So, I've had this manager position at the cab company for a couple of months now. I've really enjoyed the job for the most part, however there is one part of the job that leaves a real bad taste in my mouth... Firing employees.
I've had to let 7 people go so far. One for not grasping the job in a reasonable time, one got busted jacking money out a co-worker's purse, 3 for attendance issues. I even had one that was caught sniffing used tampons on the ladies room.
But there was one guy that I had all I could do not to send away on a stretcher. I actually didn't fire this guy. His stupidity got him in trouble with my supervisor, at the time.
It was really my first time having to deal with someone like him. Just GOOGLE paranoid and his picture will be on the first result. I mean, every day this dude came to work, he thought someone was out to get him. At first, I found it kind of funny, but after a while, it just got painfully old.
Well, now our company has been named in a lawsuit by this guy. While I don't know the particulars of the suit, I think it has something to with wrongful termination. I have heard through the grapevine, however, that Lori and I are mentioned by name. He claims that because of this website, I am a racist.
Now I didn't come out of hibernation from this blog to debate whether or not I'm a racist. I've locked horns with a couple of black folks, over the last year or so, that were unable to distinguish the difference between a redneck and a racist. But this guy that looks like a billy goat with a fishing lure stuck in his lip is as white as a flour tortilla.
Now, I've never been the type to rely on character witnesses, but I challenge anybody to talk to my staff, of which only a handful are Caucasian, if this self proclaimed redneck has a racist bone in his body.
Problem is, I just don't have a lot of faith in the legal system. Frivolous lawsuits still plug the courts and nobody seems to have the seeds to do anything about it. I'm not going to breath easy until this thing is dismissed...
...or when the asylum finally realizes that their star patient is missing.
Before you go any further, read this...
Dictionary.com defines a redneck as:
1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
It goes on to say that redneck is A slang term, usually for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and a religious fundamentalist. This term is generally considered offensive. It originated in reference to agricultural workers, alluding to how the back of a person's neck will be burned by the sun if he works long hours in the fields.
While I can't say all that fits me to a tee, a lot of it is pretty damn close.
You see, I lost both my parents before I turned 12 years old. I bounced around in a couple of foster homes before moving in with my uncle when I tuned 15. By age 17, I was on my own. I dropped out of school half way through 11th grade so I could go to work full time. Three months after my 18th birthday, I got behind the wheel of a cab for the first time.
I've learned more about life in 28 years in a hack than any philosopher ever could know. I've had multi-million dollar businessmen, celebrities and pro athletes as well as crack whores, drug dealers and murderers in my cab. I refuse to be an airport jockey or one of those guys that only stages at the hotels, so unfortunately, I have to deal with more of the bottom feeders of life than I do the upper crust.
It is the dealings that I've had the bad apples that has made me what I am today...
The Redneck Cabbie.
You see, to escape the madness of the city streets, my mind drifts off (not while I'm driving) to a quiet country town. A place where everyone knows everyone, and a man's handshake is as binding a contract as a person needs. A place where friends gather to down a couple of cold ones and listen to music that you can actually understand the words.
A place where young men don't walk around with their pants falling down over their ass, and young ladies don't have to dress like sluts to draw a man's attention.
I think you get the picture. I know, boring as whale shit to most city folks. I'd be living in a town just like that if it weren't for the fact that there's just not much demand for my line of work in most small towns.
This blog will reflect these feelings. If I seem a little bitter now and then, its just because that wonderful little town is nowhere in my near future, and because the life expectancy of someone in my line of work doesn't extend much past retirement age, all I can do is dream about it.
1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
It goes on to say that redneck is A slang term, usually for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and a religious fundamentalist. This term is generally considered offensive. It originated in reference to agricultural workers, alluding to how the back of a person's neck will be burned by the sun if he works long hours in the fields.
While I can't say all that fits me to a tee, a lot of it is pretty damn close.
You see, I lost both my parents before I turned 12 years old. I bounced around in a couple of foster homes before moving in with my uncle when I tuned 15. By age 17, I was on my own. I dropped out of school half way through 11th grade so I could go to work full time. Three months after my 18th birthday, I got behind the wheel of a cab for the first time.
I've learned more about life in 28 years in a hack than any philosopher ever could know. I've had multi-million dollar businessmen, celebrities and pro athletes as well as crack whores, drug dealers and murderers in my cab. I refuse to be an airport jockey or one of those guys that only stages at the hotels, so unfortunately, I have to deal with more of the bottom feeders of life than I do the upper crust.
It is the dealings that I've had the bad apples that has made me what I am today...
The Redneck Cabbie.
You see, to escape the madness of the city streets, my mind drifts off (not while I'm driving) to a quiet country town. A place where everyone knows everyone, and a man's handshake is as binding a contract as a person needs. A place where friends gather to down a couple of cold ones and listen to music that you can actually understand the words.
A place where young men don't walk around with their pants falling down over their ass, and young ladies don't have to dress like sluts to draw a man's attention.
I think you get the picture. I know, boring as whale shit to most city folks. I'd be living in a town just like that if it weren't for the fact that there's just not much demand for my line of work in most small towns.
This blog will reflect these feelings. If I seem a little bitter now and then, its just because that wonderful little town is nowhere in my near future, and because the life expectancy of someone in my line of work doesn't extend much past retirement age, all I can do is dream about it.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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