zianuray

I remembered this about the factory job and thought I'd share -- it just points out how some people will "cut off their nose to spite their face."

Maybe two or three years before the place closed down, we were "restructuring" and "crosstraining" to keep as many people actively employed as possible -- and I thank them for that.

I was asked to teach an older woman to run a certain high-tech machine.  We did OK the first two days and she was picking it up very well for someone without much computer experience.  Then she heard one of my friends mention to me that the Buddhist monks would be at her house that weekend and I was invited, which of course I accepted!

So trainee gets into no-no land.  She asks me if I'm Buddhist.  I'm not, so I say no.  She asks if my friend is Buddhist.  I say I don't know, that's not part of my job to know that.  She starts pressing me -- where do I go to church, am I Methodist, CoG, AoG, Baptist....
I repeat that's not something I like to talk about at work as it's not part of the job.  And that is true.

She grinds and moans and grumps for the next workday not paying attention at all to the training and ruining a part.  I finally tell her "OK, you want to know?  I'm a Witch, old-style.  Not Wiccan.  Witch.  Now can we get back to the task at hand?"  Next day she comes in early and goes to the supervisor, refuses to work in the same area with me anymore.  Supervisor points out we're trying to save her job, if she refuses training, we can't keep her past a certain point as her particulat job skills will be obsolete.

She's OK with that, she just can NOT be expected to work with me.

SOMEone leaves religious tracts -- specifically directed against Witchcraft -- on the machine just before my shift for the next couple of days.  The supervisor sees them and nearly goes ballistic as that's harassment.  No evidence of WHO left them, no one will admit to seeing her come in the area.  HR calls me in to discuss it, apologising that they can't really DO anything.  "That's fine, I was just going to trash them anyway, I know there's no way prove who left them.  And she's entitled to her opinion, as long as it doesn't interfere with the job."

Few weeks later, her area is closed.  The people who took training opportunities move to different parts of the plant.  She's "downsized."  Thing is, if she'd stuck it out, she'd have had a fairly easy job and would not have been on my shift so wouldn't have had to deal with me past that week.