Mathias, my roommate, came home from work a few days ago looking pretty perturbed, when I asked him what was wrong he related this story to me. He had been talking to some coworkers about his manager and the manager had caught wind of Mathias' vitriolic declarations and called him into his office. Mathias, in earnest, told him that he had indeed said all those things, and added that he thought he was a horrible manager and a fucking asshole to boot. Mathias was not fired, in fact, he will probably get more hours.
This is not the first time Mathias has been rewarded for actions that the rest of us would be canned for doing.
At his last job at a kiwi packhouse, his boss impolitely demanded that he work harder. Mathias, “who will not be treated like a dog”, responded by working at a comically slow pace. The supervisor was livid and close to firing Mathias. In front of everyone Mathias calmly explained that the employees were human beings and should be treated as such. He succeeded not only in keeping his job but also humiliating his supervisor in the process.
In Waiheke he was picking olives, which involved using a tiny plastic rake to comb the olives onto a parachute lying on the ground. Mathias likes to smoke and since the parachute is highly flammable, his boss insisted that he step away from work and smoke off to the side. The boss was not wholly pleased that Mathias took ten smoke breaks an hour, but he was not fired for it either.
Each time I express my utter surprise at his shenanigans he gives me a wink and a smile and says, “it's the French way”.
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