Bad day at work

I want to get this blogged while things are fresh in my mind. You see, a pattern is starting to develop. A pattern of false accusations and such. These are bullying tactics. I want to have a record starting with today's incident, although it is by no means the first. In this way, I can prove harassment or a hostile work environment. If I should get fed up and quit, I can still get my unemployment that way, or at least I can protect myself somewhat by keeping this record.

It was cloudy, humid today and warm. I was working in the press room, where I usually work on Fridays. The presses are not run on Fridays and so I can get in to clean around and on the presses and the press room area so when the press room people come back on Monday, they have a clean environment. It was about 9:30 in the morning. I had finished a press and was going to get the sweeper machine to do a final sweep in that area. This involves unplugging the machine from the charger, winding the cord, and lowering the hood/seat that covers the battery compartment. The foreman was riding around on the forklift but my focus was on getting the machine operational so I could run it. I did my sweeping and parked in an adjacent area until I needed the sweeper again, and started cleaning on the next press. Presently the foreman comes and wants me to go out to my truck, though it was raining lightly. We got to my truck and he says he wants a demonstration. He asks me to open the door, which I did. Next, he asks me to close the door. So I did. This was the thing he was looking for. He says why is it that you close your own door nice and easy, but you slam down the lid on the sweeper? From there he was working up a head of steam. He said many things, including a couple of veiled threats to fire me. The gist of much of what he said was that I was showing the owner, Jack Dickerson disrespect by slamming the hood down, that people had reported this to him and that was why he was driving around on the fork lift, to see for himself. I told him I would not do it anymore and presently he went back inside the tool room,

In my own defense, I meant no one disrespect. All I did was let gravity take the hood down, which is different from closing a door. I would have closed the hood or my trunk the same way, but these things I was not asked to do. The accusation of deliberately trying to tear up the equipment is a false one and an outright lie. Listen, boys and girls, I'm poor. I don't steal, I don't sell drugs, I don't hurt people. I work hard, applying myself dilligently and I make an honest living doing things no one else wants to do. Furthermore, there was no damage to the hood, it still functions as it always did. Meanwhile, now I have to lower the hood ever so gently to show the proper respect for Jack.

What I don't quite umderstand, and probably should have asked, is whether or not I should go out of my way to show Jack the proper respect by chewing tobacco and spitting all over the place as the foreman, David Crowe does!