew to bring up a variety of things but to no avail. I've reached the point where I'm not even going to bother anymore. Whenever he has to leave the control room for a cigarette break or to check something on the floor, he doesn't ask me to sit in the control room for him; but he asks our other crew APO who has less seniority to me and who isn't even trained in the control room yet to watch things. This is really a slap in the face to me. Who the heck fills-in for him when he's gone? Who is the one that has 500+ hours in the control room already? I rarely ever make a mistake when I'm the control room operator. Yet there are a lot of times when he'll look to find someone else because I am not one of his pets. It really pisses me off and it's rare for me to get so frustrated at something like this. Lately it seems to be eating at me more and I just don't really know what to do. Last night, he had a conversation with someone over the radio that required knowledge of a job that doesn't need to be performed very often. I am sitting right next to him when he replies, "well, I'll see if someone up here knows how to do it." He never even considered that I could do it. There are many things out there that he thinks I don't know how to do. He acts as if I'm an idiot. I go to every call where there's significant trouble and I've been witness to many things in my two plus years on the job. I've seen a lot of different things happen and I should know what to do after awhile. I'm pretty much at a loss at what I can do anymore.

Some of you reading this are probably saying, "why don't you just talk to him." Well, it's not that easy of a task for me. I'm one of those kinds of people that would rather just let things work themselves out and stay in the background. It's not that he's abusive or anything like that but he makes me feel under-appreciated. I know I shouldn't be letting him get to me like this because it's just work. I'm not there to make friends. But I do like to get along with all of my co-workers. I have a job that's pretty important and I'd like to feel important. I guess this blog entry is one to vent because the last week or so, I've let things get so bottled up inside. I admitted to a co-worker of mine last night that I never really cared much for this person; and this co-worker saw that I didn't stay as long in the control room like I did with our former control room operator. Things changed when she retired and I have tried to make conversation with this individual. But it's not easy, especially when all he seems to like to talk about are dirty topics and bashing the company (pretty convenient since he's a union guy - and no, I am not anti-union by any means).

So that is what I am putting up with these days at work. I think it felt pretty good to get that off my chest as I feel a little better about things. What I am going to do is continue going to work and try not to think about him and his behavior. If he wants things to change; he is going to have to make a better effort because I've done all that I can. I am just going to go about my business and take each day at work one day at a time.