111302

 

San Antonio, TX

Wednesday November 13, 2002

My Unjust Termination From Computer Express

The purpose of this dissertation is to document the happenings on Wednesday, November 13, 2002.

                   Let's see, the day started out with my usual 5 mile walk/nature-hike to work. I arrived around 8am and began helping my coworkers load up the truck for the deliveries we were going to make that day. We had two schools to install computers at. When the truck was loaded up, we left. David, Mike and Tony went in the car and Eric, Lalo and I went in the truck. I had to sit on the floor between Lalo and Eric. Eric said he had been to the school before, so he knew how to get there. The guys in the car were following us, but Eric ended up getting lost, even though he had a map book.
                   Our first stop was the middle school, where the other guys were going to install computers in a lab. David was in command of that team. Everyone helped unload the truck and then we departed for the elementary school, De Zavala Elementary, I believe. I had worked on David's team in the past, but things ran a lot smoother with these guys. It was a lot more organized. Things were still not as organized as they could have been though.  When we arrived Eric, Lalo and I unloaded the truck. We set everything down in the front of the school and I was assigned a list of rooms. I loaded up dollies and delivered all the pieces. CPU's first, then monitors and accessories. Then I got to work setting up the computers in each room. I may have taken a bit longer than the other guys setting up the systems. That's only because I am a perfectionist and tend to take the time to double-check my work. There's a difference between being slow and being thorough. I was getting faster though. It was all a learning process. Practice makes perfect.
                   Well, anyway, we finished installing some of the keys to the cable-locks had been misplaced. When we first started this contract, it was never made clear to the team what we were supposed to do with the keys. At first we had assumed one key fit all the locks and we would just collect them. Later we found that each cable had its own personal key. I was given a set of stickers to label the keys with and I used them all. I asked Lalo if he had any more stickers and he told me no, to just give the keys to the teacher, so I did, on one occasion. I then asked Eric what I was supposed to do with the keys and he told me I didn't have to lock them, so I just left the keys attached to the lock, assuming the teachers would keep them. There was a big confusion with the keys.
                   When we finished, we had a mountain of boxes to break down and Styrofoam to throw in the school dumpster. I didn't have a knife, so I had to break the boxes down by hand and boot. I made sure everything was clean before we left also. When we were finally done and ready to leave Eric called the shop and we were told to return to the middle school and help the other guys finish. When we arrived, I walked around by the dumpster and spotted Tony. He told me, "What's up Dirty, hey can you roll me a cigarette?" I told him I was almost out, but handed him my pouch of tobacco and told him he could roll it. He said he didn't know how and I told him, "Well, now is a good time to learn, I'm always rolling cigarettes for you." We were out by the dumpster and there was no one around. Tony poured out the remaining tobacco onto a dollar bill. We were in front of this high concrete platform. Just then, a gust of wind came and shook the dollar and spilled a little tobacco out. Tony wiped the tobacco off the concrete and onto the dollar bill. He then begged me to roll it for him. I took the tobacco-laden dollar and twisted it up real quick and gave him the cigarette. Tony lit it and puffed away.
                   I then followed Lalo inside the school. It seemed like they had finished setting up the systems and all they needed help with was trash. They had all these boxes piled in the hallway, and we were on the second story. I thought, "Damn, it's going to take a very long time to roll out all these boxes to the dumpster downstairs and outside. Then I got the idea to line up all the boxes and just push them down the hall. Me and Lalo pushed the boxes down the hall to the staircase. I told him to just push them down the stairs. We all chunked the boxes down the stairs and formed another pile at the bottom of the stairs. I then lined them up once again and we pushed them to the door near the dumpster. Right outside the door, there were like six more steps, so I tossed everything down and lined them up once more. Lalo grabbed a few boxes and went to the dumpster and started breaking them down. While he was doing that, I pushed all the other boxes closer to the dumpster. Eric, Lalo and I broke all the boxes down and took out the Styrofoam. When the trash dumpster was heaping with Styrofoam, I climbed up into it and started breaking down the Styrofoam with my boots, so more could fit.
                   I was sure to pick up any loose trash and we finally left in the truck. Lalo was nice enough to let me sit in the seat so I wouldn't have to sit on the floor. As we were driving home, Eric got lost again and it took us forever to find the highway. We finally arrived at the shop at 7:30pm, but it was all closed. Luckily, David agreed to give me a ride home.

                   So Thursday, the 14th, I go into work around 8am. I go to the back and help them load up the truck for the day's deliveries. Lalo asked me to roll him a couple cigarettes for the road, so I did. I was then told we were having a meeting in the conference room. At the meeting, Jim explained that yesterday was one of the worst days that we had. Then he started yelling at me about the keys. I told him that the people in charge never made it clear what we were supposed to do with the keys, that it was their responsibility. Then Jim said, "Oh, and Victor, you were rolling a cigarette on school grounds?" I told him, "Yeah, right after I was begged to roll one for a coworker while we were out by the dumpster." He asked me who had asked me, and I mistakenly said Lalo had, because he's always asking me to roll a cigarette for him. Jim said, "Oh, if Lalo jumps off a cliff are you going to also?" It was Tony, in fact that asked me to roll him a cigarette because he didn't know how. Tony even smoked the cigarette on school grounds. Jim then said, "You know about the rules, I'm terminating you. You can pick up your check tomorrow, and we'll mail you your last one."
                   I feel like this termination is totally uncalled for. I was made the scapegoat for all the problems that occurred that day. It's not my fault the people that were put in charge didn't do their jobs right. I was blamed for it all though. In reality, we should have had a big meeting before we even started the work. Everyone should have been made crystal-clear of what was expected of them. It was me who was blamed for all this incompetence. Everything was unorganized. Maybe I should make SAISD aware.
                   I know Jim thinks I'm crazy, Mike told me. I am responsible and do my work everyday though. I feel like Jim was just itching to find something to pin on me so he could fire me. When this whole ordeal happened, he promptly took advantage of the opportunity and terminated me, even though I am innocent. Maybe I should file for unemployment. It was after all, a wrongful termination.

Well, that's the truth..

- Victor

Next day..