I got angry today. Angrier than I’ve been in a very long time.
I work as a security guard at a casino. We had it today. The mandatory all staff meeting at work. We’ve had many issues at work lately. The meeting was actually pushed up to the 1st when it was originally scheduled for the 19th. Everyone was scared. Our boss so far hasn’t been a good one. She refuses accountability for anything and blames it all on us. She’s fired no small number of my coworkers. To call the workplace negative is an understatement.
The boss started the meeting by explaining that the original meeting had many things planned for it, but all of that was going to be put aside for this particular meeting where we had one objective. Getting to the bottom of all these problems we’ve had on the floor. You see we all had an issue with the lack of communication. Everyone except for me because I communicated a lot. She did most of the talking trying her best to offer the floor to anyone who wanted to speak up. Surprise. No one wanted to. Eventually we got to the point where several of us volunteered to speak to her or management one on one sometime after the meeting if they weren’t comfortable talking about it here.
The seemingly pointless meeting was coming to close and I decided to stand up and say my piece. You all won’t have the whole story, but basically but I went on a long tirade about how her and management were lacking accountability and they need to be a lot more responsible in how they treat us. To the point I was loud and aggressive. To anyone who has heard me, a few of you here have, I have an extraordinarily deep voice that is very ‘felt’ by people when they encounter it. So I try to not get like that, it scares people, but I was upset.
She shrank back not knowing what to say, but she eventually asked if there anything she could have done to help me feel like we’re cared about and I told her she’s never once said sorry for the way she treated me and others. I also said, “Maybe it’s because you feel like there’s nothing to apologize for.” Before all this I’ve been literally the only one willing to bridge the gap between us employees and management. As security I’m paid to be the eyes of the casino so I was reporting in regularly about issues I saw. I am less than satisfied with how they managed me and anyone else who tried to talk before me. She didn’t apologize to me surprising no one. She seemed confused more than anything. So I fired off a warning, I said “I’m happy to see my coworkers willing to communicate with all of you. That’s a good thing, but I hope you handle them better than you did me.” She said she hopes so too and the meeting was closed as we had to open the casino.
I didn’t get to talk with everyone after that as I had to go home, I work night shift, but my coworkers hugged me and thanked me for being the one to stand up for us. They said my speech was well said. Telling me I have balls to do what I did. Honestly I’m at my wits end with all the BS that goes on with this job and I was fully prepared to be fired then and there. I still don’t care if I am, but now everyone knows. Every last employee in that building was there and they had no trouble hearing what I had to say. So if my boss so much as tries to make an example out of me, she better pray the rest of us don’t make an example out of her. It is so bad that there’s at least 10 of us I can count that are ready to leave and currently looking for other jobs. Who just like me, wouldn’t care if they were suddenly fired. Our turnover rate here is very high. We’ll see what happens. I’m not expecting much, but if there’s anything that was going to wake them up, it was this.
I really do hope they treat my coworkers better. I care about them and it’s been no easy thing having them all cry to me about mismanagement and how poorly we’re being treated. My boss and management probably won’t change, but at least now they’re out of excuses. If they mess up this badly again, everyone can point to what happened at this meeting and know better. Everyone understands. Absolutely no one has to question my anger or why these things are happening. That was my goal and it’s been accomplished.
The boss started the meeting by explaining that the original meeting had many things planned for it, but all of that was going to be put aside for this particular meeting where we had one objective. Getting to the bottom of all these problems we’ve had on the floor. You see we all had an issue with the lack of communication. Everyone except for me because I communicated a lot. She did most of the talking trying her best to offer the floor to anyone who wanted to speak up. Surprise. No one wanted to. Eventually we got to the point where several of us volunteered to speak to her or management one on one sometime after the meeting if they weren’t comfortable talking about it here.
The seemingly pointless meeting was coming to close and I decided to stand up and say my piece. You all won’t have the whole story, but basically but I went on a long tirade about how her and management were lacking accountability and they need to be a lot more responsible in how they treat us. To the point I was loud and aggressive. To anyone who has heard me, a few of you here have, I have an extraordinarily deep voice that is very ‘felt’ by people when they encounter it. So I try to not get like that, it scares people, but I was upset.
She shrank back not knowing what to say, but she eventually asked if there anything she could have done to help me feel like we’re cared about and I told her she’s never once said sorry for the way she treated me and others. I also said, “Maybe it’s because you feel like there’s nothing to apologize for.” Before all this I’ve been literally the only one willing to bridge the gap between us employees and management. As security I’m paid to be the eyes of the casino so I was reporting in regularly about issues I saw. I am less than satisfied with how they managed me and anyone else who tried to talk before me. She didn’t apologize to me surprising no one. She seemed confused more than anything. So I fired off a warning, I said “I’m happy to see my coworkers willing to communicate with all of you. That’s a good thing, but I hope you handle them better than you did me.” She said she hopes so too and the meeting was closed as we had to open the casino.
I didn’t get to talk with everyone after that as I had to go home, I work night shift, but my coworkers hugged me and thanked me for being the one to stand up for us. They said my speech was well said. Telling me I have balls to do what I did. Honestly I’m at my wits end with all the BS that goes on with this job and I was fully prepared to be fired then and there. I still don’t care if I am, but now everyone knows. Every last employee in that building was there and they had no trouble hearing what I had to say. So if my boss so much as tries to make an example out of me, she better pray the rest of us don’t make an example out of her. It is so bad that there’s at least 10 of us I can count that are ready to leave and currently looking for other jobs. Who just like me, wouldn’t care if they were suddenly fired. Our turnover rate here is very high. We’ll see what happens. I’m not expecting much, but if there’s anything that was going to wake them up, it was this.
I really do hope they treat my coworkers better. I care about them and it’s been no easy thing having them all cry to me about mismanagement and how poorly we’re being treated. My boss and management probably won’t change, but at least now they’re out of excuses. If they mess up this badly again, everyone can point to what happened at this meeting and know better. Everyone understands. Absolutely no one has to question my anger or why these things are happening. That was my goal and it’s been accomplished.
