Witch Hunt at Work
 

I work at a chemical plant that will be shutting down in a year or so due to the fact they are bringing a new plant online in a country with cheap energy, labor, and very lax environmental laws. I'll give you a guess where. I will get to take a slightly early retirement which after 32 years of shift work I am ready for. Thing is we will only run if we have enough people to supposedly do it safely. There are some units that work 800 hrs per year overtime. So they have been having a real hard time keeping people. There are multiple refineries around here and they are snatching people up left and right. We are due for our yearly bonus the second week in March. It is based anywhere from 5-10% of gross pay. Last year that meant most guys got from 7-10+k. We have acess to the internet, e-mail, cell phones etc. At night they leave you alone. I work in a 1 man unit and see nobody at night and have 1-2 phone calls. 12hr shifts. A lot of time to surf the net, read, whatever. They've had a pretty loose definition of what are acceptable e-mails although if you read the fine print they can get you for any kind of sexually oriented e-mails.

So we've gone from 420 employees 10 years ago to 200 now. Making way more product and more money than ever. We get an e-mail from the HR manager last week warning of sexually explicit e-mails bla bla bla, with a final warning to not delete anything in any file. Of course everyone is dumping questionable stuff out the kazoo. So far they've nailed 9 and we've heard as many as 2 dozen could get it. By that I mean no bonus and on probation. At this point so many guys can walk across the road for more money and already have that it is like management is looking for a reason to close this place early. Thank goodness I don't receive this kind of e-mail, they must think I'm to old, so I'm in the clear. I will be surprised if there isn't an ass whoopin or someone going postal.

If you want some questionable e-mails sent, just post your address.

sucks, I hate it when HR goes on these types of which hunts. Really, whats next? No assless chaps on casual Fridays? The madness must stop.

I'm not complaining. The thing is these dolts (management), think because they pay so well that more guys won't just say f--k you in the -ss and feed you beans and walk across the road for a better paying job retention package be damned. I really don't care how many quit more OT for me, better retirement. But how many of you post from work? Are you supposed to be doing it? I doubt it.

This is at least the second thread I've read here that illustrates the devastating effects of our trade imbalance on a real person right here on the message boards. And yet, there are those who still defend the current policy. Will we ever get America back?

Sorry to hear of your plight LP. I know that wasn't really the point of your post but I hope things work out for you.

Your lucky your an old fkin geezer, what will it be like in 20 more years?

We've talked about it before but the internet is a slippery sloping trap if you read it at work. The thing they got these guys on the e-mail is that they'd received e-mails with inapropriate material and instead of deleting them had saved them, or forwarded them. Like I said I guess most of the younger guys think that stuff is for the younger bucks since I have a daughter older than some of them. I guess I should go into my pictures and delete some of the pictures I have saved that have come from random pictures over the years. They may go hunting in there one of these days when their bored again and don't want to save on paying bonuses.

I would ask HR what they would suggest you do with incorrect emails that you did not have anything to do with when they pop up in your inbox? They are spam, were not something you did not request and now HR wants you not to delete them yet later on get fired for them? Something does not sound right here...

Better yet, post the email addy of the HR droid and we'll send *them* the dirty emails...

Or sign them up for adult dating services here in Japan :D They are persistent f'ers.
Email you like every 20 minutes.

sad thing is that I never had gone to those sites. lolo, I apparently went somewhere ;) but not them!

Like I said I must be to old and not cool enough to get the explicit e-mails from the young guys. Rumors are flying that there could be up to 30 people involved. Some here think the company Ceo and his cronies don't want to pay bonuses to a plant that has been sold and is soon to be shut down and scrappped.

I would bet that is exactly what is going on. Why pay a bonus to a guy when the whole plant won't be there in a year anyway? More people get mad at your witch hunt and quit? Cool! Less bonuses! And don't lay them off - you may have to pay severance - find a way to fire them! And then when it comes time for the CEOs review he will get a big bonus for his "cost cutting maneuvers".

The CEOs of today are the kids who were picked last in gym and pushed into the girl's bathroom in grade school, now it's their time to be the "big man".

It beats me why HR is never considered an important enough function to report to the CEO, or at least to a VP. It is typically treated as a bastard stepchild, buried in the Finance department or something. And now, we've got IT. Those two offices have WAY more power than all other divisions combined. Substantially more influence than Finance or Marketing or Operations......or all three.

Sounds like it's time to start using PGP