Oh My! Someone lives in my plow?

WARNING mindless ramble probably not worth reading. To anyone not directly involved, mundane and pointless it is.

So, where to start? Here’s the VERY quick back story about someone I work with. He’s in his early thirties and been working at my dads store since he was 16 years old (maybe 18). He was probably the best employee we ever had up until about 5 years ago. Around that time he started dating another employee (who was later fired, but that’s another story). Tony (the guy the thread is about) fell head over heels for her and was TOTALLY blind to everything in the world except her. He couldn’t see what she was doing to him. Over the 2 or so years they were dating she turned him into mindless robot. He stopped paying taxes on his house so he could buy stuff for her. She was an asshole to all of his friends. Before he met her, you could walk into his house at anytime between 3 in the afternoon and midnight and always find atleast a few other people there, always. After they had been dating for a few months, no one wanted anything to do with his house because they didn’t want to put up with her. He even asked me once why no one comes over anymore and I explained it to him. Everyone told him that she was bad news, but gave up after a while. He was so in love with her, that MONTHS after she dumped him and was already on her second or third boyfriend after him, he was still making her car payments, fixing her car, letting her store stuff and his house etc…When he finally started to realize how deep in debt he was and that she was never coming back, he started to spiral into a really deep depression. He turned into a different person, he cut his hair (he had very long hair and it was just gone one day), he got a tattoo on his wrist that said something in HER handwritting, he was a bummer to be around, and to top it all off he had no friends because she pushed them away and none of them wanted to come back because of they way he treated them while he was dating her. So after a few months of his work ethic going to crap, getting yelled at non stop at work for being lazy, doing things wrong, coming in late, attemted (attention style) suicide attempt he just dissapeared off the face of the earth. About two years later he showed up again, said he was all better and wanted his job back which we gave him. He’s been back at work for about 3 months now. He’s not his old self but he’s about 75% there as far as work ethic is concerned and as far as personality is concerned, he’s kinda creepy now. So fast foward to about two weeks ago. I was talking to my dad (the owner) and he was saying that Tony got to work one day at 3:45 in the morning (on the schedule for 6:30, we don’t mind if he comes in at 5, 5:30, 6 whatever, but 3:45 was pushing it), we ask him about it, he said he couldn’t sleep, no big deal. Now, we know that he’s been living in a friends basement with no bathroom and we now he’s got shaving supplies, deoderant, hair clippers at work. So we’ve assumed that he’s just getting to work a little early to cleanup before the day starts so we look the other way until he get’s back on his feet. Remember, he’s been working for us for a very long time so we cut him some extra slack. A week or so ago I looked at his timecard and notice he’s been punching in between 4:00-5:30 in the morning. I pull the alarm logs and found something REALLY odd, he’s been punching in between 4 and 5:30am but he’s been getting to work at around 2:00-3:00am. Again we ask him about this. He said he’s been going through a weird phase where he’s been falling asleep at 8:30 or 9 at night and wakes up really early and rather then sit around in his friends basement he comes to work. Well, we’re not totally thilled with this, but again we figure the time between getting to work and actually punching in, he’s just using to clean up, eat something, smoke a couple of cigarettes, whatever. Fast foward to today. I’m over by our plow and notice that both windows cracked open (95 Bronco with the little triangle windows). The passenger door was unlocked so I open the door, and close the window, when I climb in to close the other one the seat moved back and clicked into place. That’s strange, why was it foward? I look around and notice one of Tony’s books in the back seat. Ooooh, he’s been sitting in hear reading, that’s why he get’s hear early, and that’s why he asked me how to flip the back seat up a few weeks ago. Upon furhter investigation, I noticed that both ashtray’s in the back where full of butts, (which explains why the windows where open and why for the past few weeks his close STUNK like smoke). Okay I figured, he’s been coming in early, getting ready and then sitting in the plow and reading for an hour or so. So I looked all the way in the back and found about a weeks worth of cloths in the back. Now I get it, he’s been freakin’ living in the plow! Well not compleatly. From what I can tell he still sleeps at ‘home’ but seems he comes to work at 2 or 3 in the morning and spends the rest of his time there. Tomarrow should be interesting, we’re going to confront him about it. Not only is it sad, but it’s wrong on so many levels. There’s a burn hole in the back seat, what if he would have set the truck on fire, what if someone sees him in there and tries to rob him or steal the truck, what if a customer recognizes one of our employees as the guy that lives in the truck out back, it costs us gas if he has it running to keep it hot/cool inside or to keep the dome light on. If he’s driving it there’s no insurance and the tags are expired. I could go on, but I don’t need to, it’s just not right. What’s really strange is that I know he can afford a decent one bedroom apartment, I cut his payroll check, I know what he makes, I know what his expenses are, I also know that he’s rather picky about his apartment, something he best get over soon. What’s really bothering me is that I don’t have time to think of how best to handle the situation becuase I rifled thorugh all his stuff and put it into a box in the back of the truck, so tomarrow morning (well in about an hour) he’s going to know someone found out his secret. If I had stopped and thought about it for two minutes, I wouldn’t have moved anything around, so we could confront him when we where ready. Now, not being the confrontational type (luckily my dad is) I called up my dad and told him about it and he’s going to deal with it. We’ll just explain to him that I was going to go and clean out the bronco (it’s a mess inside even without his stuff in it) and I found a bunch of clothing in it so I called my dad to ask him about it and that’s where we are now.
And what makes this all really hard, before he met that girlfriend, he was one of my really good friends, but everything changed with her and he was a real asshole. Then they broke up and that whole depression thing made him really different, and it’s a long story but since he’s been back I’ve really put a lot of work into distancing myself from him. Well whatever, just needed to say all this.

I’ve divided this into paragraphs for clarity. And corrected a few misspellings.

Interesting. Let us know what happens.

I read most of it, but have to get ready for work, so didn’t have time for all of it. I still haven’t read a book and smoked a couple of cigarettes in my plow.

(but I really opened this thread because I saw the title, and thought “Call Mr. Plow, that’s my name, that name again is Mr. Plow.”

It’s sad when a friend takes a dive off the deep end. It’s great that you and Dad have tried to help him get his life back together, and I can understand how hard it must be for you.

However, he’s not your responsibility. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of based on the friendship you used to have.

At the title I was thinking of a farm related plow, wondering WTF?

Please tell us how this goes.

Good luck. You seem pretty empathetic and I hope your friend realizes he’s lucky to be working for you. Let us know how it goes.

Well my dad simply approched him this morning and (catching him compleatly off gaurd) said “Are you living in the plow?” He said that no, he wasn’t. He just likes to keep some of his clothes in there. “So you’re just using it as a dresser?” “Yea, pretty much.” So we just let it go at that. I don’t believe my dad mentioned that it’s pretty obvious he’s doing more then just changing in there. Now, I don’t think he’s sleeping in it, but it’s very clear he spends several hours in it each morning. It stinks like cigarette smoke (as does he, not just like a smoker, but if you spent a few hours in a smokey bar and then wore the same clothes the next day, it’s stale smoke smell). He has books in there etc… So my dad made it clear that we are worried about him, and will do what we can to help him get back on his feet (as in giving him more hours, not giving him free money or loans). The problem now is that he needs to lower his housing standards a bit (well, not lower them from living in the back of a plow or a basement with no bathroom, but lower them from what he’s looking for). I know he can afford decent one bedroom apartment on what he makes, but he’s VERY picky about where he lives. Funny thing is, the place he used to live before he went nutso is two stories directly above the basement he’s in now. Anyways, to wrap up this post my dad expressed his concern that Tony get’s back on his feet, and let him know that we’re aware that he ‘keeps some clothes’ on the truck. Well I’m glad it was that easy. I was dreading coming into work this morning, but all is well.

I don’t understand about the plow. What is the plow?

StG

Ford Bronco with a blade mounted on the front. As in a snow plow, not a farm plow.

Ford Bronco with a blade mounted on the front. As in a snow plow, not a farm plow.

Is it similar to a Ford Bronco in any way, perhaps with the addition of a blade?

Almost exactly identical, but it has a blade on the front.

Ya know, with a setup like that, you could probably plow stuff pretty good, too.

With the odd title and the high ratio of views-to-posts, I think people might have thought this about STDs, or Delusional parasitosis, or something. :eek:

I think it’s more likely that most people don’t scroll down far enough to notice that Rilch provided a readable version of the OP, and just run away rather than attempt to read it.

Joey, I have to ask:

From what you’ve described – drastic personality change, degenerating work ethic, periods of depression, and most of all a disparity between income and apparent expenditure – do you think it’s possible that your friend has acquired a well-concealed habit at some point? Would you know what to look for?

I ask because, unless you can rule this out, giving the guy more hours may not actually help him at all.

It’s great that you and your dad are willing to take this on rather than wash your hands of the guy.

What kind of habit are you thinking of? After what he went through (or rather what he put himself through) the drastic personality change doesn’t seem that odd, most people couldn’t make it through that unchanged. Are you talking about something like a drug habit? It was considered, but to the best of my knowledge he doesn’t do anymore then smoke pot, and that’s ALWAYS been, and will always be. And while I’m not trained to notice drug habits, from my expierence, I don’t think he’s on anything else. Also as for the money, he said he has some 'squirelled away" and come to think of it, he said he was saving up to buy a car. At this point I’m not to worried about him, we just have to keep asking him how the apartment hunt is going to keep him on the right track.

Oh, and about giving him more hours, that came out wrong, he already get’s in almost 70 hours a week anyways (he’s only on for fourty but when you come in 3 hours early and work and extra day that’s what happens). That should be changed to a higher pay rate. In fact one of our higher paid employees just quit so that will give us a little cushion to up his pay a little. He works hard enough to deserve it (before he disappeared he was making alot more then he is now, so he may be working so many hours to make more money), but the rasie will still be somewhat dependent on him scaling back the hours a bit. We don’t mind if he get’s to work at 5 and leaves at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, but getting to work at 3am and working until 6 at night must be tough on him and it’s certainly hard on our checkbook.