PHARISEES

Today I received notice via registered mail that a judgment has been entered against me in the neighborhood of $13,000 or so for medical bills that I owe, which I have no hope of ever paying off because it takes everything I earn to support my children. Most of that amount is for treatment for kidney stones that had to be removed surgically.

I first received word of the legal action against me about a week or two before Target fired me and kicked me to the curb the day after Christmas.

Target, Inc. spends a serious portion of their marketing budget trumpeting how they give away millions of dollars back to the community and to charity. I say all of that is pure hype, absolute P.R. garbage.

I challenge Target to put their money where their mouth is. I challenge their charity to hear my side about what went wrong, give me my good name back, and help me with my medical bills for treatment of a condition that could have killed me.

I challenge them.

Otherwise, I will stand witness against them before the judgment seat of God as liars and hypocrites.

"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN...."

"Go Ye Into All The World..."

I got to know one of my new co-workers today. He's a Christian who migrated from India to the United States. He ministers to a small group of East Indian Christians that meets in a small building here in the metro, a few miles from where I live. He had been studying for years in an Orthodox seminary, and then became a Born-Again Christian.

Listening to him share his witness was kind of funny. I tried to follow along as best I could, but his accent was really thick (quite a bit like the Indian call-center people you get on the line whenever you call tech support or something like that.)

Being from a different doctrinal bent, I had to politely avoid his efforts to persuade me to meet with his group, but he was an interesting fellow, none the less. After I got home from work, I spent time online looking up the history of Christianity in India, and found out that India harbors one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, surviving centuries of onslaught from non-Christian cultures, as well as from Euro-centric Colonialist Christian nations.

Ah, the things you learn.

Monkey Business Management Secret #23

POWER INSULATES.

In a recent post I pointed out how you can be like Stalin and execute millions of people by starvation in the Ukraine, and you still get to keep your leather chair in a huge government office. If you're a peon, however, and you so much as scratch the seat of your pants the wrong way, you're out on the streets.

All of this came to mind when I was watching a DVD that someone gave me for Christmas. It's The Simpson's Movie, the one where Homer gets a pet pig to walk on the ceiling. There's a certain character in the movie, "Mr. Cargill," who really gives me a good chuckle. Mr. Cargill is a high level bureaucrat with access to The President, and he plots to destroy Springfield. During the movie he said something that had me bust out laughing.

Assistant, to Mr. Cargill: "Sir, I think that you're going mad with power..."

Mr. Cargill, to assistant: "Have you ever tried going mad WITHOUT power? It's very boring....nobody listens to you."

That, my friends, sums it all up in a nutshell.

Industrial Arts.

Today at my new job I spent time learning the manly art of pre-packaged salad making.

Yumm-O.

In the meantime, I am still keeping my eyes WIDE open for other opportunity. I'm still plastering the town with applications and resumes as I write this. My focus right now is to keep working until my wife finishes school in a couple of months, and after she finds work I'll examine my options.

If my employment situation hasn't improved by then, I'm going to start the business I've always wanted to have.

Don't Do The Crime, If You Can't Do The Time.

Former Wal Mart executive Tom Coughlin's defense team is trying to delay his sentencing for wire fraud and tax evasion. They say he is in poor health, and can't do time in a prison. They're petitioning for house arrest at home, instead.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/214546/

The funny thing is that friends of mine who work for Wal Mart say that his portrait in the company newsletters and news videos always showed him at the peak of fitness and virility. Now, as he is being sentenced in Federal court, all of a sudden he has coronary problems and ill health.

It's an interesting "coincidence."

The thing that bothers me is that I get fired over some chicken-scratch infraction, and I have to worry about a roof over my head and food for my children. This clown commits Federal crime, and he thinks he can stay home in his executive size house during his sentence.

I tell you -- sometimes there just ain't no justice.

Something Dark This Way Comes.

I had another one of those wacky dreams. This one was fairly short. I was standing where two main aisles meet at a corner, in the soft-lines department at my old job, in front of the operator's station.

I saw a wisp of dark black fog descend from above, and it formed into a figure clothed in tattered black swaths, whose face was hidden behind a dark shadow within the covering. The figure held a large, gleaming sword, standing there silent and motionless.

A breeze started to blow. Clothes rustled and billowed on the racks, and the ground rumbled slightly. Then all fell silent, and the lights started to go out.

That's all I remember.

I found another job, but I will only go so far as to say that it is in the food service industry. I intend to set my sights higher, and keep looking for something in a more professional environment.

Here's something interesting: a co-worker at my new job runs a business of his own on the side, just like the co-worker I had at Target. If one considers the principle of "synchroncity" as proposed by Carl Jung, this might be a sign -- an indication by the Universe where my destiny lies.

Inspirational Reading.

Harvey Mackay is one of my favorite authors. He's got a crusty, street-wise outlook that doesn't pull punches and tells it like it is. Right now I'm reading one of his more popular titles, "We Got Fired!" I am finding quite a bit of valuable advice that definitely comes in handy at this point in my life.

The last couple of days I've been pouring over the job-sheets and filling out applications. At the moment I'm going to take whatever I can get, but in the long run I've got plans. I had been taking steps to get my business started this year, and come hell or high water I'm going to do it. Right now, though, I've just got to pay the bills and get a car (it's sorta helpful to have one, when you start a business.)

What tips the scales in the direction of flying solo was a comment that one of my Target co-workers made to me before he quit. He told me he was earning more money working part time with his landscaping business that he was earning full time at Target. That got me thinking, HELL -- if he can strike out on his own, so can I. One way or another, I'm going to make it work -- I'm tired of being patronized and humiliated by arrogant management assholes. I'm tired of slimy, sleazy, backstabbing co-workers. I'm tired of sociopathic customers who take all their life's problems out on me just because my store is out of a certain product. I'm tired of it all. It's the desperate desire to get away from all of that which drives me to go out on my own.

Calls It Like I Sees 'Em.

A friend of mine who still works in management at one of my former employers recently asked me if maybe my critiques of the retail industry are a bit too SCATHING of late. In answer to that, let me share with you a quote by the venerable GEORGE BERNARD SHAW:

"The power of accurate observation.....is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

I rest my case. Any questions?

Vision Questing

I had another wacky dream, again.

This time, it was a visitation from St. Barbara. She asked me what my troubles were, and I explained all the circumstances of late. She touched me on my shoulder, and said "come with me."

I found myself standing at the front of the building of an employer I used to work for. Saint Barbara told me to look, and I did. There was a bright light of glory in front of the building, and I saw a hand reach out of the bright light. The hand wrote in flames upon the wall of the building, and I read theses words:

"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN..."

I asked St. Barbara what the words meant. A voice spoke from the bright light, and the ground thundered and rumbled. The voice said:

"This is the meaning of the words: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to thine adversaries..."

Then I saw a fire descend from the sky, and it burned up all of the workboots and hiking boots in the shoe department. The fire also destroyed all the flannel shirts in the men's department. I saw throngs of employees walking out of the building, shedding their uniforms, and then walking into other businesses in the area. I heard a loud thunder clap, the ground shook, and a huge crack rent through the whole building. A fierce wind began to blow, and then I saw the building standing empty, lights out, doors shuttered, and the shelves empty. Tumbleweeds blew by.

Then I woke up.

What I really should do is start collecting these in a book of some kind. It just might sell, I think. My buddy Cedric, the "alternative spiritual path" devotee, keeps telling me I should.

Monkey Business Management Secret #22

Good morning boys and girls! We have a new word for you today. It is called:

"Channel Stuffing."

Can YOU say "channel stuffing?" boys and girls? SUUUURE ya can!

Channel stuffing means that your corporate inventory is desperately overloaded, so you force your wholesalers, dealers, and branch stores to take it all off your hands and fill their own back rooms with it.

The advantages are obvious. Excess inventory looks like you can't run your business, which in turn drags your stock price down. In some states, it also gets taxed. Moving it out helps you to artificially inflate sales figures, which makes the stock price go up.

Other words for this include:

• Front Loading
• Dock Floating
  
• Phantom Warehousing.
• Sales Cramming.
• Freight Relocation.
• Logistics Legerdemain.
• Fraud.
  

In my several years in the retail business, I have repeatedly seen this happen. It's a shell game that district managers and regional executives play to inflate their own sales figures and also to help their corporate bosses look good.

But of course, I could be mistaken. What do I know? I'm just a peon who gets fired at Christmas.

Target Earnings Sag, Shares Sink.

Oh, happy Day!

This recent article by the Oklahoma Examiner mentions that holiday earnings sucked a big pickle at Target, and their share price is floating about as well as an iron balloon.

It seems that Wal-Mart is successfully copying much of the Target magic, like Wal-Mart always does with everybody, and that the middle classes are feeling pretty squeezed this year.

Of course, all throughout the board rooms and offices at Target, I guarantee that blame is being laid upon the shoulders of the all the little people at the store level. All retail executives do it. When things go right, retail executives take credit for their alleged genius. When things go wrong, its always the employees' fault, for not successfully executing their so-called brilliant plans.

(Nobody dares to consider or admit that maybe the plans are all B.S. to begin with, and that the executives who made them are no more knowledgeable about the retail business than the mentally challenged guy who fetches the carts.)

If Wal-Mart is successfully eating into Target, all I can say is GO WAL-MART.

Told Ya So.

In previous posts I've ranted that retail companies are clueless about protecting the privacy of their customers (I will no longer use the word "guests." That, in my opinion, is little more than slimy corporate doublespeak for "cash-cows.")

One particular company I used to work for really prides themselves about their state of the art computerized inventory system that allows floor monkeys (no, I will not say "team members," or "associates,") to rapidly locate items for "cash-cows," I mean, customers. Then that same company lets the Head Cashiers leave boxes of customer's checks lying around the front checklanes, and refuses to do anything about it when a cashier repeatedly warns the security people.

It seems some chickens have come home to roost.

In a recent class action lawsuit, Sears has been accused of violating "consumer fraud" laws by refusing to follow standard privacy safeguard practices for their customers' information.

Read about it in this article at Yahoo! News. [link]

Of course, what do I know? I'm just a stupid peon, I don't have one 'o dem high fangled HAH-vard bidness ed-you-ma-kay-shens.

Making A List, Checking It Twice.

The last couple of days I've been looking through the job sheets. I've developed a pool of targets to canvass for work. I've got three big problems to deal with though.

1. We have no car -- right now we're using my son's car, but he wants it back as soon as we are able.
2. My wife has the car at school during the day, and her school is on the other side of town almost, so I can't just drop her off and drive back and forth to look for work, and then pick her back up again. Gas is expensive.
3. Because my wife is at school during the day, I have to watch our children at home, which I don't mind, but I can't go contacting with them.

So, I have no idea what exactly to do next. I'll think of something, I suppose. There's an old Native American proverb that says "when one is lost and can't find the way, turn within." It's been awhile since I have seriously meditated, so I guess now is a good time to brush off the remote viewing skills and check the spiritual realms. That, and spend serious time at church, tossing in some tithes and doing some good old fashioned prayer.

"with whatsoever measure ye judge, ye shall be judged."

I've decided to leave things in the hands of God -- not necessarily for the sake of the other people, but for my own sake -- so I don't drive myself crazy with anger, frustration, and bitterness. God will make a way, somehow.

I'm still happy that local retail sales numbers sucked, though. Now they won't have as much money to hype and advertise the hypocritical philanthropy work they pretend to do in order to whitewash their corporate excesses.

Just To Make Sure.

SHANGO.

"Tomorrow Shall Be Another Day..."

I have a thing for Scarlett O'hara. She has a shrewdness and a determined will the likes of which I wish more than anything I could have.

"...as God as my witness, they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this. And when it's all over I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk....."

Shouted From The Rooftops

A few months back, somebody in management at Target stores sent an email full of racial jokes to another employee. The moron forgot to check his address field, and the message went out to hundreds of people throughout the company network.

Of course, there were the usual promises to the press that they'll "get to the bottom of this," but at the time this video aired, the manager person still had employment. Anyone who's worked retail can tell you there wherever you find one rat, there's a whole nest filled with them hidden away somewhere else.

Regardless of what happens (or doesn't) to this one manager, his very existence indicates there are other rats just like him who are not quite as stupid as he is. The fact that he sent the joke in an email to someone else indicates a greater likelihood for the presence of others who would enjoy such jokes.

This affair reminds me of the infamous "jellybean" scandal at Texaco some years back. In that case, a disgruntled employee secretly tape recorded several executives making jokes about black employees, calling them "jellybeans," and discussing what they could do to block their promotions without legal trouble.

Target Inc. needs to be careful about who they piss off. WHISTLE-BLOWERS don't just spring up by accident. Of course, what do I know? I'm just a little peon who got fired at Christmas.... Nobody of consequence.