OK, so there’s this boxman where I work, I’ll call him The Evil Spawn of Satan. He ended up with his job because when the position became available he was the dealer with the most seniority. The reason he had seniority was because he wasn’t a good enough dealer to get a better job (this is a"break-in" house where brand-new baby dealers work for 3-9 months to get on-the-game experience before they move on to more lucrative gigs. And, yes, I have seen him deal. He can’t.) This guy delights in making the craps dealers miserable. If he’s in a bad mood (which is whenever there are players on the game), he slams chips around, if a dealer underpays a player, he throws the correct payoff at the player instead of simply correcting the mistake, and tries to embarrass the dealer (did I mention that I’ve seen this guy deal, and he can’t?) Right now, one of the blackjack dealers is trying to learn dice, and he dreads coming onto the game to practice when The Evil Spawn of Satan is on the game. Also, there’s a new guy in blackjack that I think has the brains and the right attitude for craps, and I almost feel bad about encouraging him because I don’t want to see him get trashed by this boxman.
Also, TESoS comes from a culture where women are, erm, second-class citizens and he just can’t cope with an assertive American woman, so, me being an assertive American woman, I tend to find myself on the short end of his temper much more often than my crewmates. He’s just flat-out hostile toward me from the moment the shift starts until the swing shit crew comes in. He won’t even say “hello” to me If I tell him a player wants to make a call bet, or ask him a question, or try to let him know a player is causing a problem, he’ll ignore me. I’m pretty sure he’s hoping that there will be a beef on my side of the table, so he can claim that I didn’t book a bet or let him know there was a problem so he can get me into trouble. For the first couple of months I worked in the joint, I tried to make nice with him, was friendly, would compliment his choice of neckwear (I really notice if a guy has good, or ballsy, taste in ties), but to no avail. I’m an assertive woman, he thinks women belong under the feet of men, and nothing I can do will change that. I haven’t really made any complaints because I regard this as a temporary gig to earn income until I start making enough money as a massage therapist that I can quit this job.
So, the regular dice pit boss had to take the day off for personal reasons, so TESoS was in charge of the pit. Great. I (along with the rest of the crew) have been more or less putting up with his hours-long low-grade mini-tantrums (did I use enough hyphens?) But today, he took it too far. We had a very busy game, the table was losing money, and he is one of those idiot casino suits who really sweats the money, and we had a new dealer, his second day out of school where he did not learn to deal craps. So, TESoS was in fine form, and it came time to change the dice. Seven out, I dumped the bowl, and started cleaning up my losing bets TESoS picked up the dice and…
flung the new dice down directly onto my hands. Fortunately, they already had a bit of wear on them. Fresh-out-of-the-package new dice have razor-sharp corners, and I could have gotten a couple of nasty cuts. When I went to drop my tokes, I groused about it to a floorman I’m friendly with, and he suggested that I should tell the boss who is over both dice and blackjack on weekends. My next break, I did just that, then went to the break room. A few minutes later, TESoS came charging in and yelled at me, “I want to talk to you”. I followed him back to the pit, and he demanded, “You have a problem with me?”
"I have a problem with you throwing the dice at me, " I answered. TESoS proceeded to pitch a tantrum in the pit for the benefit of his superior. “I don’t know what her problem is, I don’t wanna work with her no more!” he shouted. “Mutual”, I replied calmly. TESoS ranted on some more, and insisted “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I just tossed the dice on the table.” I looked him square in the eye and said, in my very best calm voice, “I saw you throw them, and I felt them hit my hands. You did it on purpose.” “I don’t wanna work with her no more!” he yelled again. Mind you, this is in the middle of the pit, on a busy Sunday afternoon in full view of a great multitude of players. I just quietly repeated, “Mutual”, TESoS stormed out of the pit, and I turned to his supervisor and said, “I think it would be in the best interest of all parties concerned if I was on the later crew on Sundays.” The boss told me he’s going to talk to my regular pit boss and let him decide what to do.
I’m sure my regular boss will not be pleased. If I were in a supervisory position, I think I would be most unhappy to learn that I couldn’t take a day off and expect my department to hum along peacefully in my absence. This boxman usually keeps something of a lid on his temper when the boss is in the pit, bit if he’s on break or it’s his day off, it’s open-season on the crew. Fortunately for me, everything that happens on a casino floor is videotaped, so if my boss views the tape, it should be pretty clear that TESoS was deliberately aiming for my hands when he threw the dice on the table.
Right now, I’m just trying not to stress too much over this, but in conflicts between a supervisor and a subordinate, the subordinate usually gets the short end of it. My pit boss is a good man, and a pretty level-headed guy, so I’m pretty sure the outcome of all of this will be, if not good, at least not be too bad for me.