And…That’s A Wrap
I could hear myself, groveling and pleading with this man who was born when I was a junior in college
“Ummm…” the terminal manager was trying very hard to gather his thoughts, “Are you definitely sure you didn’t know about the wire incident?”
I’m sure, at this point, you’re thoroughly confused. I know I was, too. But I will help break this down for you: some time during the month of April, I forget right now if it was 2022 or 2023, I was doing my job, as I was apt to do 60 hours a week, when I pulled into a loading dock on Patrick Lane in Poughkeepsie, NY. My duty was to deliver a single pallet to a company that I had never delivered to and there were a multitude of businesses in this corporate park and many loading docks. So, as I scanned the premises for the business I was trying to locate, my trailer made contact with low electrical lines and they were so low that the trailer pulled both utility poles inward. This was a big deal. Generally, we make contact with cable lines and people are out of internet for a few hours, but this was electrical. EMT’s showed up, the police, the Department of Transportation, NYS Troopers, Andrew Cuomo, Mitch McConnell–okay, now I’m exaggerating. But, all the rest is true.
The thing is, this is something that happens when we are sent to make deliveries in residential areas. Theoretically, all wires are supposed to be higher than fourteen feet because regulation trailers are 13’ 6”; however, sometimes a careless technician will just string a cable line at a height he or she feel is “high enough” and isn’t or certain weather events will cause the wires to sag and get lower. Regardless, one needs to be super careful in residential situations.
Now, why there were electric lines that were lower than 13’ 6” IN A LOADING DOCK is something I will die never knowing. There was an employee of the neighboring oil company who came out and said, “I told them that someone was going to hit that line, but no one listened.” Unfortunately, the guy at PETRO oil who said this likely still has a job. The management who ignored his warning still most likely are employed. The sucker writing this column is working for a company who just decided to pull the tent stakes and call it a career as of this coming Monday.
Now, of course, as someone who just went to work and collected a paycheck, I was unaware that this loading dock wire incident was recorded on my Commercial DMV report. I was made aware by the company I have been trying to get a job with for an entire month. I took a day off and went for a complete physical, a drug test, filled out paperwork, signed authorizations, background checks and volunteered the names of all of my offspring, but today there was this phone call. This accusation that I withheld the information about my driving record, as if I was hoping that somehow the person whose job it is to look under your fingernails for DNA might’ve missed it.
I could hear myself, groveling and pleading with this man who was born when I was a junior in college and I actually began to make myself nauseous. I hung up the phone and I thought to myself, “You know what?” Stick it, bro. I have a little dough. I’ve never seen Puerto Rico. So I booked myself a one week vacation on the beach. I’ll deal with all this shit when I get back. Employees of YRC–this includes myself–have not been given any official notice that they are unemployed. Middle management has been told to tell us “they don’t know.” This is for security reasons. Upper management certainly don’t want any irate workers to take any property or damage anything, even though it seems pretty certain that they have every intention of not paying any of us for the vacation time that they owe us. You can’t have everyone robbing everyone else. They don’t need the competition.
The fact that we’ve been told not to pick up any freight since Tuesday, I’m sure, tells us everything we need to know. That’s a wrap.
I’ll be honest: if I find out that this company is going to start me next week, I’ll take the loss on the plane fare. It wasn’t that much money. I can cancel the hotel by Saturday and not be charged. I would not feel too regretful because, when all was said and done, I’d have a job. The trip to Puerto Rico is a consolation prize. I refuse to spend my first week unemployed after six years sitting around an apartment in New Paltz, drowning in anxiety. I can just as easily sit on the beach and do that.
Thanks for sharing this Billy. I was worried when I saw a social media hashtag of #umemployed. However, I feel this is the beginning of something good. Take the vacation, enjoy the beach, do not take the other job. Sing your heart out today at Baldwin's. Something good will open, something new. Use time to write your novel and scout for a publisher. Put some teasers of the novel on Substack. Then look for jobs writing, editing and singing or anything that pays the bills. It won't be easy. But it could well be freeing. A lot of good stuff has happened for me when the world crashed around me. Not always, but usually. You have overcome other obstacles, bigger than job loss. Let the mom of your children and the girls know that $$ will be tight but your love, abundant. 💛
That really sucks Billy. I hope that you’re able to leave all of this job worry behind and enjoy the hell out of that vacation for the next week and that something good is waiting for you when you get back. ❤️