The 5 of them. Maggie, Michelle, Robb, Steve and Alex watched Janet drive away. Robb lit a cigarette, Maggie grabbed her water and Alex pulled out another sandwich. “Break time” said Steve.
“Janet is the first real boss I’ve ever had. I like working for her. How does she compare with other bosses you guys have had?” asked Michelle.
Robb started, “I like that she doesn’t swear, and yell and get all bent out of shape. My last boss thought that if he didn’t ride everyone, we would all slack off and rob him blind. He said that all the time, not about us, at least not to our faces, but it’s how he treated everyone. I like how Janet trusts us to do the job well and in good time. I don’t feel stressed here, and maybe it takes a little longer, but not by much. As a matter of fact, I don’t mind staying the extra hour to finish up a job, or hustling to get the work done when it’s needed. Sometimes I forget to add those extra hours, so it probably works out exactly the same, but the atmosphere here is way better.”
“I like that Janet cares about safety. My last boss, I swear all he did was figure out where the safety inspector was. He’d call and tell us to get our gear on and sure enough, the inspector would show up. He’d look at us with our hard hats and our harnesses, tick his report boxes and drive on. Most of the time he didn’t get out of the truck. I’ll bet that cost the boss a few bucks in kickbacks. It also cost him when Lennie fell that time and broke his back. Did you hear about that?” asked Steve and Robb nodded.
“He couldn’t run it through Workers’ Comp because they would have investigated. Janet doesn’t just say she cares, I feel safe working here.” Finished Steve.
“I like how Janet treats me like a real person. She’s talked to me about getting my high school equivalent and about money management. She cares about me as a person. Other bosses have been okay, but they only cared as far as me showing up ready to work hard for my minimum wage. Janet told me she feels bad paying me labourer’s wages, but I told her that was the job I do. She told me she would like to see me improve so she could pay me more.” Alex said.
“I like how Janet trusts me and is showing me how to take on more responsibility. We’ve talked and I feel like there are opportunities to advance here. I think I’d like to get into project management and Janet is helping me. I’m not getting younger and I need to think about the future.”added Maggie.
“Janet’s done a lot to make us all feel happy about working with her.” Michelle summed it up.
“I don’t know if I’d go all the way to happy. Next you’ll be saying we are ecstatic about it.” joked Robb as he put out his cigarette and stashed the butt in the tin he carried for that purpose.
They all thumped him, grabbed their gear, safety and otherwise, and went back to work.
