Going to have to start paying for lead.

[modified5]

I worked at a dealership for a while and the shop foreman let me take home the lead wheel weights. I have probably about 250-300 ish pounds.
I ended up quitting last week due to many factors, the last straw being that they wanted me to come back after my shoulder surgery and perform light duty work, which was fine, but my Mom ended up in the hospital and I am the only one who can take care of her. She is my younger brothers caregiver herself, he has cp and other issues and can not care for himself at all.
I had asked for the status quo to remain through June to either get her back on her feet or make more permanent arraignments.
Nope, come back tomorrow and scan work orders into the computer.
I told them to pound sand. If they have no consideration for my family, why should I have any for them. I don’t need them to earn a living anyway.
Welcome to the world of big corporations.
My biggest regret is the loss of free lead. [smilie=l:

[buckwheatpaul]

modified5, you are truly a great person who puts family first. Sorry about the loss of the free lead but it will still come back to you for doing the right thing by your family....hope your therapy is working for your shoulder and that your mom and your younger brother improve. Paul

[RogerDat]

Not valuing families is just another way of not valuing the people that work for the business to make it profitable. Working for someone that doesn't value your work might pay some bills in the short term but long term never goes well. One door closes, another opens. Seems to me you closed the door on a bad situation, leaving yourself open to a good situation.

[merlin101]

Sorry about the lead and your mom, but a company hires employees to perform a function that's necessary to it's survival. some people (not accusing you) seem to believe that a corporations reason for being is to provide them with a job and benefits, no so!
It has nothing to do with corporate greed or " they have no consideration for my family, why should I have any for them". It's the bottom line and without a good bottom line no one has a job.
Once again, I hope your mom's fine and you find a better job.

[mac60]

Any man that would put his employer before his family ain't much of a man in my eyes.

[RogerDat]

Was a time and it wasn't that long ago when employers worked as hard at gaining the trust and loyalty of their employees as they did in trying to gain customers. Might be because they knew the employee you invested in was the best way to provide a good customer experience.

Loyalty and consideration of employees by a business equaled loyal employees that considered the needs of their employer and customers as being just as important to them as they were to the company. Now long term employees are simply higher cost employees, and experienced just means older with higher medical costs or the experienced worker is one with parents with medical issues they may need to deal with.

If the CEO and executives get a bonus based on stock prices it serves their interest to cut costs by cutting "expensive" employees, which generally doesn't help the customer service or quality of products produced but is all too common. Big companies a study found the single biggest indicator that there would be large scale layoffs was when the marketable stock options of top management expired. If layoff bumps the stock price up by 5% my option is worth 5% more.

Can't speak to the individuals situation but when my dad was in hospice my boss let me work remotely as much as possible and use small amounts of time off when the situation prevented me from doing a full 8 hours. Concern for my well being directly relates to my concern for doing whatever it takes to meet the businesses needs. Loyalty and caring are the only coin that can purchase loyalty and caring. Of course I learned my work ethic back when the boss made 10x the average worker, not 400x the average workers pay. I think it made us more all on the same team.

[MaryB]

Family Medical Leave Act violation, you might have a valid lawsuit against them.

[JimB..]

Stay in touch with the shop foreman. If he wasn’t your boss I wouldn’t assume that he’s going to cut you off.

You could also go back to your boss and ask him if he’s sure that he’d rather find someone new than give you a few weeks to stabilize the situation at home. This of course assumes that you liked the job. Sure it was a low class move to force you to decide between family and work, but maybe it was just a lapse and he’s normally not a bad boss.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[turtlezx]

marys got it fmla 12 weeks a year off if you qualify but you quit so your SOL

[bangerjim]

Probaby should have had your cooler head make the decision. Knee jerk, PO’d actions are not good anytime/anywhere. You now have no recourse leally because YOU quit - they did not termiate your situation. FMLA can be your friend (if you qualify) as long as your employed there.

But good luk to you and your family. Family comes first. Forget about the guns and lead for a while. Save some money. Get your life in order. You do realize this “casting for guns” thing we do is rather expensive.......and not for the faint of wallet.

God bless.

Bangerjim

[JimB..]

I think that FMLA can apply if you are terminated or forced to quit, just like unemployment. Sounds like maybe he was told “show up or we’ll fire you” and he said “screw ya, I ain’t showing up!” Maybe the words were “well I can’t show up so I gotta quit” but same outcome.

[MrWolf]

^^this. You were forced to leave because of the situation. Apply for FMLA. I would contact their HR department and explain you were forced to quit and explain the situation. See what happens. Can always contact an attorney for advise. Depending on how long there might even qualify for unemployment with a penalty. Good luck

[brass410]

or you could become self employed. just what every business owner want to hear. yeah I sacked him and now he's my competitor just what I need more competition by my own hand!!!

[Hardcast416taylor]

I used to get free weights from my friends car dealership. I finally stopped taking them due to the number of iron and zinc weights in each pail, I`ve got enough lead already to last me till the end. That dealership is indeed in violation of the Family medical leave act and can be taken to either an arbiter or a court and sued. The dealership kinda sounds like a Ford dealership that a friend of mine worked at.Robert

[RogerDat]

If going to pursue FMLA may I suggest attorney first, HR department second. What you state and your choice of words can make a difference. Attorney can advise you on what the FMLA can provide in terms of remedy and any pitfalls or mistakes you should avoid. Not a lot different than not saying "I'm sorry" after an auto accident because it implies accident was your fault. FMLA is legal matter, which even if lawyers are generally a PITA it does fall in their area of expertise.

I get being upset at being put in the position of making a horrible choice, however thoughtful action toward justice generally pays off better than losing ones temper. Except in those situations where the loss of temper can help achieve a desired outcome.

[modified5]

We completely understand what everyone has been saying about fmla and making decisions in anger.
This decision has been a long time coming. The owners of the company are great people and I have nothing bad to say about them. They do get defensive about anything bad said about their management hires, so I really felt like there was no avenue there.
Ever since this management team took over, it has cost me 12k out of my savings to work there. I know, I should have left a long time ago, but I truly enjoyed the people I worked with and I always look on the bright side and was hoping things would get better. I figured knowledge and experience would count for something. Nope. The more certified you become, the more warranty work you get. The more warranty work, the less money you make.
They would give the good paying work to lower payed and less experienced mechanics.
They also took recalls away which is another source of good pay and gave them to only three guys.
They ran off all the good service advisors by constantly changing the pay structure to where they could t make good money. Now they have a bunch of order takers who don’t even know what questions to ask customers due to no good training.
There are so many things wrong with the way they run the dealership that I could go on for days.
My wife and I have been working hard for me to get to a point of leaving anyway. I realize that I cannot fix cars for a living anymore. It is too hard on my body after 25 years.
I also would never go back to this place as long as these two managers are in place.
It was a cold calculated decision, not one made in anger.

[popper]

I had asked for the status quo to remain through June to either get her back on her feet or make more permanent arraignments.
You got snookered! If you have proof of your request, go over their head. Managers know all the tricks, as youv'e found out. Going back to the same place will probably not work for long. Whether you go back or not, go to the state employment office. Had a boss who accused me of fudging time cards, terminated me (actually tried to get me to admit it - to make me furious), tried to get state unemployment blocked (they pay insurance to the state). I appealed and he got had. He'd tried this before also, as I found out later talking to others. Funny, he held back pay checks (claimed he ran out) while his family was on vacation in Hawaii.

[fatelk]

Was a time and it wasn't that long ago when employers worked as hard at gaining the trust and loyalty of their employees as they did in trying to gain customers. Might be because they knew the employee you invested in was the best way to provide a good customer experience.

Loyalty and consideration of employees by a business equaled loyal employees that considered the needs of their employer and customers as being just as important to them as they were to the company. Now long term employees are simply higher cost employees, and experienced just means older with higher medical costs or the experienced worker is one with parents with medical issues they may need to deal with.

If the CEO and executives get a bonus based on stock prices it serves their interest to cut costs by cutting "expensive" employees, which generally doesn't help the customer service or quality of products produced but is all too common. Big companies a study found the single biggest indicator that there would be large scale layoffs was when the marketable stock options of top management expired. If layoff bumps the stock price up by 5% my option is worth 5% more.

Can't speak to the individuals situation but when my dad was in hospice my boss let me work remotely as much as possible and use small amounts of time off when the situation prevented me from doing a full 8 hours. Concern for my well being directly relates to my concern for doing whatever it takes to meet the businesses needs. Loyalty and caring are the only coin that can purchase loyalty and caring. Of course I learned my work ethic back when the boss made 10x the average worker, not 400x the average workers pay. I think it made us more all on the same team.

Well said. The world is a different place now. Loyalty seems to be a thing of the past. My own work went from a company who wanted the best people, with pay and benefits to keep them, to a company that wants the cheapest people who can minimally get the job done. What a disaster, but it probably got some corporate folks a nice bonus and bump up that old ladder, with the millions they saved screwing us all over. I expect it will swing back the other way in a few years when everyone who knows anything has left and it's all falling apart.

[triggerhappy243]

family medical leave act violation, you might have a valid lawsuit against them.

you hit the nail square on the head.

[RogerDat]

Once had a foreman that really knew how to do the specialized work done in the plant. From one end to the other he could tell you how to solve the problem or get the best work for the least hassle. Always appreciated people who did their jobs right without him having to baby sit. Respect was two way street.

Went through several plant managers and then they hired the bottom of the barrel. He couldn't get rid of the foreman because you couldn't hire that knowledge off the street so he just put him "in charge" of one area so the new foreman who he hired would have the original foreman as a resource. Did this through about three foreman. One morning the old foreman came in walked up to the plant managers office and announced he had a taken a new job. "Starting when?" he was asked. His response was to drop the keys on the desk and say "I have time to grab breakfast before I start, bye"

Later he told us that in a manager/presidents meeting the plant manager said any idiot could do the job and they could get temps a lot cheaper. They tried. Temps were known as "runners" as they would slip out to the parking lot on break or lunch and run off. Feeding steel to presses is hard work. Or they were machine "lock outs" because putting them on a press or machine prevented it from doing any work.

For good management they never had to order mandatory overtime. We were a team, stayed until the order could ship. For bad management they lost the top 1/2 of their workforce in a little over a year and basically ran on temps working mandatory overtime.

I guess the point is I was darn glad to leave that job. It was a relief and I was happier to put it behind me. Best part was as the manager reached up to grab my arm in the lunch room and stating he had a right to "escort me physically from the building" and me giving him the evil eye and telling him "we are not friends and touching me will not be tolerated". You would have thought he touched a stove his arm jerked back so fast. I understand he undertook an investigation to find out who were the people that laughed as soon as we got out the door.

[john.k]

I had to take time off when my aged mother got out of hospital,the place was so slack that the office never told the boss that I rang to tell them,and the young guys who wanted my job spread the word that I had a heart attack...When I went back,I was sent to a "quack" who did the company medicals..(unregistered foreign doctor),who was a complete idiot,wanted to send me to hospital in a ambulance,when my truck with all my tools and equipt was parked ouitside in the street.The young guys kept up the B/S that I had a heart attack...and even today the old boss (retd) asks me how my heart is going.When I quit ,the young guys found out who kept the place running after they busted everything with their carelessness..

[bowfin]

I think a lot of the problems with modern management is that they no longer promote from the floor, because they require degrees for those positions. I have no problem with higher education, as I have some myself. However, we in the firearms community saw first hand what can happen when the Golden Boys at Remington thought that anybody can make a Marlin lever action rifle and moved production down to South Carolina. They didn't have the people who knew what to look for and how to fix it, and they really didn't have the smarts to figure it out for themselves.

[john.k]

Another problem where I was ,is that managers were made criminally liable for workplace injuries and environmental breaches.......the new manager was a complete idiot ,mainly because of the state of the whole operation......the new owners wanted the place cleaned up but with no reduction in the massive profits that cost cutting and safety and environment breaches had brought the two old guys who owned the business previously......It was a once a marvellous place.....a business with up to 100 employees run by two old time collector/hoarders,and a million ton of interesting old junk in the yard. And plenty of spares for the old plant and machinery.

[lightman]

I won't offer any legal advice but I hope you find gainful employment soon. I also hope you find a new source for lead. Good Luck on both accounts!

[RED BEAR]

once had a boss tell me a job was more important than a family becouse if you don't have a job you can't support a family. next he told me i couldn't quit almost laughed myself sick out the door. always had a simple rule if i am not making you money then fire me if your not paying what i am worth i quit. and i give an employer the same considerations they would give me if i were fired about 5minutes notice. good for you family always coes first. jobs arnt hard to find if your willing to work.

[johnho]

I got into a philosophical discussion with my boss about company loyalty. His position was, and I disagreed, that his only loyalty was to provide the best job he could do and they had the responsibility to pay him. Once he got paid it started over. He ended up being right. And this was from the President of the company. He went on to own the company and left a multi-millionaire years later.

[fatelk]

his only loyalty was to provide the best job he could do and they had the responsibility to pay him

I have to agree with that. I told a coworker a while back that my loyalty extends as far as my paycheck, as the company has proven their loyalty to us is just as shallow. True loyalty in the workplace seems to be a thing of the past.

I would like to be deeply loyal to the company that I've given most of my adult life to, but they have shown recently that loyal long time employees are merely corporate property to be used, used up, and disposed of as they deem fit. It's sad, really.