So, I booked next week off to have a hols with my missus, no probs there, but 1 of the dogs is very old and was getting pretty ill, so got her booked into the vets for yesterday.
Anyway, asked boss if there was any chance of the Friday off too, he says no chance. Took dog to vets, she was put to sleep, told boss he’s going to have to cover it, not in best state of mind for driving an artic on a Friday afternoon etc. He said he couldn’t cover it, so I turned my phone off…
Now, we don’t have any kids, our pets are our family, and the old girl had been with us for 13yrs and was fully grown when we got her (rescue dog).
If it were me mate, i couldn’t give a ■■■■! Family come first and always will and I include my dog in that, she’s my bloody world so i wouldn’t care. If your boss fires you because of that, then he’s a piece of crap anyway, but good luck!
If he’s worth one one-iota, you’l still have a job when you get back.
I hope theres no chance he’l see this thread??
Just to add, there’s no way i could go to work in those circumstances either.
waynedl:
Anyway, asked boss if there was any chance of the Friday off too, he says no chance.
There’s your mistake, you shouldn’t have asked him if you could have Friday off, you should have told him that you wouldn’t be available for work on Friday.
Gembo, that’s why I didn’t go in, I’d love to be the hard trucker who didn’t give a ■■■■, it’s just a dog etc, but it wasn’t to be.
dar, tbh we have a good working relationship, only 8 people work in our depot, so it’s all names, not numbers, but I may have landed him in a right crappy situation judging by the number of missed calls / messages.
Harry, maybe, but I didn’t think it’d hit me like it did and if he refused the time off, I had every intention of just getting on with my job. Don’t really do sickies, don’t get paid for them, just seems a waste of a days money to me.
I did say that I’d speak to him Fri afternoon if required (when I return from hols but before I go back to work), but he’s not responded
Sometimes it would be nice if these people realised people’s lives do not revolve around ‘that’ load getting to ‘that’ place and that death to all won’t happen if it does. If it is that urgent then paying a few quid more to get a driver in from an agency is surely worth it and will gain you friends and respect from the people who work for you and/or with.
I worked for a fella like that. 2 artics and a rigid (he drove the rigid). He wouldn’t pay agency or hire a vehicle due to costs. He’d rather lose the business than pay a bit out to keep it for the time being. An example would be (and why Im now an agency driver) when I went to Tenerife in Aug 2011. He got a class 2 guy in with limited experience as he was the only fella he knew on the dole who wouldn’t cost him a lot. He (the boss) drove my artic. 2 weeks later as I’m finishing my hol this rigid guy crashes under an 11ft bridge writing the rigid off. Rather than hire one and keep the contract he decided to wait for insurance to pay out but said to me to get some agency work (he knew I was registered for an odd saturday). I said "but my truck on my job (different contracts) was ok, he said “yeah, but what do I drive”. I said “that’s your problem and why you should hire one till you sort one out”. Anyway, 6 months later he text me saying he’d sorted another truck out but I never replied. I was earning double AND MORE what I was with him. He was my friend for 10 years, haven’t heard from him since.
Your family and I include the dog in that comes first. If you have a problem then move on and don’t worry about it.
My twopence worth Wayne; imo you did the right thing by not going to work. Hindsight may have provided a better/less confrontational way of dealing with the matter, but like you say you were in bits and not thinking straight.
As to whether you’ll have a job when you return from your hols, well I think that depends entirely on how good your past relationship has been with your gaffer. Yes he was ■■■■■■ off that in his perception of it you’d dropped him in the proverbial, and from his point of view that is perfectly understandable. I do think though that your hols will act as a cooling down period for him and after a bit of consideration from his behalf and providing you’ve previously been reliable, punctual etc in the past then it’ll be forgotten about. One day the two of you will probably joke over it.
If you do enjoy the job then I sincerely hope it all works out ok for you.
He’l have cooled down after a couple of days anyway. Does he have a dog?? Thats the problem, only folk who do, understand.
Just do some arse kissin and tell him you were in bits etc. Sure it’l work out fine.
If you were knockin bits off motors every five minutes and throwing sickies every week, you may have a problem, other than that, dont worry about it.
It depends on your relationship with your boss, and do you take days off on a regular basis for other trivial things?
If you do, then it’s the job centre for you, He has a business to run in very difficult times.
I would think they would take some kind of disciplinary retaliation if only to save face in front of other employee’s or make an example of you , i suppose it depends on how your face fits as to the severity of it, gross misconduct perhaps ? they don’t need much of an excuse to sack people these days, so its basically between verbal or written warning or if they are looking to lay drivers off in the quiet months to save a few quid, the full red card. I admire a person with principles , sometimes maybe foolhardy in the current climate, but like me you wear your heart on your sleeve, say it like it is and do not suffer fools gladly, good luck either way Wayne.
Used to work for a large(ish) 80 truck company, gaffer was a rouge but also sound to work for, once stuffed my truck into a wall in snow, only to basically get called a prat and that was it, same boss rang me one day, my mrs was trying to get hold of me, one of my dogs was very ill and she was rushing it to the vets. Boss told me to stuff the load, take the truck home straight away and get to my wife. Sound bloke.
You are going to have one awkward phone call when you get back though. If you text him and ask what the work is he may just blank you forcing you into ringing. He may then just have a go at you and tell you what you are doing or he may say he doesn’t want drivers like you, if he says that then just say well I’m not one of these people who puts money or a boss before my family. Like you seem to be.
Had one of the office staff done the same would he be constantly harrassing them ? No he wouldn’t. He should have dealt with it better.
Work to live your life. Don’t live your life to work.
If your not in a fit state to drive a lorry (whatever the cause) then you shouldn’t drive. If you’re not able to concentrate properly then you might reverse into something or make a stupid mistake which would cost your boss money. Worse even, you could make a stupid mistake on the road and then your day really would be ■■■■ and your boss would be very upset with you.
You shouldn’t have switched your phone off and should of just spelled it out simply & firmly. I’m not doing it, if you want to fire me that’s fine. Some people think they can talk you round though so you may not have been clear enough. How does he deal with sickness? Doesn’t seem very prepared if you ask me
Id say you’ll be out of a job tbh, bosses don’t like being ignored!
One guy I worked for had the ■■■■■■■ because I wasn’t in a fit state to drive the afternoon after my Grandmother’s funeral (she was cremated in the morning)! He said I could only have the morning off. He was a bit annoyed for a couple of days after I never showed that afternoon, but there weren’t any real ramifications.
You might find yourself not doing much overtime or any runs where significant money can be earnt for a week or two, but my guess is if they’re a small company, it’ll quickly blow over.
Bollocking, paid for the day, taken off future leave. Done.
To be quite frank, if any employer handed over the P45 at this point, I would assume that this boss was looking for any old excuse to do that anyway, and would have handed it to you had you taken 4 minutes to take a ■■■■ instead of 3 - if not for this.
These situations upset bosses, because they’ll have to call in a last-minute agency for cover - which costs, even if the agency bod themselves doesn’t get much of it. There are plenty of “family owned” type hauliers who’ll try and get through the entire year at a time without ever calling in for agency cover normally.
There’s a lot of problems here that could be avoided outright if one didn’t take the phone away with you when on holiday too…
“Need to be contacted in an emergency?”
The Emergency has already occured. To get you to drop everything at work, and get your arse home pronto. This is not a two way street imo, as other posters have stated regarding the “Life and Soul for the firm” theme…
Once you’re in communicado, you’re unable to be interrupted further. Leaving the phone behind (NOT taken with you, but switched off!) means you take your holidays and deal with domestic crisies in relative peace.
You’re much more likely to get away with it with the boss, if you don’t throw sickies all the time to see the cup final, and the like.
