no, FUCK YOU MAN, Friday

Or, as I like to say, Karma's a bitch.

Got a minute for a story? This is a classic, really.

We needed to use our T nailer today, we use it to nail wood to concrete block. It should have been in storage at the office, but it wasn't. We searhed the unit, the trucks, the warehouse and my garage - nuttin. Couldn't find it, anywhere.

We all looked at each other this morning and said the same thing... and that was the name of the lead guy I'd had and let go recently. Y'all remember those stories, yeah, that guy. The nailer I bought last summer and we used it maybe 4 times, then it sat. In the same place, probably since August. We had no need for it, till I picked up a new job last week.

Sales I might add - have been good. Things are getting better all the time. Kick myself in the ass for not making the changes sooner.

Anyways, it was gone. Was gonna buy a new one, and then thought ya know, I just may get mine back, crazy thought. So we rented one, diffent kind so I had to buy nails too. Dammit. When I was at the rental place the guy listened to me bitch and then said that the pawn shop down the street had several.

Gee, maybe I should go look. ya think?

So, I went to the pawn shop. I looked over the shelves and didn't see it so I wandered to the counter and asked if they had taken one in in the last month. After I told them why they asked the mans name. They looked on their computer and, well I'll be damned, guess who was in and pawned 7 items the day I let him go?

There on that list was my nail gun, it's in the back, shelf 60. Ain't that a hoot? Dumb fuck.

Luckily the nailer was the only thing of mine there. Made me happy. So, I have to file a police report, and pay the pawn shop what they paid for it and I can have it back. I filed my report but I can't get it back till next week... BUT I am getting it back. and that's not the best part.

The officer had a paper for me to sign to request or decline incarceration. As much as I wanted to see him suffer I had to think about his kids. Remember, single dad. I knew where the kids would go if he went to jail and I just couldn't do that to them. He can fucking rot. But not the kids. So, I declined incarceration. Sucker me...

Thing is, the officer didn't plan to share that with the boy right off the bat. My deputy said she'd take pleasure in making him squirm for a while and then let him down slow. Suhweeet. I'll bet that was a good time. Anyways, he called later. Repentent he was, fucker. Kiss. my. ass.

Can't wait to see how this plays out... Should be good. What goes around comes around. Ya know, karma can be a bitch.

So, Mr. I'm so damn sorry, this FUCKYOU!s for you. Mess with me godammit.

And for the rest of ya, have a great fucking weekend. I'm off to Lauderdale for a wedding on the beach, gonna have some fun.

it's been awhile...

Man, a week and a half? Have I been gone that long? Guess so... Just been lazy mostly, tryin to get used to not workin so hard.

Been a busy time, lots going on. Finally got the insurance company to look at my truck (a fucking week later) and authorize the repairs. They didn't really seem to care that it was out of comission and I was out of luck. So I didn't really feel bad when I found new insurance last week and cancelled both my policy and my agent. fuck with me will ya. piss off.

So, that was Thursday, let's move to Friday. Sweetpea got to go to Germany with a friend for spring break. Her friends dad is stationed at an Air Force base there and that's who they went to see. She arrived Sunday, so far her bags have not... sucks huh? She bought new outfits before she left, talk about sucking. From what I've heard so far they've been shopping and to a chocolate factory and the Mercedes plant. She's due back Sunday, can't wait to see her.

I had the brilliant idea Saturday to clean up the mud pit around the pool equipment, well, not really a pit but whenever it rained you didn't want to go there. I decided to go get a yard of gravel and regrade the area and cover it with the gravel. It was a brilliant idea, all except the part of me actually doing the work. Man did I fucking hurt, still do, a week later. dumbass. Sure looks pretty though, I do have to get the place ready for pool partys ya know.

Quiet week overall, things are really leveling off at work. The new guy is working out pretty well. He was in the office most of the week, we were catching him up with what's going on, so he can carry on from here. I so fucking enjoy knowing that I don't have to deal with the shit anymore, and the field even had a good week. We're making money now instead of giving it away. bout time. I even got to go out and do some PR today, that was a huge step - it'd been so long.

Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to get back to posting here more often. I've really kinda failed with FreeBoobyTuesday lately, the Wednesday business report and last but not least HNT. TME came looking for a nekkid pirate this week and got nuttin. Well, till she complained, then I sent her a personal one. Customer Satisfaction is number one here at BrazenBilly's. Y'all may take a lesson from me and cancel my ass.

something of an update

Well, suffice it to say last week was the week from hell.

The accident was my fault, wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. As dear old Dad would say - I was rushing. Yep, Dumbass. Dumbass me. Had a major interruption to my schedule, Sweetpea was sick, really sick, and taking care of her took a major portion of my day. I was late picking up material to get to the guys and was leaving a parking lot; made a U turn around a truck and BAM! Hit a concrete pole, if I may quote MG, "Fuckity, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!"

It's been 3 business days now and no-one from my insurance company has even looked at my truck to assemble an estimate. I started lighting a fire under their ass about 4 pm yesterday, I pay big money for commercial insurance so I'm a little upset (understatement). I need my fucking truck. Hopefully y'all don't have an insurance company that "may be" from another planet - if you get my drift. Cuz so far they SUCK!

By the time Friday rolled around I was down to 2 employees, that's a good thing. The one quit, another just hasn't called or shown up and the third, the one I wanted to leave, well, I laid him off Friday afternoon. Seeeeeya! Gotta say, after that, it was like someone lifted a semi off my shoulders. The stress and pressure was gone.

The new guy is living up to my expectations. He's been on two jobs so far and MADE me money on both. That's the way this is supposed to work. PROPS to the new guy!

Found out Monday that the old lead guy has lied to me about at least two jobs. Spoke with a super on Monday to find out that my guy had fucked things up, not the GC as I was told. The man told me that my guy had been told explicitly what to do and he continued doing as he always had. Again costing me money to fix. Another job I was told was completed was not, talk about surprised. Holy Shit, was I surprised. Gotta add that job back to the schedule. How could he possibly think that I wouldn't find out about that.

In the past. It's all in the past. Time to move on, bygones people.

This week has been all about moving forward and that we have been doing in spades well, 'cept for my truck and I would expect that to change today. IF it doesn't I'm gonna kick the insurance companies ass back to the planet they came from and then maybe a couple planets extra just for good measure.

Had a great weekend. Concert Friday night, party Saturday night and the theater on Sunday. It was great to enjoy all those things without the pressure of the old regime hanging over my head. The new crew kicks ass, and we're gonna keep it that way.

Have a great Wednesday peoples. Pirate out.

fuck ME friday

'nuff said.

HNT - Feelin Alright

Well kids, the pirate's in much better shape than he was last week, let's hope it holds up.

I will write of the meeting on Monday but it will come to you tomorrow. It did go well, I definitely got my points across. One unfortunate thing did occur though, the man I wanted to quit is still here as of today and a guy I had no intention of losing, left. WTF? That's a story all by itself. He walked in, left his shirts and keys on my desk and walked out - never said a word. Nuttin. Went outside after him, but he was in his car driving away; he gave me a half salute and kept on going when I called his name. He wouldn't answer his phone and never returned my message. Oh well..
We will survive. It hurt me personally but life goes on.

Now, as far as HNT goes, I got word last week that I had exposed entirely too much Pirate flesh. So we're gonna leave a little covered this week. Maybe I'm overreacting but I'd rather not burn anyone's eyes out ya know...

So, MG, I could have lifted the sheet but I didn't want to hurt you.

Happy HNT to all, if ya wanna play click the little blue button over there to the right and go see Os. If not, well, have a nice day anyway.

Damn, that HNT for two weeks in a row. The Pirate's on a roll.

Oh, and one more thing. I lost all my bookmarks last night and need to rebuild, if you can leave a link or your url in the comments. If I get a few I can surf around and find everybody else. Much thanks.

Time for a change

It's time for a change.
I'm tired of that same ol same.

"Boats to Build" Jimmy Buffett

It is indeed time for a change. I have changes to make. Not the typical personal changes, this is about the biz and the guys that work for me. I've hit the wall with problems. As I've said here before I'm tired of having to come up with desperate last minute solution to problems caused by other people. A fine quote from an old Segal movie that serves me well.

If you saw the FuckYou! Friday post you have a clue as to what I'm talking about, if not you can read it or just follow along... you'll catch on.

I've been working two jobs for about 10 months now. I have a full time sales job and I've also started a company whos initial purpose was to install the products I sold through my full time job. I started the company cuz I just couldn't find a decent subcontractor to install the stuff. Lo and behold here come a couple of guys I knew looking for work and MYcompany was born. We now install all the stuff that I was selling.

Soon that wasn't enough to keep these guys busy so I started selling other products through the company I had formed. I had the contacts, I had the knowledge, it was a natural progression. Now the guys are busy all the time and I'm working 14 hours a day; yeah, I know, I've whined about that before...

So, anyways. These guys worked well for the first few months and to keep them around I may have coddled them a bit. I paid them a salary, they got 8 hours a day even when they worked 6, I loaned them money, I bought them food, I took care of them pretty damned well. I was under the impression that good help was hard to find, hell I had a hard time finding bad help for a while. Now I'm not so sure.

In the past few months I've paid out the ass to correct problems that they've caused. I've pretty much lost my mind a few times. The biz plan for the company included me starting to get a check about this time and being able to renegotiate my terms of employment so that I could focus more on the biz. Now that's not gonna happen for a while and it pisses me off, royally.

It's becoming more and more obvious that at least one of the original guys is simply out for himself. He's having a real hard time with the new man I put on this week, he's figuring out that I'm gonna insert this guy between him and me and start holding him accountable for what he does. It would make sense just to fire him, it would probably be the best thing all the way around. Biggest problem here is that I've loaned this guy money and haven't gotten it all back yet, he owes me about $1700. I loaned him a grand to pay for the attorney for his divorce, I loaned him a hundred for I forget why and when we moved from me paying them cash to a payroll service I loaned them their regular check amount so they wouldn't starve to death cuz there was a week lag in the service taking effect and them getting their checks.

I've been soft, some of you know that. I've been called sweet and nice and many other derogatory words and I have a fit cuz it detracts from my Pirate image but, ya know, it's the damned truth. And now it's put me in a position I'd rather not be in. The lead guy, who owes me the most, is the guy that put his truck into a pole, that story is here. I felt bad for him then, now, not so much. I don't want to help him any more, he's a taker. period. He had the company pickup while he was waiting to get a new truck, he was never without transport. I should have been able to use that truck when Sweetpea had mine cuz her car was broke. No, he had that one, she had mine and I rode the motorcycle. Granted it wasn't that bad but fuck, a couple of days it was 40 degrees - that's cold on a damned bike.

Now what it comes down to is I just want him gone. Out of here. The new guy I hired the other day, while older and costing me more money is already leaps and bounds ahead of the original guy. BUT, if I fire him I may as well toss the money he owes me into the ocean and I'd bet even money that if I toss him the guy that started with him is gonna go as well. More money gone.

I like these guys, I do. I thought that I could help them while they helped me. Kinda lift them up a little, raise them out of the low level existence that they've been living. Thinking now that no matter what I do, they're never gonna change, especially the guy that owes me the most. He doesn't need to be kissing my ass,but you'd think he'd be a little humble about how he has been - he doesn't see any problem here.

The plan is this. Monday I call them all in in the morning and have a company meeting. I've established some guidelines for what I expect from them and what they can expect from me and I'm giving everybody a copy for their very own. I am going to be very clear about what I expect and that things are going to operate very differently from how they have been. If they don't this operation won't be around much longer and nobody's gonna have a fucking job. I know that guys 1 and 2 are not gonna take it very well and anticipate a ton of bitching. I'm not gonna listen to it.

I've been way too nice to these guys, and it's cost me, severely. Question to you good people is this: Should I just cut my losses and let at least the main problem go, I can kiss nearly 2 grand goodbye if I do. Or, do I give these guys an opportunity to make things better. Y'all know I'm too good to folks, it's just the way I am, Pirate rep be damned. One other thing I'm starting Monday is mandatory payroll deductions for those who owe me money. I know that they can't afford to miss any pay but that's the only shot I have at getting any of this cash back.

The floor is now open to discussion. Tell me what you think, and no, don't ask me for a job. The old Billy is out the damned door. The new Billy's pretty much gonna be an asshole. Not too tough for me to pull off when I'm sick and cranky.

**The next day... As I go to post this I have had conversations this morning with a few different folks. What I've come to learn is I have been helping the wrong people and it has cost me dearly. When I sent the main man out this morning I made clear my expectations for the day, I clearly spelled out what I wanted to happen and what he had to do to make it happen. All I got was a look of contempt. So, as of now my mind is made up, he's gone, along with one other and I'll rebuild. This biz is what is to be my main line of support and I can no longer tolerate people in the organization that don't share my vision and work to make it a success. I'll say seeya to what he owes me to cut my losses; I'm not gonna kill myself to make this work when other people in the organization do not. It's been standard procedure my entire life that lessons learned cost about 2 grand a pop - it's only seems to be then that I actually learn from them.

Comments, ideas, etc?

HNT - One sick pirate

Hey all, look it, Billy's posting an HNT. WTF?

Sick as a dog...

Worn out, tired, congested and cranky as hell.

Gonna write a post tonight, so if you would, check in tomorrow and have a read; it has to do with the new guy I hired and the old guys who are severely letting me down. I wanna hear input from my blogger friends about how you think I could handle this. I'm torn, really torn, but at a point where I need to do something and I wanna hear from y'all. So, come back tomorrow and have a read and give me your heartfelt opinions.

Have a great day folks, Happy HNT!