Know Your Rights - The police came to my house

As I have rediscovered blogging and the new way of writing about personal experiences, hopefully this may be my niche.

Now all that needs to be done is to save everything, this can be such a learning process.  One such example of that would be, when I deleted a voice message from Sgt. Lacossee this morning, which would have made an awesome sound file with this Blog post. His voice message was that he received my email, which was really a fax, and that he wanted to try to settle it but since I wanted to go this route I better contact my lawyer.  I'm really not to sure what the issue is about for an officer from Menands to contact me even though I'm sure the fax made Sgt. Lacossee pretty irate from the tone of his voice though.  As for Lacossee's comment regarding that he wanted to speak to me about just settling it, he is trying to only intimidate me with his badge and law enforcement title.  Answering questions can be harmful and after that unemployment fiasco, trusting anybody within the law and Dick involved in the same sentence only makes me extra cautious. That fax letter does notify the Menands law enforcement that Sgt. Lacossee did come to my residence in Cohoes, which is out of his jurisdiction.

It probably does have something to do with Dick and FT.  When you have a Blog stating issues about your last employer and there are a handful coworkers, whom are on your facebook friends list, reading your blog tongues will waggle.  A part of me does feel bad about exposing Dick this way, for some strange reason, and it is really is confusing as to why I do feel bad about it.  One reason is because Dick isn't who he said he was and really is not a very nice, honest person.  It hurts thinking about that and is humiliating also when I remember how I would look at him with such admiration in the past.

The main point is to hopefully help employees be aware that they have rights at their place of employment.  It is an unfortunate thing that there are people in this world that are allowed to have enough stature and use money, strings and intimidation to get what they want.  When this happens you just have to get loud about what you believe in to help others.  When this is thought over, most people who do get obnoxious and pushy for what they believe in can possibly cause some law enforcement to try and step in to stop it.  Just remember hearing stories about individuals that had spent time in jail before they got what they wanted in regards to, Martin Luther King, AIDS and the treatment of employees in sweat shops to name a few.  Many times somebody will try to convince me to let it go but that is just the point.  Every time somebody is screwed over by letting company owners like Dick get away with this type of behaviour only gives that unfair person the green light to do it again.

People will not listen much of the time when you are trying to prove somebody they believe to be wonderful who really is not a good person. If you open up enough eyes, even if it just a slit, while you are fighting for what is right they will hopefully than see both sides.  Employees do not have to sign write ups, especially if you do not agree with the write up.  Also, did you know that your employer cannot send you home, threaten to suspend or fire you for not signing a write up.  That type of thing done by an employer is illegal and considered being hostile.  If the employer does try to write you up for something that makes you feel uncomfortable with or you do not agree with, ask for a copy of the employer's reasoning, in writing, before you sign it. Next save that copy for future reference for your own protection and do not feel afraid or intimidated by doing this because if the write up does seem unfair than most likely the employer is trying to get rid of you anyways.

There is a website that gives legal advice that I came across, this site gives free excellent legal information regarding various matters when it comes to your rights.  One question that was finally answered was regarding a write up that was given to me while employed at FT on 12/5/11, click here to read the response.

Ever wonder what makes a person who does bad things tick?

Here is something for everybody to check out, can you guess what this letter is for?

Anybody who might have been following my posts since the beginning or has at least read back enough to get an idea also may know Dick personally.  Those who have known Dick long enough has possibly been been the target of Dick's ridicule and other variety of unprofessional attacks at FT, whether you are an employee at FT now or was in the past.  You must also know that if he does know about this Blog, he is mad, but because I never used his real name or company name not much can be done about it.  Lets say the media got their hands on a criminal record of Dick's and printed it in a newspaper or even a news blog using Dick's real information, including the name of the company Dick owns, there would not be to much he could do about it legally unless it was untrue.


What sucks is the fact that he was aloud to, possibly,  an email that was sent to either him or Lori, the Employee Assistant Program Representative at the time of my employment at FT, and pass it along as an inappropriate email sent to a coworker.  In fact the email was me reporting serious issues to Dick and Lori about things going on in the office.  What's even amazing is that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) had to know this wasn't an email to a coworker because of the fact that:

1. The ALJ never showed me an email that was supposedly one that I had sent to a coworker and never asked me questions, such as, why did you sent this email to this coworker.
2. When the ALJ asking questions during the hearing, he kept sticking the hand written notes under my nose, which I never saw while employed at FT, and asking questions, such as, what where you thinking when this happened.  

Maybe I am wrong and this isn't what happened, but what else could this mean according to the determination sent after the unemployment hearing:

When the ALJ did ask me about the hand written notes from the FT managers, he never even made reference towards the notes from the managers as being notes from the managers but always as "this".  That probably also explains why the ALJ and Dick kept acting funny whenever reference was made on my part as to the notes being notes.  Also, whenever I used the full names of the people the notes were referencing to, that really seemed to bug Dick.  Dick would sit up straight whenever I said things in terms as, "I do not know how I could have said anything to JM all day since he did not sit near me" and "Maybe when passing JM on my break I told him a corny joke".


Here is what some of the notes say that were never shown to me until the day I went to the Unemployment hearing office to look at them:

• 12/5/11: Exhibit #5 (Note the altering in the top right corner) and Backup of Exhibit #5
• 11/17/11: Documentation from JM 
• 11/08/11: Documentation From DL

Marijuana Email - This one was sent to Lori
Raise Email - To Dick
Off The Record -  To Dick
Don't Fuck With Smart People - To Dick
Rant Time - Dick
Fuck-it Email, The email the got me discharged - To Dick


To view the production reports - CLICK HERE
Remake of production report by me that really made Dick mad!

The point is, nothing seemed to make sense at that hearing, the comment about the Marijuana Email that Dick made at the end of the hearing, the notes that I never saw until the hearing and the above determination.  My only other thought is that they are saying the Marijuana Email is the one sent to a coworker when in actuality it was sent to the E.A.P.

P.S.  I did notice that Dick chose an employee of the week who probably really did deserve it fair and square.  Hopefully this is from Dick's heart and not his ego being hurt from my February 27, 2012 post. 

#IamBACK

There are so many different fights in this world for what is right and what is wrong.  Who is the one to put up a fight is the decision that is so difficult to face, sometimes others will try to discourage you from fighting for the right of others, the decision as to what you want to do should come from within yourself and not the opinions of others.

Today was the first day back at work after being out for two and a half months now. This job is only for a couple of days yet I am very grateful for it. It is something, that is better than nothing.  Working in an office setting again brought back memories of it should be at work. Being unhappy and terrified every day is not a normal setting, office or not. It is going to take a little while for me to come around, although it felt good to text on my phone while working. Once while texting a permanent employee just glanced at me, I was sure that I was in trouble for a second.

Forgetting that a place of employment should be enjoyable, not a death sentence, it felt good to smile and chat while working. There is nothing wrong with it and nobody should have to be afraid of being happy or fear of being written up for laughing just a little to loud on occasion.

As for the this post here in regards to issues that Dick did when it came to favouritism as per disabilities, as well as some other issues that should be serially looked into  when it comes to employee fairness may have seemed harsh.  Some may even say possibly  that it sounded mean but how can something like that be put lightly without having to be so blunt is a tough question.  The point of that post was that everybody should be treated equally, whether they are a six foot three inch tall black man or a five foot four inch white woman with a mental disability.  So if anybody is offended, I am truly sorry you feel that way but I am not sorry about what was said in that post and am glad that it was written, no matter how it had to come out.

There were times it felt as if everybody were either a fool or were just afraid to speak out loud when it came to the issue as to who should get any kind of an award at FT.  If it was the same white woman that got an employee of the week award every week, somebody would ask why and nobody would feel offended by that question.  Because of the sensitivity of the topic as to who with what disability should be chosen for an award, that is what was tough.  We are always preaching about the rights of others, so now lets practice it.

#IamGratefulFor - Knowing how to survive

Survival is amazing the way every living thing learns how to survive to its surrounding, plants and animals.

Having to struggle all of my life learning how to survive became essential to me, whether it was for food, housing or simply a way to get from one place to another, it has been figured it out on my own and have always been able survive using natural instincts.  Intelligence has played a big hand in how my survive skills come into pay as well and that is just having the knowledge of knowing how to take a few dollars and make it stretch.

This blog is one source of income, even if it isn't much money it is something earned whenever so many visitors view one of my three blogs or click on a Google Advertisement.  Other things that people may ask of me is to fix their computer or clean their house for a few bucks and I will when things are tight.  Over the weekend a friend called and asked me to fix their PC because they had a virus, it was an easy twenty bucks.

Earlier in the afternoon today a temporary agency that I worked for before working for FT called me with an assignment, being very short term and not a great amount per hour, the gratefulness for having something is what counts until things pull through fincially.  After they called I had to get the ball rolling, wash clothes, pick up something to eat for lunch and buy a bus pass, all with that twenty dollars earned from fixing a computer over the weekend.  That is where those knowing how to get through a tough time comes in just simply knowing how to make twenty dollars spend as if it were thirty.

Most people from upstate New York, Massachuttes and Vermont know about Price Chopper's fuel advantage, upstate New York that fuel advantage savings can be used towards the price of a CDTA bus pass.  Every ten cents off for a gallon of gas is two dollars off for a bus pass until the gas savings reaches two dollars off per gallon.  That is a total of forty dollars off a bus pass meaning a fifty five dollar bus pass will cost you fifteen dollars.  In my case since there was only sixty cents off per gallon of gas (twelve dollars off a bus pass) and having limited money the only option was to buy a ten ride pass for thirteen dollars, which actually cost me only one dollar.  For twenty dollars I bought, a pound of coffee, two bags of salad shrimp, a bag of rice and washed three loads of laundry.  Of course that did not include drying the laundry, it was either the coffee or dry my clothes but at least my apartment smells quite nice at the moment from the Downy.

After arriving home and hanging the clean wet clothes around the apartment, I went into my email and began filling out the forms needed for the two thousand twelve tax information and direct deposit forms needed by the temporary agency.  Upon getting to the direct deposit forms, needing my account information, I proceded to log into the MyGreenDot  website to retrieve the routing and account number so that the agency could do direct deposit.  Talk about things happening in threes, there was my money from Google for my blogs, talk about being happy!

So things are okay right now, of course money is still tight, although, being grateful for knowing how to survive is such a big factor in my daily routine.  It sucks having to go through this struggling all over again, not something that was on my personal agenda.  All I really wanted was just to work, earn an income and sure move ahead in my career.  All of that was taken away for some unclear reason, but God has a plan.  There is a reason for everything though and putting up a fight with the unemployment might just be that nitch needed to get ahead.

Being tired of watching people get screwed over and over again because they do not feel like putting up a fight for the right thing.  That is also the same thing I have been doing my entire life, just letting people walk over me because of their own greed and selfishness.  Maybe this fight will take a few years but it is my fight for now and giving up is not an option.  After working as hard as I did for the last nine months, some guy in a suit isn't going to take that away from me so they can have money to add to their "Dick is wonderful" fund.