The Complaint Thread

docsilence said:
I saw someone say the other day "I believe in universal basic income not out of generosity but because I want to be able to fire a fucking idiot and not ruin his life or put him out in the street because he's too dumb to do the job."
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Literally, though.

I have two guys on my payroll right now that I would love to replace but I think they'd struggle to find regular work and I can't bear to let them go in the off season. In the past, I've definitely had guys that were just complete goddamn morons or, even worse, nice guys just wholly unsuited to the work. Every time I've struggled to do anything about it because I feel terrible taking someone's paycheck away. UBI, if nothing else, would mean I could just be like 'hey dude, you suck at this, good luck' and not feel bad at all, AND not leave my company in a weaker position because I'm hanging onto guys that are just draining on our resources and potentially causing problems.

I've found it to be the hardest part of all this; managing the human side of things.
 
Damien said:
One of my workers, who is a fucking idiot, fell down in a shared parking lot on his way in to work last week and broke his foot. Despite that he wasn't actually at work yet, and this parking lot isn't only for our business and is not owned or controlled by my company, apparently it is my company's fault and this dumb shit gets to put a WCB claim against us. I can't even argue that he wasn't wearing proper PPE, becuase he wasn't even AT WORK OR ON THE CLOCK, so I have no ability to enforce our safety policies on someone that isn't clocked in, but I am somehow responsible for what happens to them before they're clocked in.
We still have two legit injuries on our record - one from a year ago and one from a couple of years ago. But we're not a big company. Three WCB claims on our record could actually destroy us. I am so fucking angry right now. I want to beat this guy to death with my bare hands.

So now I have to spend what was supposed to be my Christmas vacation while the company is closed and all the workers are at home, filing an appeal and fighting with WCB about this. And I also fucking hate it because I'm basically fighting to make sure this guy DOESN'T get paid and that makes me feel fucking gross inside. But the alternative is potentially a massive hit to the company that will hurt all the other workers that rely on me to pay their bills. This fucking sucks and I cannot even put my rage into words.
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I hate Workers Comp. Writing it. Tending to the policies. Filing Claims. It all sucks. I don't know how it all works up there, but if it happened here, there would be no WC claim (not on the clock and not in the course of his day to day work), and he would be looking at disability claim (which isn't much better on my end). On top of that, unless your company owns the parking lot, there would be no way they would have to pay out anything, and the company that maintained the lot would be on the hook. We write far too many snow removal businesses that have at least one slip and fall claim per winter season. It sucks that you have to deal with it all, even though on paper there is no way your company should be on the hook for any of it, and you shouldn't have that stress this time of year...on top of all the stress already there.
 
altcunningham said:
That's more than any HR person, I mean, corporate simp, ever felt.
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I don't know how they do it. I've fired a bunch of people at this point and only two times did I not feel like a complete piece of shit, even though every one of them deserved it. It was only the belligerent, cunty teenager and the 50-year-old skater-pothead dipshit that kept skipping work that I didn't feel bad about.
I'd almost prefer to just be an HR person where I can be like 'decision came from above.' For me, it's my decision. And everyone knows it. Reprimands, firings, who gets paid what - it's all me and I've got no one to hide behind and say 'it's out of my hands, sorry buddy.'


DarthDre758 said:
I hate Workers Comp. Writing it. Tending to the policies. Filing Claims. It all sucks. I don't know how it all works up there, but if it happened here, there would be no WC claim (not on the clock and not in the course of his day to day work), and he would be looking at disability claim (which isn't much better on my end). On top of that, unless your company owns the parking lot, there would be no way they would have to pay out anything, and the company that maintained the lot would be on the hook. We write far too many snow removal businesses that have at least one slip and fall claim per winter season. It sucks that you have to deal with it all, even though on paper there is no way your company should be on the hook for any of it, and you shouldn't have that stress this time of year...on top of all the stress already there.
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Yeah, you'd think it would work like this here too. That's why I'll be spending my week off appealing the decision. The agent I was speaking to said it's my fault because it's our company's responsibility to provide clear and safe access/egress and if the parking lot was icy then I wasn't doing that.
But that's... fucking insanity. Am I supposed to pay for ice and snow removal from the shop to his house? My guys start at 7am. So I gotta get a company to come out at 6:30am and chip/sand all the ice for an entire parking lot just in case one of my guys happens to walk across that part of the parking lot? It's not a parking lot like the size of a Walmart one, but it serves the entire front of the building for 6 or so different offices. How much of it is now MY responsibility according to WCB? It's stupid.

We had a night of freezing rain and then snow on top of it. What are -his- responsibilities to be safe on his way to work? I'm not allowed to enforce our safety policies like ice cleats when he's not clocked in. So he can just run across an icy parking lot in cowboy boots (for example, no one did this) and if he falls it's my fault? It makes zero sense to me. And the agent I was speaking to was distinctly unhelpful.
 
Damien said:
Yeah, you'd think it would work like this here too. That's why I'll be spending my week off appealing the decision. The agent I was speaking to said it's my fault because it's our company's responsibility to provide clear and safe access/egress and if the parking lot was icy then I wasn't doing that.
But that's... fucking insanity. Am I supposed to pay for ice and snow removal from the shop to his house? My guys start at 7am. So I gotta get a company to come out at 6:30am and chip/sand all the ice for an entire parking lot just in case one of my guys happens to walk across that part of the parking lot? It's not a parking lot like the size of a Walmart one, but it serves the entire front of the building for 6 or so different offices. How much of it is now MY responsibility according to WCB? It's stupid.

We had a night of freezing rain and then snow on top of it. What are -his- responsibilities to be safe on his way to work? I'm not allowed to enforce our safety policies like ice cleats when he's not clocked in. So he can just run across an icy parking lot in cowboy boots (for example, no one did this) and if he falls it's my fault? It makes zero sense to me. And the agent I was speaking to was distinctly unhelpful.
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Does your company own the parking lot? Or are you just renting a location?

If it's the former, then having it plowed and salt/sanded is all that's needed to show you too the appropriate responsibilities in the weather situation. Once you've done that it's up to the individual to take it upon themselves to know you don't run across a possibly icy area. Actually, now that I say it like that, you saying he's an idiot is all that's needed to know he won't do that.

If its the latter, tell them to call the owner and deal with him and leave you the fuck alone.
 
Yeah, having worked warehouses and had comp when my hand got crushed, I don't see how he has a case. They actively went out of their way to make it hard for me and the crew, but my doctor is a rockstar at paperwork.

Keep us appraised, I'm really curious how this goes.
 
DarthDre758 said:
Does your company own the parking lot? Or are you just renting a location?

If it's the former, then having it plowed and salt/sanded is all that's needed to show you too the appropriate responsibilities in the weather situation. Once you've done that it's up to the individual to take it upon themselves to know you don't run across a possibly icy area. Actually, now that I say it like that, you saying he's an idiot is all that's needed to know he won't do that.

If its the latter, tell them to call the owner and deal with him and leave you the fuck alone.
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Rented location. We actually just bought a building of our own (won't be moved in until Spring) and now I'm terrified of this happening after we move because then it's definitely my problem.

And yeah, I tried the whole 'we don't even own the parking lot AND we are not responsible for it in our lease - the worker can sue the building owner if he got hurt, just like any other pedestrian walking through it would' and the response I got was 'nope, still on you guys to provide safe access even if the landlord isn't doing it.' Which, as I said, makes NO sense to me at all. He even said that -I- can sue the landlord for damages related to this claim. Like.. what? So it's basically everyone's fault but the worker.

I'd be surprised if the claim stays on our record, to be honest, but even the idea that it MIGHT is pretty scary for us right now.
 
Damien said:
He even said that -I- can sue the landlord for damages related to this claim. Like.. what? So it's basically everyone's fault but the worker.
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I'll play that game. Call the landlord and tell him you're setting up a claim against him for excess time loss (having to deal with this and not your regular work load), pain and suffering (excess stress due to the claim against your company), and that your business's insurance company will be filing a claim against him to subrogate for any payments your WC policy had to pay out due to them not properly maintaining the parking lot in the current weather conditions.
 
DarthDre758 said:
I'll play that game. Call the landlord and tell him you're setting up a claim against him for excess time loss (having to deal with this and not your regular work load), pain and suffering (excess stress due to the claim against your company), and that your business's insurance company will be filing a claim against him to subrogate for any payments your WC policy had to pay out due to them not properly maintaining the parking lot in the current weather conditions.
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That's actually the plan if I can't get the decision reversed. The problem is actually more that this lowers our overall WCB rating, which could actually impact whether our company is even allowed on certain job sites. I could lose most of our industrial contracts and at least one or two of our primary residential contracts the next time those clients pull our WCB, which they should be doing every year (and I know some of them definitely do).
 
Yessir.
If I can't get this entirely removed from our WCB record, I'm not sure we can recoup via any kind of legal action what we stand to lose. Like.. put the company out of business kind of territory.
 
I just don't understand how it's accountable if he wasn't f****** clocked in. I thought that was always where the company line started and stopped.

Sorry, my autistic justice sense rattles with this one. I hate inconsistent rules.
 
I dislike the annual popularity contests for unserious things I enjoy like toys and video games because every year I'm reminded that my tastes rarely line up with what's popular. The Game Awards are easily the most disingenuous, but seeing Top 10 lists of toys on social media puts me in the same mood of feeling disconnected in my favorite hobbies. I do look forward to seeing people's Classified Top 10s, just because I like the line so much, but that's just about it.

The social aspects also trip me up. It's hard to know who is genuine, and who is social signaling things like, "I have expensive tastes" or "I like what's popular" or in my case, sometimes, "I like what's unpopular". You can take these lists with a grain of salt and that's what I've done for years, but that kind of thing adds up, and then this aversion to "Best X of the Year" lists hits you like a ton of bricks in December.
 
vicious said:
I dislike the annual popularity contests for unserious things I enjoy like toys and video games because every year I'm reminded that my tastes rarely line up with what's popular. The Game Awards are easily the most disingenuous, but seeing Top 10 lists of toys on social media puts me in the same mood of feeling disconnected in my favorite hobbies. I do look forward to seeing people's Classified Top 10s, just because I like the line so much, but that's just about it.

The social aspects also trip me up. It's hard to know who is genuine, and who is social signaling things like, "I have expensive tastes" or "I like what's popular" or in my case, sometimes, "I like what's unpopular". You can take these lists with a grain of salt and that's what I've done for years, but that kind of thing adds up, and then this aversion to "Best X of the Year" lists hits you like a ton of bricks in December.
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Just means you're confident in your own tastes and you know what you like. Think you're in good company here.
 
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