Never let yourself become a doormat

For various reasons, I generally detest leaving wherever I'm at.. but part of the reason for that is that I don't allow myself to be used as a doormat either.

I think it's time to reveal my job history. The first paying job I had that wasn't with my father occurred about 6 months ago with a company called Merida (the city I live in) Data.

The work was mind numbingly simple. This is mexico; I was paid about 8 bucks a day (6 hours per day). Anyway, I have a philosopher friend and one day.. well, basically I went to see him an hour before work.. an hour passed.. I told him I had to go to work.. another hour passed... and another.. at some point I actually did go to work. Anyway, this and the fact that I got sick a few times and the boss was on me.. he's a nice guy, don't get me wrong.. it's just that, well.. he never appreciated my real talents.

It was mentioned by some employees that I'd be a better boss. But I never moved beyond sorting pamphlets. So, how did it end? Well, I got warning of the fact that the boss was concerned before the boss told me a word; the reason is that my then girlfriend (currently ex, but I'm working on that) is the human resources administrator and I'm sure he wanted to convey his feelings to her, who he respects, before handing me the news.

I got upset.. with her :-p. I ranted that I'd sue. After all, it was only once that I didn't show up on time because I was talking with my friend; the other times were for quite legitimate reasons (my father has things for me to do at times too.. and he certainly paid me more then the company I was working for).

Another thing; my being there on time wasn't exactly crucial for the company; if anything, they were saving money (I'm a bit slow at sorting papers).

And then remembered that I was in Mexico; you simply can't sue for something this type of thing. You can lie and make up some false accusation and get them with that, but I'm all about honesty.

So, after having my spat with my girlfriend about what I was going to do (remember that she's loyal to the company, despite the fact that they only pay her 600$ a month), I told her I wouldn't do it.

When I went to work, I mentioned to the manager (aka my boss) that I'd heard he wanted to speak to me. He brought me into the head office and explained that he was concerned about me missing hours. He asked if his company was right for me. I thought about it for a bit.. he told me that if I wanted to, I could take a few days off to think things over. I decided that would be a good idea. I believe it was the next day that I decided it would be best to resign (hey, if government officials can do it, why can't I ;-)?). I signed papers to that effect as well and they gave me a bit of cash (40$? Something like that).

songs I'm currently listening to...

Here they are

Long day

Well, I think I should introduce myself first. I'm a 30 year old Canadian and have been living in Mexico in my father and stepmother's house for 2 and a half years now. Yeah, I still live with my father and I'm 30; not good but I'm finally working on getting mexican citenzenship so I can work here legally. With us live a husband (the gardener) and a wife (the house help) along with their boy. The rest of my immediate family (mother, 2 sisters and my brother) still live in Canada but come here for vacations from time to time.

Well, today was a long day. It started out well enough; I went to get my motorcycle license. I failed the written test though (by just -one- question), so I'll be taking it again on Monday. That was the good part.

The bad part was when I found out that Sandra (the niece of my stepmother) had told the house help that I had phoned her and had come on to her and 'other garbage' (pendejadas for those who understand spanish). Something I never did. But I know why she did it. You see, it all started a few days ago. I had found out that she hadn't apologized to the help after the 'incident'.

What, you ask, was the incident? Well, for starters, the incident happened about 3 years ago. Sandra had been living in my father's house while studying. She was living there with the help and the gardener alone as my father, me and my stepmother were still living in Canada at the time.

One day, while my sister was vacationing there, she stole some money from her. She claims she thought it was my stepmother's but either way it was definitely wrong. Stealing it was bad enough. But she compounded when she refused to admit she'd done it even after my sister got the police involved and started questioning Sandra, the help and the gardener about it. Near the end of this ordeal, she even went as far as to try to get the help to say that she had stolen the money with Sandra just so that the investigation would end. The help was seriously considering paying back money she didn't steal just to end the investigation. In the end she didn't do this however, perhaps because Sandra finally confessed, either to the cops or to my sister. In any case, my sister apologized to the help and the gardener but wouldn't reveal who had 'done it'. Sandra, for her part, said to the help that she had admitted to doing it just so the investigation would end. This may be somewhat difficult to believe, but the help bought it :-p. It wasn't until much later that she found out that Sandra had in fact done it (she'd spent some of the money on some items and returned the rest).

For this offense, Sandra was banished from the house. She managed to find accomodations elsewhere in the city though. Years passed by; she was gradually allowed to come back to the house but there were reservations. To this day, I'm not sure if any of the parties have forgiven her. But it was only recently that I found out that with 2 of the parties concerned (the help and the gardener), she had never even apologized for what she did. This even -after- she knew that they knew she had done it all.

So I figure, well, this situation can be made better. All she needs to do is apologize. Only talking to it with the help, I only thought of her apologizing to the help. So I phone her up and tell her that I thought it'd be a good idea if she apologized to the help the next time she saw her. Anyway, that was a few days ago. She talked to the help a few times over the phone; I asked the help if she'd apologized. Nope. So I figure she's not going to do it. Her loss. But then she comes over because she needed some money (she alleges she'd had her wallet stolen). Me being my curious self, I peered out the window watching as she talked with the help. Maybe I should explain here that despite 'the inciden't, there had been a time not long after I'd come to live in Mexico where I had asked her to go out with me. I was just wondering what she was talking about. I didn't think she was apologizing, I was just curious as to what they were talking about for so long. Well, as it turns out, at the beginning she was explaining how she'd lost all her i.d. when she'd had her wallet stolen. But then, when she saw me, she must have assumed that I was thinking of 'checking' to see if she was going to apologize to the help. So she decides to go on the offensive saying that she doesn't want to see me and all because of things I never said to her.

So that was my day. That and lots of Warcraft.