There has GOT to be some sort of conspiracy going on here to get me out of Spirit Airlines. That thought has never been too far from my mind since the day I hired in.
How could bad feelings have festered before I even started work there? You be the judge of what went down in the months leading up to the hiring, and please TELL ME where I may have messed up...
I was juggling jobs in 2000, where I worked as a dispatcher and a porter at Woodhaven Lanes. Woodhaven was an on-call - the dispatcher job was only 30 hours per week. I needed the security of one full-time job that could guarantee me 40 hours per week. Spirit provided it, and I figured since I was lugging stacks of seven milk crates with a metal rod around the plant, I could likely handle bags and build some sort of physique, which would be good emotionally as well.
Spirit had an interview set up with me back in October of that year. I ended up reneging and telling Mike that things were coming along better, particularly with the promise of more hours at the bowling alley. He said "okay," like nothing happened.
Then, four jobs came and went over the span of seven months, heightened by that move to Tami's house which triggered immense financial pressure. When I lost the job at Downriver Cab, I had no place to go. So breaking a silence I had with Mike since the move five months earlier, I called him up. His reluctance to put me through to Spirit a second time was blatantly obvious. This time, I figured, I stood a better chance of sticking with it; there was no safety net in place to where I could fall back on.
Through the years there, I've heard rumblings that Mike, as well as one of the supervisors, were actually placing bets on how long I would last there. Six months seemed to be the going rate, as far as I knew. From time to time, I've brought that up when work comes to a head, but it's always been denied. Apparently, one supervisor overruled the other three "nay" votes and put me to work in August 2001.
It was rather ironic that the lone dissenting supervisor in this case lost his OWN job four months later amid a drinking binge.
Now I'm back to work after a long layoff and that fingerprint mess. My second day in, I'm called to see the new ramp manager, Cari. She sets me down and says that I need perfect attendance for the next four months... absolutely perfect attendance... no call offs due to life threatening illnesses either... or I will be terminated on the spot.
They recently switched to a point attendance system versus a step attendance system that I was used to. According to Cari, I re-entered work on the Step 3, one next to termination. Funny thing is, I was never served paperwork for Step 3 my whole time there! Until dipshit doctor came around and said I should win acting awards, Spirit accepted my injury whole-heartedly, workers comp notwithstanding. Nobody told me I should think about coming in because my attendance was at risk. No warnings... nothing.
I looked at Cari and said "I'll do my best, but I'm not guaranteeing anything." I left it at that and ran off in a huff down to the ramp.
True honesty is missing in this world. It's hidden under masks. If they really don't like me (which I know they don't), and want me out, why don't they just TELL me?
I'm there to work... not to play games. And by the way, if you were in my shoes, you would say without a doubt the past five months were no game.
