One of the guards "forgot" to pick up a radio today so, when I had a job for him to do, he was conveniently uncontactable. When he finally turned up he had no idea where I was trying to direct him to, despite the fact that he has been working in that building for about 2 years. In the end I gave up and went and did the job myself, which took 2 minutes. I then had cause to ask him to another job and he only did half of it, again because he didn't know where something was. I got frustrated with him and told him so.
He then started shouting at me, telling me that I was making his life stressful; I was being unfair to him; that he doesn't need to be there as he's spent £40,000 on education and he will be leaving soon to be a lawyer; That I shouldn't treat him like he is stupid; That he could do my job easily, but he isn't out to steal it from me (as if);
I tried once more to explain to him that his main problem is communication, that he doesn't listen fully to instructions, but just hears what he expects to hear. I also pointed out that he should have asked if he didn't understand the instructions that I'd given him. And finally, and for about the 50th time, I told him that he needs to give short, concise answers to questions. For example, I asked if he had opened all the doors (for the second job). His reply went something like:
"Boss, I left here and went up to the 7th floor, as you asked, and I came out of the lifts and opened both sets of doors there that I found."
"So, did you open the doors in the cores?"
"Boss, I went up to the 7th floor and I came out of the lifts and opened the 2 sets of doors that are there. That's what you asked me to do!"
"It wasn't all I asked you to do and so, the simple answer is "NO""
It was a tense atmosphere for the next 10 hours.
About an hour before the end of the shift I got a text from my sister to tell me that she had just read in her local paper that our uncle had died 10 days ago. We are not particularly close with this part of the family, but had reestablished contact just over 2 years ago after no contact at all for almost a decade. My uncle was 75, and was our oldest relative, but it is always a shock when you hear these things. On top of that, because we hadn't been told about it, I am not sure what would be expected of us in the way of condolences or attendance. I don't have any contact numbers for them, in fact Facebook is the only way I have of contacting them and I don't think that is a great environment for enquiries and condolences. So, I'm not sure what I should be doing.
For the last hour of work I think I was in a sort of shock and despite not being close to him I still had a little weep when I got home.
Goodbye Uncle Peter
I am now sat at home, all alone, watching the Eurovision Song Contest, wishing I had someone to snuggle up to on the sofa and take the piss out of each entry while gorging myself on junk food and snacks. I'll just have to do that all alone, just for a change.
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