Don't wait until the last minute to tell me you can't

So, nocturne and I are off to New Orleans in the morning so that she can go to a job interview down there. All good and well.

In order for us to do this I need someone to cover my paper route for me. yes, I deliver papers for a living (and hold a part-time day job). It is seven days a week. No sick time and no vacation time. We needed someone to cover Monday night/Tuesday morning for us.

A friend of ours immediately jumped in and said that she would. We are paying whoever does it after all and she wanted to help. It is now Sunday night. We leave around 6am Monday. A couple of minutes ago I messaged her on AIM. I asked her to come with me tonight to get a feel for the route.

“Oh. Yeah. I can’t do it.”

Thanks a fucking lot. I would not have minded if you had told us earlier. Was it something pressing perhaps? Something that came up and does not allow you to do it? No. Now you leave us in the situation of having to find someone to do this in the next couple of hours. It is not so easy getting people to work 2-6am you know. Especially on such short fucking notice.

You knew how important it was for us to get there for this interview, and the job fair the following morning. You knew it and volunteered to help us out. Then at the last minute, with no real reason, you are suddenly no longer interested. Fuck you. Sideways. With a stick.

That really sucks. Did you make clear to your “friend” who bailed out exactly how pissed you are?

Good luck finding someone.

That sucks. My husband is a district manager for the newspaper here, and he manages carriers. I can’t tell you how many times he’s had to get up on the weekends and go deliver papers because one of his carriers flaked. We’ve also gotten a shitload of calls in the middle of the night when he’s had to get up and go deliver. He likes carriers like you, who actually try to find someone to take their place instead of moving out of their house in the middle of the night without a forwarding address (which has happened several times in the year and a half we’ve lived together…) or calling two hours after the papers have been delivered and saying “Um, yeah, I don’t want to do the route anymore.”. Too bad, you little fuckers! He’s actually threatened a few of them with legal action for not giving 30 days’ notice as stated in their contracts.

Do you have a good track record with your manager? Any chance he’d be willing to get a down router to take the route for a day, or do it himself for one night? My husband’s willing to do this on a very limited basis, but if it’s a carrier he likes and trusts, he’ll do it for them.

E.

I think a porcupine would be far more appropriate for this crime.

What a shitbag.
Max.

Yeah my manager likes me. But she is fairly new to the position and I think she is probably under enough stress as it is.

Luckily I did find someone else to do it. So here is to my friend “L”. She came through for us beautifully, and at the last minute as well. We owe her - big.

My other friend “J”. Hmmm, the porcupine sounds like a good idea

Be sure to insert the porcupine backwards.

And now, at 2am Monday, our new person backs out as well. I want to fucking scream :mad:

Fuck
Fuck
Fuck
Fuck
Fuck

!!!

Good luck finding a 3rd :frowning:

We found a 3rd. My best friend said he’d step in and do it for us, last minute. He’s out on the route with UnwrittenNocturne right now. He’s one of the kindest, most dependable people I know, and he won’t back out on us. Or I’ll smack him. :wink:

Glad you were able to find a replacement. If the third one backs out, I’d volunteer, but I don’t know you or your husband, or your husband’s paper route.

I suppose I could just go pitch newspapers at some random houses…

How do you know that’s not what he does? :wink:

In all seriousness, it’s a pretty good route. Downtown and one side of campus mostly. And you’re right, we haven’t gotten to know each other, but it’s not exactly from lack of opportunity! (Mostly from lack of Bamadopes.)

Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?

It’s BAMADOPE TIME!

WOO!

One of us should start a thread in MPSIMS, shouldn’t we? Isn’t that standard operating procedure?

I nominate you.

Oh I hate it when people do that. I’m glad you were able to find a replacement.

What the fuck is with these people?

I mean, i can understand not wanting to do a job that starts in the middle of the night, but if you say you will do it then you should do it, especially when it’s something important for a friend.

Some people apparently feel compelled to act agreeably, even when the resulting miscommunication causes more problems than if they’d just been honest up front. These people need to learn what the word “no” means and that it isn’t a personal insult.

Does anyone else find it odd that this is a 7 day a week job, and the employer makes no allowances for days off? I would think that if you’ve got a bunch of carriers spread out all over the place, the newspaper should be smart enough to have also have a list of available back-ups who are willing to take over routes for vacation relief. Having to press your own friends into service seems incredibly lame.

That’s standard practice on most papers. The newspapers have backups for the routes that are down - ie there are no carriers assigned to that route. But a carrier is expected to cover the route every day or find someone to do it - they’re made aware of this when hired. Half the time, the managers end up doing it if the carriers flake, as evidenced by my husband.

You might have a backup who’s willing to go into the nicest part of town and deliver papers at 3 AM, but it’s rare to find one who’s willing to go into the crack dens to deliver papers at that time of the night.

Delivering papers takes about 2 hours average per night. It’s not a full-time job by any stretch of the imagination, and unless you’re in the hospital dying, the managers pretty much figure you can do the route or find someone to do it.

I think it’s a shitty system too, but mainly because I’d like mr. e. not going out on the weekends at 3 AM and leaving me home alone.

E.

That was standard procedure when I was a carrier (many, many, many, many years ago…
We weren’t really employees, but independent contractors - so if we wanted time off we had to find replacements ourselves.

Luckily, the kid across the street (and his mom) delivered for a different morning paper, and our routes more or less overlapped. So most of the time, I’d do that route along with my own when they were on vacation, and vice versa when we were gone.

When everyone was out of town, it was awful trying to find someone to take over.