Bob's Angry Rants

Well, here we are for the third Martha entry in a row.

Martha, as you may have figured out from previous posts is a) dumb as a post and b) paranoid. These things are not unrelated. She always thinks that bad things happen to her because the world is out to get her, but in actuality, bad things happen to her because she is a moron. She is constantly railing about how unfair the world is to her when it is plain to me that most of her problems stem from her own actions or inactions.

Martha's latest paranoid delusion stems from the fact that our latest paycheck is slightly lower than the last one. This is because insurance costs have gone up since last year and employee contributions have risen correspondingly (approximately $2.00 a pay period, $50 annually). Martha was outraged. She started yelling and pitching a fit, ranting about how The Employer was a sneaky, cheap company going around behind our backs stealing our money. That she never agreed to let them take more money and how she/we were being ripped off and that nobody ever told her that this was something that could happen. This went on for about 11 or 12 minutes. My favorite quote from that rant, "This company is ignorant! I mean it! This is the most ignorant place I have ever worked!" I almost told her that ignorant is not synonymous with stupid, but she wasn't really in a listening mood. Lucky for her that she's both.

Open enrollment in benefits was three months ago, in November 2002. Everyone was given packets with information for the upcoming year and asked to pick what benefits they wanted to participate in. Martha didn't read anything because she just wanted to keep the same coverage as last year. When she asked me what I thought, I told her that by not reading or changing her benefits, she had given implicit permission for whatever happened. She responded that if they were going to take her money, that they should have notified her. When I said that they had informed her, via the benefits package, she started yelling and screaming again about how The Employer is a bunch of lowlife thieves again.

Martha then revealed that when she started working here, she was almost fired the day she received her first paycheck because she pitched a huge fit about paying for medical coverage. Apparently she didn't know that she would be contributing until she saw her first paycheck. She started screaming and yelling (much like she was doing now) and was almost let go for being a rabble-rouser. (My personal opinion is that she was probably almost fired for being an unstable and unsettling presence).

When I told her that, fair or not, I didn't think that it was unusual for an employer to ask for employee contributions for healthcare, she started yelling at me, telling me that, "You don't know nothing! I've been in the job market way longer than you and I have never heard of this until I got here! You can roll over and let them take your money, but I don't roll over for anyone! I'm too smart for that!"

Martha has indicated that she is going to quit her job over this outrage. I can only hope.