Author Archives: johnozed

About johnozed

I'm 50+ years old, 210-ish#, 6'2", reddish blonde, blue eyes with glasses (and without) masculine, funny, relatively intelligent, enjoy the company of assorted friends and family especially sordid friends and family. I love music, reading, writing, conversing, laughing, going to films, shows, concerts and smoking cigars. And I also enjoy looking nice in a suit and tie. Looking more like Lewis Lapham than Tom Wolfe. I'm sure there is more, but we'll just have to find out when I write about it. In a lifetime relationship with partner Bill Vila.

I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling

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Wednesday again, at where else but the cigar shack. It seems my days are numbered. Part of the letter I had written was regards to bank deposits that I usually make, but on 2 days that I did not make the deposits, it was reported that the deposits were off.

And that was part of the letter which I had read and had to sign in front of super assistant manager Calvin. Today I heard from Thomas who had actually made those deposits in my stead, and he said that the deposits were fine, the bank clerk initially miscounted the money.

Still I am the one who was blamed for the shortfall. Another letter goes into my file and I suppose that at a certain point those letters will be used to get rid of me.

Yesterday I got an application for another shop. Sean, former employee hooked me up and on lunch today I filled it out. It might be for less money, but it would not have this aggravation, the shenanigans that ensue and the incredibly retarded management that goes on here in the cigar shack.

I even met with the manager of the new place who asked me a few questions and said he would forward the application to the hiring manager. Nothing else seems to be happening.

I sent my resume into the bibliothèque once again, no word from them. No world from Donald the K either. I can’t sit around and wait and I obviously can’t stay at the cigar shack since I can’t help but feel that they got it in for me.

Gone is the concept of doing the right thing and giving two weeks notice. No, I think if I get another job, I will simply quit. It’s not like the management Wallenda’s of Marcus & Calvin would give me notice anyhow. Especially not after their hijinks.

Tonight I will more than likely be done with my work at 9:10 and I will have to stay here until 9:30. No more bus rides with Hyman and more importantly, no getting home by 10:00. I am just so sick and tired of this place.

And the new guy, the Boy Wonder Thomas left early since he was feeling ill. The Bradley is staying until 8:00 in case it gets busy, and it’s pointless since after 7:00 this cigar shop and the surrounding area is like a cemetery.

He’ll pick up and extra hour of overtime since I am obviously too incompetent to manage the cigar shack on my own. I’d much rather he leave, and right now he’s somewhere in the area, taking a tobacconist test, something they will have me do at some point down the line, and of course it’s something I certainly do not want to do.

Almost at 500 words right now so maybe I should end here and continue at home. I could write about the supposed boycott that is occurring, former regulars are now at the competition, which Marcus claims is not the competition despite the fact that our once loyal customers are going there and not here and writing about it all on Facebook.

525. Now I am home. It’s 10:34. It did not make any difference at all whether or not I left at 9:10. I was done with my work at 9:10 but from the memo yesterday I am scheduled to work until 9:30 so I had to stay until 9:30.

I clocked out on the computer with the slow clock which read 9:29 so I punched in again and waited until it actually read 9:30.

Prior to 9:00 though, one of my favorite customers came in, a nice guy named Jimmy Seltzer. He always comes in later and is so well regarded by most everyone he gets special permission to sit and have a smoke without other people around.

We usually have good chats and tonight I told him about this here blog. He pulled it up on his iPhone and read some of it, and actually enjoyed it, or at least said it was well written.

It was a nice boost or bandage to my shattered ego.

Camera


I Gotta Know

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Back to work for me today and I was reprimanded soon after I came in. Thanks to the inept management and with my less than satisfactory training I messed up. I could not reconcile the credit card machine and the register.

I did try a few times but I eventually gave up due to mental fatigue. They also did not appreciate the fact that I’ve been leaving the cigar shack at 9:15 instead of 9:30. Hundreds of times I’ve closed the registers and reconciled both machine and register with no problems, but once or twice and I get into big trouble.

They claim they have scheduled me to work until 9:30 ‘to execute proper and accurate closing procedure. The extra ½ hr. is meant to give you enough time to close the cash drawer and accurately count the night’s deposit.’

So even though 99% of the time it goes smoothly and I have completed the day’s work by 9:10 now I will have to stay there for another 20 minutes and do what? Clean the glass and windows that have been cleaned throughout the day over and over, and then cleaned again by the cleaning woman?

Apparently I will have to find something to do. So no more bus riding with Hyman Gross on the way home. And leave it to me, I left tonight at 9:15 out of habit. Totally forgot the reprimand and the memo. Everything matched up anyhow. I might hear something about it tomorrow, or somewhere down the line.

Marcus and Calvin are two of a kind, with Marcus holding the leash and Calvin barking when commanded. A situation like this could have been handled in a much better manner, that is if there were competent managers running the show, but there isn’t. It’s just Calvin & Marcus. Marcus & Calvin.

I guess despite Calvin behaving like he’s a friend, he’s not. Despite him always asking if I think is this one gay. Is that one gay? Do I think Mike is gay? How about Jason? Nelson? Or any of the former regular customers who no longer frequent the cigar shack?

For a married man with a kid Calvin focuses more on gay life than I do and I’m gay. That’s why it doesn’t bother me that much (it does but I have to get over it) when Calvin poaches customers, or any other underhanded tactics he uses. He’s married with a kid and has a family to support on the hourly wages of a cigar sales clerk.

It can’t be easy. It’s not easy for me, but I do not have the same onus, and also I have Bill who keeps telling me he has my back and I know that he does.

So yeah, this is the place where a week or so ago, I erroneously wrote that I felt I was fitting in, accepting the situation that I find in from of me.

And like the conversation with Lovely Rita on the phone some time back, ‘You work retail, you really start to really hate people. And it’s not just the customers that you hate. It’s the people you work with, it’s the people you work for, it’s the people you see on the street, the people you ride the subway with, and the people you ride the bus with.’

I used to think of myself as a people person. Not so much these days.

It reminds me of that Arianna Sabatoni or known back then as Felicia of the McMann & Tate company, when Calvin and Marcus drunkenly told me how disappointed they were when they found out I was not the same person they interviewed in May of last year, Arianna said the same thing a week or so after I started.

Of course, a chick prone to riding the rails, a boozer that sneaks drinks and a dandy in love with himself aren’t really the best people to judge other people’s lives, wouldn’t you say?