MAGGI PICAYUNE

So Thursday night was ugly and it put me in an awful mood as you may know from the big story in Headlines. To top it off, my phone was low on power. I decided to use the car-based-cigarette-lighter recharger I bought a while back. It works better when I drive on the highways has been my experience and it led to me changing my route from the housesitting place to my house. I hopped on to 183 South, hooked around to MOPAC, no sweat. Course, in my ongoing anger over the Kenny-Wife situation, I turned off the “paying attention to MOPAC” element of my brain. I completely missed the last free exit on MOPAC North as I turned into the first 50-cent exit. TXDOT did a swell job on this: coins only (I had none), a TXDOT pass (never had a need) and an empty toll both. Seems they never heard of a debit card option for those who don’t need to carry cash anymore. Gunning the lane wouldn’t be wise. I saw the cars going through the pass lane getting zapped with a flash; probably takes a picture of the license plates in case the driver doesn’t pay and I’m sure the fine is hefty.

Then a car was behind me. I went back and explained to the driver and his passenger, “Hello, I’m a complete moron having a rotten evening and by the way, can I have 50 cents?” Okay, not that yet it might as well have been such a statement. They willingly gave me the money, saying it was no big deal. However, I felt no good deed should go unrewarded. I ran back to the car and gave them one of my USB memory sticks. It didn’t have anything on it I cared about. Besides the overwhelming majority of people own PCs, they’d reformat it as the Mac elements would be unreadable. At first, the driver was like, no no, it’s okay, I said it’s not okay, I wasn’t thinking and this is worth around $20, I insist please, you’ve helped me greatly, then ran back to my car.

Hopefully, they’re not scarred by the experience; some crazy white dude in a VW Golf lacking the brains to keep toll money in his glove box. I also doubt they’ll ever read my web page but I still want to thank them for the quarters and helping a stranger. We live in violent times, even in a laid back city like Austin, you never know who’s got a gun because it’s still Texas.

Well, I think enough of the dust has settled in this whole debacle that began Thursday and came to an ugly, though not unexpected, outcome.

Short version:

Somara and I no longer work for Kenny at Kenny’s Coffee Co. We resigned, offered to finish up in four and two weeks respectively but Kenny chose to just us leave instead.

Long version, if you want to read it. Otherwise, the story’s over:
Somara has had constant problems with Andrew in the kitchen, primarily when the boss, Alice, isn’t present. Andrew would frequently curse and have other temper tantrums aimed at her, creating a hostile work environment. He was also skilled at hiding it from others, doing his who me? routine when confronted. It doesn’t help that he’s pretty large (over six feet tall), been in the Army, has only a high-school education and unfortunately, he’s black. Unfortunate? Yes, the skin color thing cuts both ways. No one’s going to cut him slack in Williamson or Travis County since ethnic relations aren’t too hot in the Austin area right now, especially with the white cop shooting a black guy in the back recently. On the other hand, Somara is the wife of The Man since being white automatically makes us the oppressors, etc. It was a no-win situation.

After his latest meltdown over her leaving him dishes to clean, Somara turned in her four weeks. Initially, I was pissed. I wanted to be consulted over this before she made such a rash decision. This did lead to a rather nasty argument between us and a misadventure on the tollway, see the story about the Good Samaritans of MOPAC. I then decided to investigate by calling Alice. Other than being told she hadn’t talked to Andrew and the only remedy she had was to cut both their hours to keep them apart, as you would with children or a cell block. I admit to stewing over it too much, not healthy. I chose to call Kenny on Friday morning to let him know I was dissatisfied with the constant problems with Andrew, drove by the shop to tell Alice I’m giving my two weeks and went on to Apple to write up the official letter. I even spoke to a lawyer friend about possible litigation over this. My bosses at Apple were generous enough to let me take the rest of the day off to get this ironed out.

Now wait, what about doing the proper thing by going through the chain of command as one should do? For example, at my job with Apple, if I had a problem with my immediate boss or a coworker, I discuss it with my immediate boss. Should the results be inadequate, I can go to my boss’s boss and then Human Resources. Going directly to HR will result in being told to follow the chain of command unless it’s something warranting their prompt attention. Sounds no different than my friends’ employers with or without HR departments. Somara had been through this several times with Alice and/or Kenny, all to no real avail other than to punish both of them. I admit to being biased toward my wife, it’s part of the deal in marriage. I’m not a zombie neither, she makes mistakes too and could be partially to blame in this. Not likely when it comes to Andrew. I think he forgot we’re married. I’ve seen some of his egregious behavior plus he had the same issues toward another cook who left under a dark cloud. Andrew only got away with it because the other cook had problems besides Andrew. Alice usually did what she could and I think she gave up, washed her hands of this. Kenny’s standard resolutions were unsatisfactory and usually getting pissed off was the accompanying part.

In Kenny’s defense, I will write this. As a small business owner, it’s a tough gig. Sweating over the infighting of the employees is just one of a hundred other crises to solve. Putting too much effort into it takes away from more lucrative or critical matters. Firing Andrew wouldn’t have been the easier solution because a replacement takes time to hire, train and kitchen work has a high turnover rate. I know it would’ve been the smarter move since it now cost him two loyal, experienced, well-trained and effective employees. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time Kenny has made a bad decision over people as time may tell.

Regarding my resignation letter, I think I summed it up pretty well the “why,” Andrew’s behavior. I’m not going to post it because that’s uncool and unprofessional. The key point I will share is that the situation hadn’t been actually resolved, never looked like it would be and I wasn’t going to wait until Andrew did do something violent such as hit Somara. I probably went over the top on a couple other things I don’t want to discuss but I made my point; my wife comes before him in loyalty should her safety be at risk. His rebuttal by voice mail was as calm as it was misinformed. I was never disgruntled, if I were, I would’ve quit long ago. I said bad things about the company, that’s a new one since I’ve done much to promote it. Saying something bad about him, that’s debatable as I criticized his leadership and management skills regarding the Andrew mess while I would walk on hot coals for him. My guess is he went with hearsay and I’m not surprised, it seems to be the pattern with Kenny. He chose not to let us finish out, wrap up loose ends and did the “safe” thing by dismissing us instead. He probably feared us creating more damage in the time remaining while Andrew will continue to screw up orders and go in circles when he’s overwhelmed.

What now? Most of the crying for Somara and me is over; hers being the loss of her first semi-baking job and mine the loss of a friend and all those people I see every Sunday. The anger? It’s subsiding in both of us. At least she’s done being ultra pissed over my “meddling.” I did relay through one of my weekly regulars why we won’t be around anymore, no details, just said we’re gone and thanks for all his patronage, let the others know the same. We will miss them. There will be no sabotage or rumor spreading from our camp. Everybody lost in this horrible demonstration of flaring tempers, lashing out emotionally and refusing to talk it out. I accept a big piece of blame but when the dust settles, the bulk of this rests on Kenny’s shoulders; first rule of leadership, you’re responsible for the actions of your people whether they be employees, soldiers, children, followers or slaves.

Thanks to my friends Adam and Jeremy. I took my mind off it all with an Express v. Redbirds baseball game. It worked. I was civil on the phone asking Kenny a couple quick questions, namely cashing out my 401k and were we fired because we were only told indirectly via Alice, we’re not welcome around the shop right now. Other than his statement about how he’s still mad, I got my answers and I felt okay even if there were a dozen nasty, tempting things to say. I blame or credit my years at Apple too.

Somara already has a new temporary tech offer in the works. It may go through or not, the key thing is the agency got talking to her Friday morning which is a relief. I told her to go ahead and apply with hotels again. I seriously doubt Kenny could blacklist her, he’s not part of the culinary circles she’s trying to break into. Besides, a past employer can only state you worked somewhere, nothing more or a lawsuit appears faster than Robert Bork falling down at the Yale Club.

What I will be doing with the additional free time is the next big question for me since it hit me last night while reflecting on it in a letter to futureme.org—for the first time in almost nine years, I will only be working one job! The additional money won’t be a serious loss, nothing urgent needed it and our budget is based around my Apple income and Somara’s salary fills the gaps. I do want to keep working Tuesday through Saturday at Apple because Mondays off is great for running errands or general relaxing. The next step will be finding a new coffee shop to patronize with reliable wireless access.

I wish Kenny, Alice and the others good luck. I’m going to stick to the high road as much as possible but my wounds are still healing so I may drift, I’m only human. Who knows, there could be a reconciliation. I have an ex-girlfriend communicating with me via e-mail after a decade, anything is possible.

Sorry, but some ugly, personal matters kicked in the door last night (metaphorically) and they need to be brought to a conclusion. What the outcome may be…who knows? It may even carry over into the next month so the colors and banner may remain the same too.

What’s it about? Best not to discuss it until later and again, when it’s concluded.

I apologize again but keep checking back.