Time to change my trash collection company

[Rorey]

I never gave much thought to politics when it came to trash collection. (Shame on me.) Yesterday I received a letter from the trash company that I've been using for decades. It was about yet another rate increase. Something just felt off. It was the part about "having issues with finding quality employees".

First of all, I didn't like that they put the term "quality employees" in the letter. Their disgruntled attitude about their workforce doesn't convey professionalism, IMO. AND it just has a air of repukism to me. (Yes, I made up yet another new word. ) So, with a bit of searching I was able to find the voter information on one of the owners, and of course she's a repuke. So I'm contacting another trash company tomorrow and transferring service for my house and my rentals. Hopefully the new company will take new customers, and hopefully they can start right away so I don't have to stay with the repuke company for another quarter.

Grrr

[jimfields33]

1. We have no choice who does our trash

I think ours comes out of property taxes. I don’t have any idea who they are. They come Tuesday’s.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Quality employees for trash collection?

[Rorey]

3. Their attitude sounds similar to that of the ex-husband

He whined about not being able to find "good workers". The thing is, he'd hire people who were willing to work for practically nothing, and then he'd talk to them like they were nothing. We used to have a deal where I would do the books and handle the business end of things, and he would deal with employees and tenants. I didn't realize how poorly he was treating everyone at first. Then I overheard him berating someone in a way that nobody should ever speak to another person.

I'm really surprised that somebody hasn't retaliated. But, Karma is getting him now. He's got major health issues and can't do much for himself, so he has to hire people to do just about everything. I chuckle about the miserable existence he now has. (He turned into a full-on MAGAt, btw.)

[Jim G.]

6. I Had A Brother-In-Law Who Drove Trash/Recycling Trucks For 25 Years

And yes, he was a "quality" employee. He had one accident in all that time & that was when a car hit his truck.

While it may be easy to be dismissive of the guys hanging off the back of the trucks, keep in mind what they have to do, starting in the middle of the night & doing nasty work all day in weather ranging from temperatures over 100 degrees to freezing rain & snow. And not for great wages either.

[Rorey]

7. As a former restaurant manager

In one of my other lives, I used to manage a restaurant. EVERY employee is important. They're all part of the system that keeps everything going.

I used to get very irritated at some employees having an attitude that they were better than others because the jobs they worked weren't quite as dirty. As a manager, I had to jump in and work any position when necessary. Having to do those really tough jobs caused me to gain a lot of admiration for those who did them on a regular basis.

I actually learned to have that respect way back when I was in college and working as a cook in a restaurant. The company hired special needs people to do a lot of the prep work. When they had their days off, the cooks had to fill in. I still look back and chuckle at how Marie and MaryEllen would practically roll on the floor laughing at me when they were teaching me how to do their jobs. They could run circles around me.

[Jim G.]

9. Yeah, I Was In Restaurant Management For A Time Myself

My very first management position of any kind was at The Kapok Tree in Clearwater, FL. At the time it was the largest restaurant in the US, with nine dining rooms & seating over 1,200 people, all served out of one kitchen.

My first two weeks I had to work a 1/2 shift at every position, from the front of the house to the back. It turns out you do have a greater appreciation for the work someone does when you walk a mile in their shoes.

[csziggy]

11. Wow! I remember the Kapok Tree!

I only ate there once, back in 1971. It was great but I felt intimidated since I'd never eaten at such a fancy restaurant. My family thought eating at the original Red Lobster in Lakeland was the height of sophistication.

The service at the Kapok Tree was flawless and made a group of freshmen college students feel welcome. At the time I didn't realize how special that was but now I remember it with pleasure.

[Jim G.]

12. The Tree Hadn't Been Blooming For Years Before I Worked There

But they still sold those huge souvenir hurricane glasses with those big pink plastic Kapok blossom straws.

All that statuary there was authentic though, brought from Greece & Italy & those giant chandeliers in the Crystal dining room were real antiques from some famous place that I've forgotten long ago. It was amazing how efficient that place operated too. The waiters & waitresses worked in pairs - one in the front & one for the back.

They built a concert hall adjacent to it in the early 80's & I got to see some great shows there too. I saw Jay Leno do stand up back when he was still doing Letterman once a month, I saw Vincent Price do a "reading" of Poe & stuff & I saw David Copperfield perform his magic show. Fun times.

[csziggy]

13. Well, the college students I was with were not old enough for the drinks that came in those glasses

I just remember it being really, really fancy. One of the guys was trying to impress his girlfriend by taking the whole crowd there. I gues it worked - they got married the summer after our freshman year.

Oh! I would have loved seeing Vincent Price. But I haven't been back to Clearwater in years.

When we went to the Kapok Tree, I was a student at Florida Presbyterian (now Eckerd College). I left there the next year and came up to go to FSU - it was a better fit and so was the Tallahassee area. More trees, more wildllife, more undeveloped land.

[Jim G.]

14. The Concert Hall I Mentioned

Was called Ruth Eckerd Hall. She was the wife of Jack Eckerd, who was the founder of Eckerd Drugs. He donated 10 million dollars to Florida Presbyterian College & they named the college for him the next year.

Small world huh?

[csziggy]

15. Yep - they changed the name the year after I left

I saw some Beatles themed production in Ruth Eckerd Hall while I was there - it was shiny new that year.

Great little college - but totally geared towards preparing students for graduate school. My sister had graduated from there, went on to get her masters from Duke and her PhD. in neurophysiology from USF.

I was more of a wild child, liked Anthropology, wanted to work for a museum so went to FSU got a double major in Library Science and Anthropology. No museum jobs available in 1977 once I finally got my degree (after dropping out three times) so I bred horses for thirty years instead. I'm not sure I could have worked in an office for that long.

[MiHale]

4. We have to take our own trash to the dump....

I checked and we’re still Democrats.

[rickford66]

5. I met a Trumper at Best Buy Wednesday

The regular cashier area was closed and looked like reconstruction of some type. Customers were re-directed to customer service to pay. Well the line grew and the service people were handling their regular service problems which aren't quick. so this Trumper and wife show up and "we" explained. He immediately blamed Biden for people not working and said he was going to move to Russia. I asked him if he spoke Russian and he replied "no" but he'd learn. Meanwhile his wife pushed her way to one of the three service people and got waited on. I left my potential purchase on a nearby shelf and left. Best Buy wasn't handling the situation properly, but why blame Biden? There were three service people and one should have been handling purchases only.

[Rorey]

8. If they get a hangnail, it's Biden's fault

It doesn't matter anymore what it is. They'll blame Biden.

[Midnight Writer]

10. In my town, they have suspended all recycling. Trash collection is intermittent.

Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. The office of the company that runs it does not answer the phone.

Their story is they can't find workers.

The story I see is that our local company was bought out by Advanced Disposal, a large corporation.

The first thing they did was raised rates, to nearly double. Then they added surcharges for fuel costs, environmental management, administrative costs. Then they sent out letters that they would not pick up anything that was not properly bagged and/or bundled. Then they stopped showing up altogether, and stopped answering their phones.

This is a small town, there are no other providers. I've got a garage full of recyclable material.