A-S-S-U-M-E

It seems that lately, I've been getting yelled at by a lot of people, for things that really aren't my fault. As I work for a construction company, when work slows down, we have to decrease our labor burden. The easiest way to do that, is by laying of employees. So about two weeks ago, we laid off 15 employees. The majority of them were put on "permanent lay-off", which basically means they're not coming back, ever. As a result, I had to go through various processes to cancel their insurance and sign them up for COBRA.

Phone call #1
Much to my dismay one of the "laid-off" called me requesting the amounts of his insurance premiums so he could pay us while he was laid-off. This would be a HUGE indication that his supervisor didn't explain to him that he was PERMANENTLY laid-off or what that entails. So I was the one to tell him, and on top of that I had to tell him that I had canceled his insurance. Akward. As you can imagine....HE WAS PISSED....So he ranted and raved about the situation then went on to argue with me about his insurance coverage and cancellation dates. It was a long phone call full of unpleasantries. Which consisted of me telling him he needed to talk to ME, about insurance details, and not ASSUME.

Phone call #2
One word...Unemployment......I think that about sums it up. Pretty much, I had an angry Polynesian man, yes...another one of the "laid-off", yelling at me on the phone. Demanding that I fix his unemployment issues, which I had no power in doing. He proceeded to tell me that the whole issue was my fault, and "I needed to learn how to do my job". He was yelling at me to the point that I'm sure if anyone was standing within 5 feet of me, would have been able to hear his rants. But I didn't back down and I defended myself. So I told him I didn't have to sit there and listen to him yell at me, and I hung up. I was so overwhelmed that I almost burst into tears. But I sucked it up and told my supervisor about the situation. About three minutes later.....he is calling back....asking me what I'm going to do to fix things for him.....again, I tell him NOTHING, because there is NOTHING that I can do. The matter was "out of my jurisdiction". In the end, he spoke with one of our supervisors, whom he was nothing but pleasant to.....go figure....and they told him the same thing I did. UGH....

So...lesson learned....lets break up the word ASSUME :it will only make an ASS out of U and ME.

Yes this is actually my phone. It is my gateway to all things crazy....