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12/30/2008 Archived Entry: "When employees fail"

It was a weird day at work today. Trying to get out paperwork. Trying to get materials. Trying to get to jobs. It seemed that an effort to go forward was meet with an opposing force. However the item that takes the cake was what happened to me at Home Depot in Miami today. This is the Home Depot on SW 8th ST just outside of Little Havana in Miami. Now I went in to get a pipe cut and threaded. We went to where the pipe threader is and meet an employee there. It wasn't his department. However he called up another employee who belonged in this department and knew how to operate the threader. A few moments go by and the same employee returns. He sees that no one has shown up and he calls a different employee. The different employee responds he will be over in a few moments. After a five minutes no one shows up. We ask a different employee to get someone. They contact someone who says they will be right over. We wait another ten minutes. Now I have a person working with me. I ask my cohort to go to the service desk and ask for help. He goes and calls me from the service desk. I am still standing in front of the threader. He says they are contacting someone. I tell him to come back and wait with me. Now we wait. It has been almost thirty minutes and no one has shown up. Time to take matters into my own hands.

Now the threader is a device I have used before on job sites. So I quite familiar with it's function. The only issue is of course there is a keypad on the device to prevent non employees from using the device. The keypad has a number that must be entered to make it function. The number is usually a four digit number and the # symbol. The four digit number is usually the store number. In this case it was store 277. So the number code is 0277#. Also the number code was written on the side of the box.

So using the number code I get the device to function. I set up my pipe. I cut it. I ream it. And I start threading it. When an employee finally comes over and says can I help you. I look at him and say no. I am doing just fine. I don't need your help. He walks away. Another employee walks over and says you can't do that. I look up and say "Get a manager." He walks off to get a manager. No I am running the threader back to clean the threads and I am just about finished when another employee comes up and says you can't do that and need to stop. Now I have finished threading the pipe and cleaning it but I just let it run a little longer to annoy the employee who feels it is his imperative duty to stop me from performing my course of action. He rushes over and unplugs the device. Since I have already finished. I am not worried and I contain my laughter because it looks like it is going to get funnier.

The employee who went to get the manager has shown up with the manager. Now I am the first person to say if you are forty and still wear a name tag for your job. You vocation has a few shortcomings. And I also tend to look like a scruff muffin when I have worked on my job. I crawl through ceiling drill concrete. I can get messy. However the Home Depot manager. This guy makes a Denny's manager look suave.He has on black pants and a yellow polo shirt that isn't even tucked in. From his hair and expression it looks like someone woke him up from a nap. I have to admit I didn't believe he was the manager He was so unkempt I thought the employee just grabbed some random person and asked them to pretend to be the manager. I ask him Are you the manager? Because you sure don't look like a manager. You don't even come close to resembling a Home Depot employee.
He assured me he was the manager. He asked me what was going on. I explain I had been waiting for thirty plus minutes for someone to show up and cut and thread the pipe for me. Now the employees who originally called for the other employees to show up and help me are also in attendance. I said these employees all tried to get someone to come over and do this. And we assured someone was on their way. They all nodded in agreement. I said then after a while my coworker went to the service desk to get someone who also assured him someone was on their way. I said after thirty minutes no one showed. My coworker piped in that we need to get to a job and time was money and they were costing us money. I said now that I am operating the thing everyone shows up. I said I am already done cutting and threading the pipe.

The manger looks more disheveled than before. The three employees who tried to get people to help have backed me up the employees who were suppose to show didn't and those that tried to stop me failed. He looks at me and says I am sorry you had a bad experience. I hope the next time you show up it is a better experience. Those that tried to stop me look like they had just been crushed like insects. I took my pipe and left to go to my job.