Sand Rodent....
Hey Rat! I just waded thru your latest contribution to this august body, and
as usual, I can't help but marvel at the mind that created it. Reading any
message ya post is like eating a lemon and an onion, with a touch of garlic at
the same time! (Hmmm.... add some green and red peppers, maybe some chicken,
and we'd have Fahitas!) <YUMMY!> (giggle) (YEA!!. looking at clock... it's
LUNCHTIME!)
The tartness, sweetness, and bitterness might be kind of a sensory shock when
ya take that first bite, but it grows on ya (especially when one is hungry for
the taste of something pungent)
As usual, you say so much, and you say it SO well...
Barb Mallut
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-----Original Message-----
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, June 16, 1997 10:16 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject: Re: 06/13 Parkie Digest, Jack Faus' dilemma
to: [log in to unmask]
on 06/13 the Jack Faus doth explain and complain:
<<< Up until a couple of months ago, my PD was simply a matter of record
with the exception of receiving clearance from management to leave work 15
minutes early to catch an express train that gets me home an hour earlier.
Aside from that, I've maintained a full-time "plus" workload and will pit my
productivity against any staffer. However, last April, due to the
progression of PD the which included a highly erratic sleep cycle, I
proposed to management several measures aimed at helping me "work around"
the profound mid-afternoon fatigue I was experiencing from the sleep deficit.
A learned later that one proposed accomodation -- telecommuting (on those
days following a totally sleepless night) -- is allegedly regarded as heresy
by the CEO. >>>
"on my very first job I said 'Thank you' and 'please'"
they made me scrub the parking lot down on my knees
then I got fired for being scared of bees...
and they only gave me 50 cents an hour." John Prine
Mr. Faus(t), I fear you have made a pact with the devil. What I want to know
is how the guy who was my boss down in Phoenix could also be holding down a
full time position as your boss in Chicago. <g> Evidently, he do get around.
My first sign of the unbundling of the my work covenant with my employer came
with a similarly scheduled yearly review when I walked into my boss' office
expecting the customary 3 or 4 rating on a scale of 1 - 5 (where 1's and 5's
are never given and 3.4's and 3.5's often are) and heard the words "this was
the toughest review for me to write." Well, it only took him 12 months of
silence, a couple management "spot" awards to me during that time (one that
involved a pretty nice instant cash 'perk') and not one word of warning,
managerial coaching or formal or informal tsk-tsking to get to this perilous
situation. But then, I digress into a sea of roiling anger...
It took Human Resources intervention and ADA invocation to try to get some
relief over the next year and ended in a compromised and ultimately
unworkable solution (to which I was rigorously held and measured) ... Rather
than, as I believe Bruce Anderson suggested, this being a time when the
creativity of management could have come into play and helped construct an
evolving solution that would have worked to their advantage as well as mine
to keep a seasoned and educated employee fully employed,. instead it was a
time of contest and dissention. I was regarded as a "trouble maker",
someone who was not a "team" player, an embarrassment and a problem. My
illness was treated as an insurrection, not an infirmity. I was not the kind
of guy you trotted out to the lyrics of "We are the Champions" at the
corporate awards dinner ... I was more the kind of guy you would find on the
Group W bench in the (in)famous Arloe Guthrie ditty,"Alice's Restaurant".
I have always used my wit for foment mischief and often to the imperilment of
my position. The situation became even more aggrieved because of my
predisposition to be humerous in most all but the bleakest of situations. I
was accused of "faking it" and my boss told me of the newscasts and other
med-snippets on TV where Parkie patients went in and "got their brain
drilled" and were last seen heading out the front door of the hospital
vaulting high hurdles and singing the Marine's Hymn. He couldn't figure out
why I didn't go get that done some weekend. Like the sign said "Cheer up,
things could get worse. ... & so I cheered up & sure enough, things did get
worse"
Now I am (still) on an appeal process for Social Security disability
benefits. I have retained a lawyer specializing in disability cases and
hopefully will soon have this situation settled to my satisfaction.
As far as accomodations at work, ADA, getting along/going along, ... ha, ha
and ha. I guess it all depends on the players and your own personal skills
at being able to manage people's expectations, anticipate and deflect
problems and, of course, who you play golf with. Ever notice how things
evolve? "Casual Day" or often "Casual Dress Friday" at work were initiated
as a spinoff of the "thinktank" atmospheres of the Calif software industry
where you could wear levi's everyday, play volleyball at lunch and work 35
hours a day every day of the week. Human Resources and Line Management
patted themselves on the back and I would imagine had a number of post
implementation martini's over the great work they did to improve moral and
give workers the freedom they wanted in implementing that little trick. You
know what? The job was still the same job. If it sucked before, it still
sucked even in levis and then ..about 9 to 12 months later Management,
concerned with the abyssmal lack of taste and class shown by the people they
employed (as evidenced by the clothes they wore to work on "Casual Friday")
sent out companywide info-memos noting that "Casual Day" would now be
modified to allow workers to wear "corporate casual clothing" ... in other
words only steam cleaned levis and polo shirts with little logos from all the
golf events management had sponsored over the previous year. That's the
problem witih the common man/woman/Parkie ... they are so, oh so common.
(as I believe John Morley said, make your best deal while wearing a smiley
face, cut your loses and run.. They don't give a damn about you and if you
choose to stay around ... things will probably get ugly).
regards,
Rat
p.s. 3 quick attempts at humor, Questions 4, 5 & 6
4. Why do you stay on the Parkinsn List?
Barb said it, I read it and that's that.
5. What are the three most important things you get from the Parkinsn List?
a. faith, hope and charity (whoops, wrong answer ..... that's either the
answer to "Who sang "Sha do run run" or my Puritan American History
test's answer to "Who were the daughters of Elder Qweasle?"
b.
c.
6. What else are you getting out of belonging to the Parkinsn List?
a. I 've met some wonderful, courageous people with CB handles like
"Spunky", "Rat" and "Lil Honey"
b. I've learned the true meanings and functional applications of the
words
pedantic, bombastic and salt water daffy
c. I've learned that Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" is not the worst poem
written in
the English language but only representative of that genre.
