Bubblehead's Monthly Meeting

 

After the Great Layoff of 2009, when our company owner made good his promise to get rid of people if Obama was elected, I was out of a job, one I loved for nearly ten years. It was not easy finding anything or anyone who would hire me. After almost eight months I was hired by a property management company to clean apartment buildings after they became vacant. It was a part time job, one where I had three interviews before being hired. The woman who interviewed me the first round was a very nice older woman who kept asking me what cleaning products I used. It was a strange question since she had already told me the products they provided. I wasn't planning on mixing up my own batch of environmentally safe magic potions. I sweated as I lied my way in. "Oh, yes, I use baking soda and toothpaste to scrub out my refrigerator." Whatever. After this nonsense went on for two months I was hired. Two weeks after I began, the lovely older woman retired and was replaced with "Bubblehead." She honestly had the roundest head I had ever seen. She came in smiling, but it was all a facade. We learned later she had zero experience as a manager and in fact was a nurse in her past life, one she refused to discuss. To say she was a cougar was putting it mildly, but I wasn't going to have to see very often except in the morning when we clocked in. 

I was barely surviving. I had nothing in the food pantry at home except for a container of spackle which I wasn't ready to try. I couldn't even afford a bar of soap. I stole toilet paper from the storage room from work and at one time brought home a box of pasta from the model apartment the managers showed to potential renters. Unfortunately, it had bugs in it. I was still tempted but threw it out. I did learn to make my own pasta when I bought a bag of flour for $1. The dollar store was my grocery store for nearly two years. On top of that Bubblehead expected we have monthly meetings where each month an employee would provide a main dish to share with eight people. The office people brought in three course meals while the cleaning people supplied lunch meat, cheese, chips and bread. My turn was coming up and I was panicking. Bubblehead knew I was struggling. I had to ask her for an advance on my paycheck to put gas in my car to get to work. I knew she had an emergency fund with cash to use and share. But, that's how low my situation had gotten- begging  for gas money. For the meeting, I thought I could make the homemade pasta and buy a cheap sauce so I wrote something down on the list she kept on the office bulletin board. A day before I was to bring in the monthly contribution I realized it wasn't going to happen. I had zero dollars to spare. I don't remember the meeting. I think another manager ordered sandwiches or something but I was embarrassed and also seething for being pressured into something that wasn't feasible. 

Which brings me to this story- about a woman who was going to retire so a co- worker emailed all the other employees expecting everyone to pitch in $50 for a nice meal and a gift. This reminds me of an episode of, 'Friends,' where the group is sitting in a restaurant and it was probably Monica who expected everyone to share equally the bill tab. Phoebe and Joey were barely existing whilst Monica, Ross and Chandler made good money. You just cannot ask people to contribute to a party when their means of survival is so lopsided.

I had been asked so many times to contribute to retirement parties, birthday blowouts, disease of the month clubs, school fundraisers, Christmas exchanges and so on. I usually complied which meant I went without. These expectations of everyone contributing to an employee event has got to end. I'm so fortunate right now that I no longer need to worry about putting gas in a car, or having to set aside a bill to buy groceries instead, but I certainly do remember what it's like to be eating leftover leftovers from a monthly meeting and borrowing ten bucks from a coworker to get to work the next day. It's humiliating and depressing beyond belief. 

Stop asking for money from employees for special events. It's tough out there. Even if we have the extra income, I don't want to use it on someone I barely know, or feel pressured into adding to the kitty. 

After I finally quit I heard months later from a former coworker who told me Bubblehead had been escorted out of the building one day after corporate finally caught on she had been stealing from the company, using the company card for her own personal use. Shocking. Not. I have a feeling she was no longer allowed to use her nursing skills for the same reason. I once found her on Facebook when I was still using the app, where she was surrounded by her current husband and two teenage boys. Still grinning, still with the giant round head Theresa Caputo would envy. I thought I'd feel elated that she had finally met karma. It only brought back those horrible days when I nearly ate a rancid plate of pasta. I truly believe people like Bubblehead eventually get what they deserve. Maybe not on my watch, but somewhere, some day.