transferred

In a followup to my post of the 21st, I showed up for work yesterday and after a couple hours of doing basically nothing (I kept myself occupied canvassing the aisles, pulling forward product from the top shelf, so as to make it more accessible) I am informed by my manager my presence was desired in the HR office.  Apparently, from what they told him, the fulfillment center warehouse, from whence we receive shipments twice a day, was in dire need of help.  The HR manager wished to talk with me about filling some time over to help.

Dutifully I meander outside to the HR office, though this woman and I have not seen eye to eye on anything since her criticism of my attire and her utter incompetence - or negligence, perhaps - in helping the very employees she should have been helping the start.

Nevertheless, I wander into the office as requested, and there sits one of the assistant directors (perhaps the only "assistant" director) to address me.  While I also hold issues with this man for his vacuous promises of help, I think he is an honest broker of his words and intent, as he never has conveyed, or even attempted to convey, the harsh, stoic realty of a boss who holds your employment in the grasp of his clutched fist.  I think, instead, he is simply another simple man who has no vision as to how to resolve issues and how to fix problems.  He has no solutions.  He merely shows up for work and performs the same tasks as the day before.

I sit down, and I proceed to learn the deception the HR manager parlayed onto my manager, as this was not a meeting for asking me to fill hours over at the fulfillment center warehouse.  This was a reassignment.  This was a transfer.  This was a declarative statement of dismay over my continued presence that they did not want me there.

It was an odd feeling.  I have been fired from jobs before; but this was the first time I was dismissed from my position without actually losing my job, which is a good thing, though the surreal nature is retained because the fulfillment center warehouse, where I will be making an appearance in a few hours from now, I applied for a position there a couple of weeks earlier - and they did not want me either.  So I am working for a company that will not fire me, but also does not want me.

Why this is, I don't know.  It was comical, trying to listen to what the assistant director was saying, as to the reasons for this transfer; and it all boiled down, of course, to the dress code.  The HR manager has been in a huff for weeks now because I refused to acquiesce to her demands I wear different pants than I had been wearing for the past year and nine months.  No other manager ever said thing one to me about it - not even the assistant director before whom I sat, at any juncture, when I would see me on the store room's dilapidated floor.  It was only an issue to her.

For myself, I had no problem with any silly dress code this place business wished to inflict upon its employees.  I loathed the black shoes I was required to cover my feet in.  I despised with distaste the cheap piece of frippery they called a shirt.  Yet I wore them both everyday I showed up for work.  I took a stand against the pants because I found ridiculous for her to insist upon this silliness, while ignoring the plethora of problems the store faced.

Did any of this nonsense come about because of my letter to the CEO.  I cannot say, though I would lean towards not.  These people, who inherit corporations already built, they don't have the same entrepreneurial spirit the founders used to build them in the first place, thus they remain clueless as to what made the business successful from the start.  When a business takes care of its employees, its employees will take care of the customers, and the customers will take care of the business.  Sadly, the people in charge these days don't see it.