Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?

I haven't written much about my return to work yet so I thought now would be a good time.

I returned to work on January 2, thinking that everything was ok. Boy was I wrong. I hadn't been at work for an hour yet when I found out that there had been arguments about whether to call me back or not. Bob my supervisor fighting for my return was no surprise to me really, we've worked together for five years now and he's taught me everything I know.

But a big surprise to me was that a certain supervisor that I've always had trouble with was also with Bob in the fight to return me to work. I've written about him before here somewhere, John.

Now if you had asked me who I would have thought would fight to keep me OUT of the shop I would have told you that he would have been at the forefront. He's always given me the impression that he didn't like me as a person or my abilities as an inspector. We have butted heads at many times in the past and nobody has ever driven me to the brink of loosing self-control like he has.

However, he argued FOR me when the debate began about whether to return me to work or not. He even insisted he didn't want one of the other inspectors to return he wanted ME specifically because he trusts me to do the work properly.

Wow! What a surprise eh?


But that's not all. A supervisor that I don't even work for was one of the most vehement opponents to my return. He's the IT manager here at our company and since I work on the factory floor I've had very little interaction with the man. His name is Mike.

I've no idea what he'd have against me returning unless it has to do with saving money somehow. I am one of the highest paid employees on the production floor, though that is not saying much here, they pay very little.

Also as far as I know my work performance has always been satisfactory to everyone here besides John's criticizms. So I don't know.

Either way I'm back to work. For the first two weeks it's been work as usual here, however at a much slower pace. There is little work and I'm told that often nowadays we only work four days a week.

Now the last and wierdest thing.


Last week my supervisor Bob came to me and said that because work is so slow I am in danger of being laid off again. He asked if I would be willing to step down from inspecting parts to running a machine making them. I said that I would although I didn't like it. (It's better than being laid off again!) He said that it would only be temporary and that as soon as things picked up again I'd return to my inspection position. He told me to expect to begin running a machine somewhere around the end of the month.

Then, the next day, Bob comes to me again and tells me that the supervisor on 3rd shift is taking an unexpected leave of absence. He then asked me if I'd be interested in filling this position for the month that the regular supervisor will be away.

(To be continued...)