Calling in

Well it happened, it snowed a damn foot.

Being as I live in an ill managed apartment complex, they hadn’t plowed the lot yet.

Braving 12 cold inches, I managed to get my car out of my spot, only to get stuck mere yards from the street outlet.

I was giving a neighbor a ride to work and I looked over at him.

“We’re fucked.” Was what that look stated.

Run after run up the incline I made, with little to no avail. Driving around the building yielded little in the way of progress as well.

I was stuck, and having to make a call I dreaded.

For I was about to dare to call in.

I thought to myself, who is the opening manager?

It was Wednesday, that meant the GM, the same guy who somehow thought I faked a flat tire so I could be late, the same guy who refuses to let us call in sick unless we find a replacement for the shift, the same guy who thought I snuck in and looked at the side work chart and called in when I found out it was easy.

I called.

“Yeah GM, I don’t know if I’m going to make it in today, my lot is still snowed in.” I said.

“Really, well other servers are already here, maybe you should have gotten up early.” He responded.

“I did get up early, I’m stuck and can’t get out, I’m not just running late.” I said.

“Well we need you to get here, other servers haven’t had problems.” He said.

I’m not other servers, my car can’t get out of the lot, I’ve been trying for twenty minutes.” I said.

“Well you should have gotten up earlier.” He countered.

I hate circular logic, its what small children use when they have no leg to stand on, them and small minded middle managers.

“ Well nonetheless, I’m not going to be able to drive to work today, I don’t think you’ll need a full staff due to the weather.” I said.

“That’s up for me to decide, can’t you take a cab?” He asked.

If you want me to wait two hours for one, it did snow a foot after all.” I said.

“How about the bus, you can take that.” He responded.

“The next bus won’t be along for about forty five minutes, that really isn’t convenient to get me back and forth from work on a day like today.” I said.

“Well just get here as soon as you can.” He finished by clicking off.

Man, your boss is a dick.” My friend said.

“You should know, he fired you,” I said with a smile,” looks like we’re taking the bus.”

An hour and a half later I arrived at work, the bus was running slow in the poor weather.

“Oh, we don’t need you today, I had the bartender try to call you.” Said the GM as I entered the door.

I glanced at my phone, they had called only five minutes prior.

“Well what fucking good does that do?” I sputtered, “why couldn’t you just let me stay home when I called?”

“We didn’t know how busy it would get, we might have needed you.” Said the GM.

“It snowed a foot overnight! How busy do you think it could have been?” I said with dismay.

“I just wasted two hours of my time trying to get here and none of it would have been necessary if you would have let me call off.” I continued.

“Well it was to early to call.” he said.

“We’re not even open yet, you’re in the same situation as when I called you, we’ll be dead, and you just wasted half my morning and now I have to wait another hour until the bus comes by again.” I said, right before I walked out the door.

Today I asked another waiter how busy it got yesterday.

“Man, it was fucking dead.” He said.

No shit, it snowed a damn foot.