Saturday, July 29, 2006

Killing Yourself (Almost) For RGIS

Can you remember ever putting your life in danger while working for RGIS? I mean, did you ever risk life or limb or lungs climbing up on unsteady ladders, standing on broken milk crates, or perhaps inhaling toxic fumes, all in order to scan a bar code or count every last bottle of cough syrup?

There were many times I can recall almost causing some bodily injury to myself while on the job as an auditor. Take standing on milk crates for instance. Even though this was expressly forbidden by RGIS (according to the Auditor's Handbook) we all knew the real deal. In my district our managers never provided us with enough step ladders to use so if we wanted to count all the products on the top shelf in, say, a grocery store, we had to grab a plastic milk crate from the store's back room to stand on. Of course, milk crates were not meant to be stood on and were most decidely unsafe. You had to be extremely careful when you climbed onto a milk crate, making sure you placed your feet not in the dead center of the crate but sort of to the sides, nearer the edge, where the crate was a little bit sturdier. If you stood in the center your feet might break right through the flimsy plastic webbing. And if you weren't careful climbing up onto the milk crate it could go sliding out from under you and you might go crashing to the floor. Ouch.

We always had to use milk crates when we were counting in Food 4 Less, and I can recall numerous times stepping up onto a milk crate and having said crate shoot out from under me because the floors were so highly waxed that they were dangerously slippery. Oh, and let's not allow those waxed floors to go without comment. We always started a Food 4 Less inventory at 4:00 am, when the 24-hour grocery store was almost devoid of customers. My district had three Food 4 Less stores to do, and I hated doing the Santa Rosa one because they always waxed the floors during the inventory. I mean, the minute we set out on the sales floor to count some Food 4 Less pinhead employee would fire up the waxer and start polishing the floors. For them it was like a signal or something. "Oh, I see burgundy polos out on the floor. Time to start waxing!" It was horrible. The waxer was a hideous machine, sounding like ten lawn mowers and belching more smoke than a coal factory. The Food 4 Less idiot who operated the waxer would come down an aisle I was counting in, getting so close that I swear the waxer brushed the heels of my shoes more than once. Getting run over by a floor waxer was not my idea of fun so I would complain to Team Leader Mondo, which was a complete waste of time as that blob of lard was so afraid of authority and confrontations that he wouldn't say a word to store management. So every time we did a Food 4 Less inventory in Santa Rosa we had to dodge the floor waxer.

Even when we had ladders to stand on in a store, we still had no guarantees of safety. In some stores like CSK (auto parts) the ladders were too short for the back room shelves, and we had to stand on the very top rung of the ladder to reach the top shelf. Yes, the top rung, the one that has the sticker on it that says "Warning! Do not stand on. Unsafe!" But I must, as my Area Manager told me to make sure I count every last gasket and spark plug!

Also a danger in a CSK inventory were the bottles of various auto cleansers and oils and other liquids that you had to pick up and scan. There were always a few leaky bottles, and often green or blue or brown fluids would drip onto my hands or clothing. It could make a person kind of nervous, especially when the bottle had a skull and crossbones on the label and read "Warning! Highly toxic!" So whenever this happened I would rush into the bathroom to wash off the green or blue or brown goo. Of course, the bathrooms in these CSK stores were always incredibly filthy, with thick layers of black grit covering every surface, including the bar of green industrial soap in the sink. Oftentimes there would be no paper towels, so you had to dry your hands on your pants. And do I need to say that one never wanted to use the toilet in a CSK? Their bathrooms were more toxic than any leaky bottles out on the sales floor.

Another place with suspicious fluids to count was a strange little place called Vencare RX. I was never quite sure what this place was. Was it a store? A laboratory? Who knows. It was an odd, dinky little place, kind of like a business office with a few shelves and a couple of mini refrigerators that held bottles and vials of mysterious fluids and powders to count. I never knew what the hell were in those bottles and tubes that I was handling. I would ask Mondo, who usually ran the Vencare RX inventories, and he would say, "I dunno." Okay, thanks, that helps. I could have been holding a vial of anthrax and not have known it. Not likely of course, but it's interesting to think about.

Back to the ladders. The extremely tall ones we used in the back rooms of the Target stores always made me nervous. They reached nearly to the ceiling and when you stood on the top step you never wanted to look down, lest you grow dizzy and tumble off. We used the same kind of ladders on the sales floors of Best Buy, to reach the top stock. To save time a Best Buy employee would push a RGIS auditor around the sales floors (the ladders were on wheels), so the RGIS person wouldn't have to climb down, move the ladder, and climb back up again. This was a nice thing to do by the Best Buy employees, but it too made me nervous as I could easily picture the Best Buy guy who was pushing the ladder stumbling over something and causing me to go flying over the short safety railing on the ladder and landing smack on the floor. Auditor clean-up in aisle 5!

Working as an RGIS auditor almost got me electrocuted once. We were doing an inventory for Spencern, a Halloween supply store. This was a few days after Halloween, and the early November day was cold and rainy. The store was temporarily set up in an old building that used to be a Good Guys store. It was a decrepit old building that had a leaky roof. When I went to count some rubber masks along one wall I could see water coming through the ceiling and dripping dangerously close to some extension cords still plugged into a wall socket. I very carefully steered clear of this area. I liked my job (most of the time) but not enough to fry for it. I never did see who ended up counting the area but they must have made it through okay, as I didn't notice anyone walking around burnt to a crisp.

The most outrageous incident I experienced regarding safety in the workplace occurred in a Home Depot inventory. I was assigned to count a large bin that contained incredibly long plastic pipes. There were dozens and dozens of these pipes standing on end, and they were crammed so tightly into the bin that I couldn't move them around to see how many of them there were. I told one of the many RGIS managers there that day about this problem (we had several districts helping us out in this large store) and her solution was to have me stand on the tines of a forklift and ride up to the ceiling of the store, so that I could look down on the tops of the pipes and count them that way. I told the RGIS Area Manager that there was no way on earth I was going to do that. I mean, I wasn't going to risk breaking my neck by doing this extremely unsafe act all so that I could count some plastic pipes. The AM actually got annoyed with me because I refused to try and commit suicide by forklift and said to me, "Well, someone has to do it." I told her, "It's not going to be me," and walked away. I found out later that she ordered some poor unknowing newbie to stand on the forklift and ride it up to the ceiling. Fortunately the guy didn't fall and go splat on the cement floor. This time. Gee, I wonder what OSHA would say if they knew about this?

Saturday, July 15, 2006

It's All In The Mind

Several auditors in my district were completely delusional when it came to their beliefs in their own powers of attraction. I've mentioned some in previous blog entries, like Moby's yearning for Ginger, Gunther and Robby's desires for young Nicole, and Psycho Alice's crazed coveting of AM Jeff.



Another hilarious example of an RGIS auditor's hallucinatory ideas regarding themselves and their crush happened in my district. I warn you, it is funny, but it's also a bit frightening too.



The auditor was named Sonya. She was a woman in her fifties, who sported shoulder-length frizzy grey hair, a wrinkled, fuzzy face and a body that looked as though a sack of potatoes had been covered with an RGIS polo. Sonya had extremely poor posture and would constantly stand with her shoulders rolled inward and her back hunched over. She looked like Quasimodo with an audit machine and laser gun. And as if that weren't scary enough she also had a pair of breasts that hung to her waist. Someone once said that Sonya actually wore a bra but no one else in the district believed it.



This old lady auditor fell hard for a young Team Leader (or AM) named Matthew. Again, another perfect example of a person being completely out of someone's league. And being completely out of her mind. There was no way that a young guy would ever look once, much less twice at an old woman like Sonya. But that didn't stop Sonya from mooning over Matthew like a lovesick puppy dog. It really gave one the willies to think that Sonya could be so completely out of her mind as to believe that she stood a chance with Matthew. How could someone be that irrational, I wondered. I mean, didn't she have any mirrors in her home? Couldn't she see how ridiculous she was being? It was so ridiculous of Sonya the be mooning over this guy that one had to feel sorry for her.



Sonya's wild desires for Matthew at one point reached such a fever pitch that she actually went out and purchased a set of revealing lingerie and sent it to Matthew, along with a note that said something like "Wouldn't you like to see me in this?" Oh no. Try to imagine a hunched-over, lumpy old woman with breasts resting by her navel in racy, lacy underwear. Horrifying.



Matthew finally had had enough of Sonya's truly scary behavior. After she sent him the lingerie and that terrifying note Sonya was called into the district office and told to stop her stalkerish behavior. If she didn't she would be fired.



As far as I know, Sonya didn't send any more hair-raising notes or any more packages of underwear to Matthew, but she didn't stop her obsessive longing for Matthew either. And Matthew was perfectly aware of this, because when he eventually left the Santa Rosa district and transferred to the Hawaii RGIS district he left explicit instructions regarding Sonya. He said that in the event Sonya ever tried out for and won the annual RGIS Top Gun contest, she was not to be awarded the prize, which was a two week stay in Hawaii, working for the RGIS district there. He was that terrified of her. And who could blame him? What young guy would want an old woman like Sonya chasing after him? In lacy bra and panties no less.



One more thing: it got even more amusing when Marcia, Matthew's ex-wife, came back from Hawaii to our district. Matthew and Marcia had met while working in the Santa Rosa district, and all under the watchful and jealous eyes of old Sonya. When Marcia split from Matthew and returned to Santa Rosa it was all Sonya could do to be civil to her. As far as I could tell Sonya never even spoke to AAM Marcia, but instead kept a healthy distance from her. Sonya figuratively steamed with hatred at the sight of Marcia, so jealous and irrational was she in her feelings for what she considered to be her rival for Matthew. Sonya, even after several years, was still completely out of her mind regarding her interests in Matthew. When Marcia returned to our district she also brought her car, with Hawaii license plates. Sonya told everyone in our district that that car would have been hers, had Marcia not "interfered" in Sonya's and Matthew's "relationship". Isn't that laughable? And frightening? Naturally, no one took Sonya seriously except of course Sonya herself, living in her dream world.



Dear Employee

I found an old letter printed on RGIS letterhead the other day. It was sent out to all the auditors in my district from Jeff, our former AM who shortly before the letter was written had been promoted to be our District Manager. For your amusement I am reprinting it here verbatim.



September 28, 2001



"Dear Employee,



It was not long ago that the Santa Rosa District was considered one of the top in our division. Due to circumstances in the past, we have allowed ourselves to fall below the company standard, a standard that this district helped to set. We are now going to correct the mistakes of the past and will, with your help, reset the standards for RGIS. We realize that this cannot happen overnight, but the changes that we are implementing will allow us to get back on track.



Fifteen months ago, the districts of the Bay Area came together and agreed upon a set of goals that all districts would strive for. Sadly, not one office was able to achieve those goals. As a result, more than half of the managers that attended that first meeting are no longer with RGIS. Our division vice president, Ron ********, and our operations manager, Nate *****, decided it was time for another meeting to reveal what the problem was. Each district had its' own reasons but it was discovered that there were several common issues. It was agreed that all of our districts would work to a single standard without exception. Although many of the standards set forth are directed toward management, there are some that are directed toward field personnel-you. The plan is very simple. THE BAY AREA DISTRICTS OF RGIS WILL BE RETURNING TO BASICS [sic].



What this means to you is such basic things as confirming your schedules on time, being on time in proper uniform, honoring your schedule, using proper tagging, correct inventory paperwork, following established RGIS procedures and policies, etc. Included with this letter are copies of our attendance policy, dress code, and what is expected of auditors. Sign one copy of each and return them to the office by October 5. The other copy is for your records.



We have begun to track each auditor's average per hour (APH). The goal is to identify those who are doing an outstanding job as well as those who are struggling and need additional help or training to come up to standard. The expected APH will be announced at the beginning of each inventory. We realize that not everybody can achieve the expected APH in every inventory. For instance, those who are assigned to more time consuming areas will, no doubt, fall below the expected APH. Overall, the APH for that inventory will be met.



There are more changes to come. If you have an idea you feel would help our district, please share it with a Team Leader or management. Remember that as an auditor in the field, YOU are RGIS [sic].



We thank you for your efforts."



Make what you like of this letter. I for one found it extremely amusing, having worked in the Santa Rosa district for many years. Some of my favorite parts:



The entire first paragraph, for one. Yes, at one point my district was considered to be first-rate, having been awarded several plaques(still hanging proudly on the office walls) from RGIS as the best performing district in the division. Of course, that was before Kenny and Jeff became our managers and really messed things up. They would be the "circumstances of the past" mentioned in that first paragraph, the ones that "allowed ourselves to fall below the company standard." (Of course Jeff, who wrote the letter, didn't consider himself as having been part of the problem. He believed that the entire mess our district was was caused by Kenny only.)



The second paragraph has some really good stuff too. I especially like the part where it states that all of the Bay Area districts "came together and agreed upon a set of goals that all districts would strive for. Sadly, not one office was able to achieve those goals." Darn. "Sadly." Well, just let me shed a tear right now. Sniff. Too droll. Even without knowing exactly what those so-called "goals" were, I'm not surprised that my district wasn't able to meet a single one. I can't imagine former District Manager Kenny or Area Manager/DM Jeff being able to achieve any sort of "goal", unless it was something like "Take A Quality RGIS District And Totally Screw It Up And Run It Straight Into The Ground." In that case? Mission accomplished Kenny and Jeff!



I also liked the statement printed in all caps: "THE BAY AREA DISTRICTS OF RGIS WILL BE RETURNING TO BASICS." This was an obvious (to us auditors) admittance by DM Jeff that he (and Kenny) had really let things go in our district. All the things that were mentioned in the third paragraph, like "confirming schedules on time, being on time in proper uniform, honoring your schedule, using proper tagging, correct inventory paperwork..." etc, were all ignored before this letter was sent out, and they were ignored well after the letter was received by all of us auditors as well. Especially by the F.O.J.'s (Friends Of Jeff). Guys like Gunther and Ethan blithely continued to arrive late (or not at all) to their scheduled inventories, and without any repercussions whatsoever from their pal DM Jeff. So much for "being on time" or "honoring your schedule." Absolutely no one used "proper tagging", with most auditors continuing to tag sporadically or not at all. And few people bothered with "correct inventory paperwork." Most auditors wouldn't trouble themselves to sign their area tags with their name or worksheet number, nor would we bother to fill out our worksheets with the numbers of the areas that we had counted. I mean, we auditors knew that, despite the above letter and some other vague threats from our ridiculous managers, no one would be fired for not following the rules because our district was so permanently hard up for warm bodies to staff our inventories that the managers couldn't afford to let anyone go. So a letter like the one above was a joke. No one took it seriously because we knew we didn't have to. The only way you as an auditor would leave the Santa Rosa district was if you wanted to and thus quit.



I like that next to last paragraph too, where it says "If you have an idea you feel would help our district please share it with a Team Leader or management." Okay, how about a request that DM Jeff stop playing favorites and treat everyone equally? How about DM Jeff not allowing friend Gunther to take two dozen smoke breaks during an inventory, and not allowing best pal Team Leader Ethan to leave an inventory 3 hours before anyone else because he felt "tired." What about the rest of the crew? We're not tired too? Hey, here's an idea. How about when we go into the office to pick up our paychecks, maybe it might be a good idea if your secretary Betty isn't playing solitaire at her desk? Kind of looks bad, don't you think? And when shef etches our checks for us is it possible for her to do so without a snotty attitude? That would be ever so nice. Every time an auditor would go into the office it seemed as though Betty was either playing solitaire or snacking on something. I don't think I ever once saw her actually working on something business-related. Hmm, I wonder if these "ideas" would have gone over well, had I brought them to a TL or management.



And finally, the last paragraph of the letter is a real winner. "Remember that as an auditor in the field, YOU are RGIS." Well, if that's true, then God help RGIS.



Saturday, July 08, 2006

Nice Guys Finish Last

When DM Kenny departed our district, tail between his legs (he had done such a shitty job running the district. Auditor Sam was fond of saying that Kenny had taken the Santa Rosa district and run it straight into the ground) naturally that left us without a District Manager. Some of us assumed that Area Manager Jeff would promoted to the position, but Jeff claimed that he didn't want the responsibility of heading up a district (Ops Manager Samir later told me differently. He had expressed some doubt as to Jeff's abilities, and thought that perhaps Jeff was a bit too immature to be a DM).



During the week or two that we were DM-less, a rumor was going around our district that Doug, the AM in Vallejo, was to be appointed as our new DM. This was confirmed a short time later.



Having worked with the Vallejo district on a number of occasions we knew Doug and for the most part liked him. He seemed nice, but of course things could be different when he came over to our district. I mean, he might turn out to be a ogre who played favorites (like Jeff) or maybe a complete moron who hadn't a clue (like Kenny or Dave).



So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Doug was a genuinely nice person. He had a rather a quiet manner of speaking, and during his stay in our district I never once heard (or heard of) him raise his voice or utter an unkind or angry word. He was always in a very agreeable mood, very positive and upbeat. And not in a phony insincere way like former DM Kenny. No, DM Doug always seemed to be honestly glad to see people at stores and interested in hearing what you might have to say.



And wonder of wonders, he didn't play favorites! What a refreshing antithesis to AM Jeff's partisanship. Doug treated everyone equally, young and old, male and female. It came as a nice surprise to see a manager manage a district with such neutrality and impartiality.



I remember a Kmart inventory that our district did shortly after DM Doug arrived. During a break, Doug came out of the store and sat right down on the curb next to a couple of us auditors. He started telling us about some of his plans for our Santa Rosa district, and things he wanted to accomplish as our new DM. He seemed genuinely interested and eager to be heading up the district, and it was very cool of him to sit down with us and have an actual conversation with his auditors.



Certainly AM Jeff wouldn't be caught dead chatting with us lowly commoners. No, even as Doug was talking I could see AM Jeff, across the way in the parking lot, huddled in a circle with his cronies Ethan, Robby, Gunther, and a couple of various assorted young girls. Typical Jeff. He never made an effort to get to know any auditors, really, unless he had the hots for her.



Also, unlike Jeff, Doug never made fun of the newbies or goobers in our district. I don't believe I even once heard him say an unkind word about anyone. He really was nice to all, and it was so bizarre to see and experience an RGIS manager in our district act in such a positive way. DM Doug seemed almost too good to be true.



Having grown accustomed and weary of the negativity and favoritism exhibited by AM Jeff, I at first was a bit cautious in forming an opinion regarding Doug when he came to Santa Rosa. After seeing how the F.O.J.'s (Friends of Jeff) were favorably treated by their leader, I was a bit afraid that Doug would turn out to be like Jeff and have his pets too. But that wasn't the case, not even with auditor Dylan. Dylan had worked under Doug in the Vallejo district, and moved to Santa Rosa before Doug. I thought that perhaps Doug would show partiality to his former Vallejo auditor, but that never happened. Dylan was treated no better or no worse than the rest of us. It was like we were, for the first time, truly all equal. Man did that feel weird!



So, already feeling pretty good about having Doug as our new DM, I felt about a million times better when it came to an incident regarding my schedule. When DM Kenny was in Santa Rosa, AM Jeff had somehow convinced him that he, Jeff, could make out the master schedule much more efficiently than Kenny. Thus Jeff really held all the power in the Santa Rosa office, and as more than one person said to me, "Jeff's the one who really runs this district."



Because of this it paid to get on Jeff's good side and stay there, if you wanted work. Don't cross Jeff and you'll get plenty of stores. Do something to displease him and guess what? You're not working much anymore. And if you questioned Jeff about your suddenly light schedule, he would play Mr. Innocent and tell you, "Well, we're really not very busy right now, there's not a lot of inventories going on, but I'll take a look at the master schedule and see what I can do." What bullshit. Jeff used that schedule like a weapon, cutting down his enemies and protecting and rewarding his clique.



(One way that we auditors found out what Jeff was doing with his scheduling was to compare our schedules. If Jeff told one auditor that there wasn't any work going on, and that's why his schedule was rather skimpy, then that auditor could merely compare his schedule with a couple of the other auditors and see if this was true. AM Jeff found out that we were doing this and became irate. When he issued our next schedule {handing them out to us during a Burlington Coat Factory inventory} there printed on the bottom of everyone' s schedule was this order from Jeff: "Schedules are not to be discussed with other auditors. Termination will result." Everyone was outraged by this edict. Besides a method of comparing schedules as a way to check Jeff on his word, we often discussed stores that we might be doing together later so that we could arrange carpools to and from inventories. One auditor anonymously sent a copy of this schedule {with Jeff's order on it} to RGIS' head office. The head office immediately contacted Jeff and told him that he couldn't threaten people with a dismissal in regards to his auditor's comparing their schedules. Boy was Jeff pissed!)



One fall my schedule seemed a bit skimpy, even for early November. I attributed this to the fact that Jeff had seen me talking with his arch enemy Psycho Alice. Jeff probably thought we were conspiring against him (not true; Alice was on her own one-person crusade to get rid of Jeff) and of course retaliated as only he could, with his favorite weapon the schedule. I asked Jeff about it and he gave me the usual "Well it's not that busy not a lot of inventories going on" crap. So the next day I went to the office to see DM Doug. Doug immediately said, "Let's take a look at the master schedule," and he started leafing through a big notebook. "I can put you in this store, and this one, and this one. Hey, here's two CSK (auto parts) stores going on in the same day. Which one would you like?" Amazing. This was something that Jeff would never have done.



Because of this incident with my schedule and a few others as well, I believe that DM Doug began to recognize what Jeff was doing with the master schedule, and how he was using it to reward his cronies and punish the rest of us. So little by little Doug began to do more and more of the scheduling himself. Jeff was furious to discover that his power in the district was slipping away bit by bit, leaving him impotent as a manager. He was mad as a hornet at Doug, but completely powerless to do anything about it. It was quite amusing to overhear him fuming about DM Doug depriving him of his baby, the master schedule. How wonderful and how delicious to see the once potent Jeff as weak and helpless as a kitten.



Doug also exhibited some first-rate behavior when it came to dealing with Nadine. Malcontent Nadine had been for some time getting away with murder. She would pull many no-shows at inventories, often calling in sick just minutes before she was due at a store. She always managed to keep her job by wearing a short skirt and prancing into former DM Kenny's office. A little wink, a little leg-crossing, and Nadine would remain an RGIS auditor for another day.



But Doug was miles above Kenny in class. He wasn't weak like Kenny and refused to play Nadine's games. After Kenny left and Doug became our DM, Nadine continued right on with her no-shows. Doug gave her a warning: if you pull another no-show you'll be fired. Of course, she pulled a no-show the very next day, at a Long's Drugs. A few minutes after the 5:30 am start Doug was overheard calling Nadine on his cell phone and leaving a message stating that she had been duly warned about her incessant no-shows, and since she had pulled yet another one that she was fired. Yes! Way to go Doug! Nadine was furious and tried her 'short skirt' method with Doug, but DM Doug was unimpressed. Too cool.



Doug was that rarity: a manager who never lost the ability to count on an audit machine. Doug was fast at keying, even faster than Team Leader Ethan (who firmly believed that he was the best at keying; he sometimes referred to himself as E-God). With RGIS always promoting from within, auditors who became managers had to (by company rules at that time) stop doing typical auditor's work like counting and stick to running inventories only. By doing so most DMs, AMs, and Ops Managers gradually lost the ability to count merchandise on the audit machine. Oh sure, they still knew how to operate an audit machine, but on that rare occasion that they were allowed to count (like when we showed up at a Long's Drugs in Novato with only 5 people, when we should have had 20) it was funny to watch how rusty the managers were at counting. Most of them could no longer key by touch, and instead had to look down at their audit machines every time they needed to enter a quantity. Hah!



DM Doug loved counting and was still very fast at it. At that time, managers had to first obtain permission from their division office before they could, as former DM Kenny used to put it, "Strap one on." That meant a lot of calls being placed, and playing phone tag took up too much time, especially if you were already running behind in an inventory. So Doug and AM Jeff would usually not bother to call one the Ops Managers and instead grab an audit machine and laser and head out onto the sales floor.



It was enjoyable to be counting around Doug because he was always in a good mood. Plus, I think he was happy to be counting again, so he would have a smile on his face and crack jokes. He also had this funny habit of urging you to "race" against him. You might be in the same aisle of a grocery store as him, with you on one side and he on the other. He would say something like, "C'mon, let's race, let's see who gets finished first." I would always laugh and say no thanks. I mean, I really couldn't see any point in "racing". What did I care who finished first? I was going to get paid the same regardless. But DM Doug was always really nice about it and would never push you to race him. It was just his way of joking around, and trying to keep the mood in a long tiring inventory upbeat.



So things were going great in Santa Rosa for a change, with a new DM and all, but I should have known it was too good to last. At a Long's Drugs inventory in Windsor, I was in the warehouse (back room), closing out my audit machine at the end of this October inventory. All of a sudden Doug, who had been busy with some paperwork, started to tell me about how a month or two before he had been ticketed for a DUI incident. He said that he had been driving home from a party and had been driving a bit erratically ("I'd only had a little bit of wine, it was a stupid thing to do and I'll never do it again"), and was stopped by a police car. He had received a ticket for drunk driving, but due to some misunderstanding the ticket never got paid ("I had the court date mixed up with some other date, I don't know how it happened") and now he was in danger of being fired from RGIS.



The reason Doug could be dismissed so easily from RGIS was that according to him, managers must have near spotless driving records, as the company vans that are leased for them are not covered by car insurance, just bonded or something. Apparently it would cost RGIS a pretty penny if a manager, driving the company van, got into a drunk driving accident.



As I was digesting this disturbing information DM Doug tossed off this next remark: "Come January you might not see me here anymore." He was so casual about it that I didn't really take him seriously. But sure enough, some 3 months later Doug was gone. Fired. And there went any high hopes for our district.



(Oh, one more thing about Doug. Just a few days before he left, I was having another one of my scheduling battles with Jeff (who despite Doug's efforts still maintained a little control over the master schedule), and again went into the office to speak with Doug about it. Doug seemed concerned and added some more inventories to my schedule. Two days later he was gone, and I said to AM Jeff, "I met with Doug a couple of days ago. Did he know at that time that he was being fired from RGIS?" Jeff said yes. So Doug had taken the time to bother about my schedule, even though he knew at that time he was losing his job. What a class act Doug was.)