I feel ill.
I have pains in my belly, and my head aches. All I want to do is sleep....
This is - I believe - largely down to work yesterday. Which was rediculas!
Having not come home from work on wednesday until gone 7.45pm, I was up at 5am yesterday to start work at 6am. Driving to Leeds, Bradford & Halifax to visit various sites, deliver stock, and most importantly, have a meeting with one of our customers at 10am in Bradford to resolve a problem with a member of staff who is clearly bunking off half her shift every day.
On Wednesday my boss was trying not to have me go. For one, I should be in the office, finishing off my training in there, getting this induction (which I am still waiting for after over a month) and visiting my own sites in the Lancaster area. Head of Ops (my head of dept: HoO) insitied that I did go to Yorkshire becasue if this meeting in Bradford. The boss suggested the W. Yorks site visitor who was already up there (having just come back from some time off) had the meeting instead, but HoO insisted that I go as she didn't want to have to change who the meeting was with....
I wasn't too fussed. I had planned on going up anyway, and as I was having to go in my own car this week (no vans available) it meant I could call in on some of the trickier sites, where there's no where to park a van. As I'd not been given any stock the last few weeks it seemed pointless me having a van anyway, aside from the mileage.
Of cause, this time there IS stock to take... and my poor little micra is loaded to the roof top with boxes to take to Yorkishire, and some to take to Accrington in the evening (a site I have been trying to save for the last two weeks, which is also only 10 mins away from Mums, so I can call in on her to have my long afternoon break).
So my day is planned out thus:
But no.... my day's not allowed to run like that. The way it was worked for the last two weeks without a problem.
First off, when I get into the car in the morning, there is an awful stink. Two bottles of hard surface spray, and two bottles of toilet cleaner, had not been fastened properly by what ever idiot was supposed to pack the orders up. They had emptied themselves all over my car, making a mess of my car seats, and ruining the cardboard boxes that they and the other stock items where in. Rendering them useless, and forcing me to drive in fumes all day.
When I get to my second appoinment I haul out 3 packets of toilet paper. Big ones. You know, the rolls that go in the public toilets, bigger than your head. Each packet has 8 of these buggers in, and I've got 3 packets. I trapes them across the car park, into the building, through reception and over to the stock room, ask the customer to sign for the delivery, and get told "Oh no, we're not having those. They're the wrong ones! We have standard sized rolls. And only 2 left too!" So not only fo I have to haul them all the way back to my car, and have them take up room, weigh me down all day etc, the customer is peeved that there staff wont be able to wipe their butts after about lunch time today! Plus, some of the order was missing. Which went down equally well!
3rd appointment is this meeting. As I arrive my phone starts going.... good timing. Everyone knows where I am and what I'm doing...! So I say I have to call them back and hung up. Doesn't stop people calling though, so I turn it off when I see the customer I am meeting with etting more and more cross that my phone keeps ringing when she's trying to talk to me!
After this I call them back, and I am asked why I haven't done X, Y and Z about a site I visited last wednesday. The result of which being there was no clean this week. I pointed out that I had only been asked to do A, B and C, and that I had done them. If I had been asked to the do the rest - and trained in doing it - I would have done. This I had to explain to the boss. It was HoO who had not given me the full instructions....
Then I'm back off to Leeds, after taking a wrong turn and missing Ravens' and Dews'. I'd have to get them on the way back (not a problem, and prob quicker anyway). I'm told I have to drop off one bottle of spray to clean a mucky chair, and there I am there I MUST speak to the contact customer. So I park up and set off.
And that's when the phone starts going again. I have to forget about Accrington that evening, and go to Preston instead, the deal being if I do that, I get Friday morning off. Problem with that is: I am working Friday morning because (I am told) no one else can do that job. I am going to Accrington with stock they asked for 3 weeks ago, bacuase they are a cleaner down and need me, and because it is my last chance to make sure the site is back up to standard before the contact customer comes back. If he's not happy, we lose the contract.
I am told that doesn't matter. They have a cover cleaner for Fri (funny that!) and that myself and some other cleaners will be in Accrington Friday afternoon to do a blitz clean, and have a meeting with staff. Problem with THAT is that on a Friday they close at 1pm. If we're meeting at OUR office at 12, there is no way we'd get there in time to see anyone!
I have to be in Prestion for 4pm. Which means I can forget about lunch! But that's 'okay' because I get to finish an hour earlier.... WHAT???? SO what I get to finish earlier and have friday morning off.... I need to eat! No one should be expected to work 12 hours with NO FOOD!
I storm off to this site in Leeds to drop off this spray and sit waiting for the contact customer to be available so I can speak to her. She doesn't want to talk to me... she has no problems, no questions, no issues. She is, however, busy and would like me to get out of her hair. So I leave. What, precisley, was it I was supposed to be meeting her for? No one told me I had to pass a message on, and she had nothing to say to me. The boss had suggested mailing her the spray. HoO said no, I had to go. Waist of bloody time! And money!
By the time I'm back at the car I feel sick. My head hurts, my belly is cramping (which is should not be doing under ANY circumstances right now!) and I'm sick. The car is baking hot inside the fumes from the spilt cleaning fluids are making my worse.
By the time I have made my last drop off, over in Ravensthorp, I know I can't do any more. I'm scared of crashing the car already, and call the office to tell them about how I feel phsyically, and that I am genuinly scared. Could HoO please call me back as not only can I not do as she's insisted, I can't even do any more of what I was going to do.
Suprisingly, she didn't. Another staff member did, and I ran through my health issues with him (some of which I can post here just yet, but will do at a later date) and explained that I was going to my mum's (as she was closer than home) and would be seeing my health professionals if I didn't feel any better by morning.
When I finally did come home yesterday and tell Yorkie, he was not impressed. The night before we'd already had heated words about my job. He's being saying for a while that they are taking advantage of me, not paying me enough for the work and hours that I do, and that I need to get it sorted. I admit that yesterday I really did wish that I had just stuck to cleaning. He asked me why I didn't take this to Human Resources for advice.
But HR and HoO are the SAME PERSON!
The cramping has gone now. I'm still feeling sick and uncomforatble, and don't want to move much. The headaches are coming and going, and I feel like crap. I'll take some advice, and speak to work, and see if we can get some balance back into this job before I am forced into not keeping it, either by them, or by my own health.
I have pains in my belly, and my head aches. All I want to do is sleep....
This is - I believe - largely down to work yesterday. Which was rediculas!
Having not come home from work on wednesday until gone 7.45pm, I was up at 5am yesterday to start work at 6am. Driving to Leeds, Bradford & Halifax to visit various sites, deliver stock, and most importantly, have a meeting with one of our customers at 10am in Bradford to resolve a problem with a member of staff who is clearly bunking off half her shift every day.
On Wednesday my boss was trying not to have me go. For one, I should be in the office, finishing off my training in there, getting this induction (which I am still waiting for after over a month) and visiting my own sites in the Lancaster area. Head of Ops (my head of dept: HoO) insitied that I did go to Yorkshire becasue if this meeting in Bradford. The boss suggested the W. Yorks site visitor who was already up there (having just come back from some time off) had the meeting instead, but HoO insisted that I go as she didn't want to have to change who the meeting was with....
I wasn't too fussed. I had planned on going up anyway, and as I was having to go in my own car this week (no vans available) it meant I could call in on some of the trickier sites, where there's no where to park a van. As I'd not been given any stock the last few weeks it seemed pointless me having a van anyway, aside from the mileage.
Of cause, this time there IS stock to take... and my poor little micra is loaded to the roof top with boxes to take to Yorkishire, and some to take to Accrington in the evening (a site I have been trying to save for the last two weeks, which is also only 10 mins away from Mums, so I can call in on her to have my long afternoon break).
So my day is planned out thus:
- 6am Set off
- 8am be at Halifax for stock and site check.
- 9am be in Leeds for one site
- 10am Bradford for the meeting
- 11am Ravensthorp / Dewsbury
- 1pmpm Leeds for remaining 2 sites
- 2pm leave Leeds for Burnley
- 3.30pm arrive at Mums for late lunch
- 4.30pm go to Accrington with stock / site visit / assist in clean or induct new cleaners if sent
- 7pm finish at Accrington
- 8pm arrive home
But no.... my day's not allowed to run like that. The way it was worked for the last two weeks without a problem.
First off, when I get into the car in the morning, there is an awful stink. Two bottles of hard surface spray, and two bottles of toilet cleaner, had not been fastened properly by what ever idiot was supposed to pack the orders up. They had emptied themselves all over my car, making a mess of my car seats, and ruining the cardboard boxes that they and the other stock items where in. Rendering them useless, and forcing me to drive in fumes all day.
When I get to my second appoinment I haul out 3 packets of toilet paper. Big ones. You know, the rolls that go in the public toilets, bigger than your head. Each packet has 8 of these buggers in, and I've got 3 packets. I trapes them across the car park, into the building, through reception and over to the stock room, ask the customer to sign for the delivery, and get told "Oh no, we're not having those. They're the wrong ones! We have standard sized rolls. And only 2 left too!" So not only fo I have to haul them all the way back to my car, and have them take up room, weigh me down all day etc, the customer is peeved that there staff wont be able to wipe their butts after about lunch time today! Plus, some of the order was missing. Which went down equally well!
3rd appointment is this meeting. As I arrive my phone starts going.... good timing. Everyone knows where I am and what I'm doing...! So I say I have to call them back and hung up. Doesn't stop people calling though, so I turn it off when I see the customer I am meeting with etting more and more cross that my phone keeps ringing when she's trying to talk to me!
After this I call them back, and I am asked why I haven't done X, Y and Z about a site I visited last wednesday. The result of which being there was no clean this week. I pointed out that I had only been asked to do A, B and C, and that I had done them. If I had been asked to the do the rest - and trained in doing it - I would have done. This I had to explain to the boss. It was HoO who had not given me the full instructions....
Then I'm back off to Leeds, after taking a wrong turn and missing Ravens' and Dews'. I'd have to get them on the way back (not a problem, and prob quicker anyway). I'm told I have to drop off one bottle of spray to clean a mucky chair, and there I am there I MUST speak to the contact customer. So I park up and set off.
And that's when the phone starts going again. I have to forget about Accrington that evening, and go to Preston instead, the deal being if I do that, I get Friday morning off. Problem with that is: I am working Friday morning because (I am told) no one else can do that job. I am going to Accrington with stock they asked for 3 weeks ago, bacuase they are a cleaner down and need me, and because it is my last chance to make sure the site is back up to standard before the contact customer comes back. If he's not happy, we lose the contract.
I am told that doesn't matter. They have a cover cleaner for Fri (funny that!) and that myself and some other cleaners will be in Accrington Friday afternoon to do a blitz clean, and have a meeting with staff. Problem with THAT is that on a Friday they close at 1pm. If we're meeting at OUR office at 12, there is no way we'd get there in time to see anyone!
I have to be in Prestion for 4pm. Which means I can forget about lunch! But that's 'okay' because I get to finish an hour earlier.... WHAT???? SO what I get to finish earlier and have friday morning off.... I need to eat! No one should be expected to work 12 hours with NO FOOD!
I storm off to this site in Leeds to drop off this spray and sit waiting for the contact customer to be available so I can speak to her. She doesn't want to talk to me... she has no problems, no questions, no issues. She is, however, busy and would like me to get out of her hair. So I leave. What, precisley, was it I was supposed to be meeting her for? No one told me I had to pass a message on, and she had nothing to say to me. The boss had suggested mailing her the spray. HoO said no, I had to go. Waist of bloody time! And money!
By the time I'm back at the car I feel sick. My head hurts, my belly is cramping (which is should not be doing under ANY circumstances right now!) and I'm sick. The car is baking hot inside the fumes from the spilt cleaning fluids are making my worse.
By the time I have made my last drop off, over in Ravensthorp, I know I can't do any more. I'm scared of crashing the car already, and call the office to tell them about how I feel phsyically, and that I am genuinly scared. Could HoO please call me back as not only can I not do as she's insisted, I can't even do any more of what I was going to do.
Suprisingly, she didn't. Another staff member did, and I ran through my health issues with him (some of which I can post here just yet, but will do at a later date) and explained that I was going to my mum's (as she was closer than home) and would be seeing my health professionals if I didn't feel any better by morning.
When I finally did come home yesterday and tell Yorkie, he was not impressed. The night before we'd already had heated words about my job. He's being saying for a while that they are taking advantage of me, not paying me enough for the work and hours that I do, and that I need to get it sorted. I admit that yesterday I really did wish that I had just stuck to cleaning. He asked me why I didn't take this to Human Resources for advice.
But HR and HoO are the SAME PERSON!
The cramping has gone now. I'm still feeling sick and uncomforatble, and don't want to move much. The headaches are coming and going, and I feel like crap. I'll take some advice, and speak to work, and see if we can get some balance back into this job before I am forced into not keeping it, either by them, or by my own health.
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