another Ed Sheeran gig and i'm more certain than ever
that i'm not a fan...
   more than ever i try to look for grown-up music,
after watching the clientele who came i am more certain
of it than anything...
               women mostly listen to him...
we had to change the toilets around to accommodate
an 80:20 ratio of women to men...
                 to ease up on the queuing...
    
i got home with aching feet but with my head in the clouds...
put on some more KORTEZ... this time
starting the night session with the song Boję Się
(i'm afraid) - sure... Ed Sheeran might be a guitar maestro...
but it's unlike he can also play the trombone...
or for that matter does...
                               if Damian Rice was his idol it's
not surprising that the music is what it is...

and no... you don't need an old school rock band
guitar solo... a change of rhythm coming from the bass
guitar... which then dictates what the drums will do...
and whether the guitar can be replaced with...
a trombone and or a trumpet...
              
                         mind you: at least the Red Hot Chilli
Peppers played two days in the row...
but had completely two different set-lists...
                        and every song was a like a memory
from my teenage years...
                   maybe because Ed Sheeran is a peer...
i can't relate...

    but... i didn't have time to think...
first time i saw him i was a petty exit steward...
today i was a supervisor with 16 stewards underneath
me...
       i guess my grandfather taught me well:
about how to work with people how to deal with them...
while fellow two supervisors complained...
moaned... threatened the stewards with sending them home...
over-use of mobile phones... wandering about...
sure... i had one failure... a breaker who did breaks for
about 5 people... then ended up disappearing on hours
on end...
    in the end i wasn't going to ran after him:
i didn't even reprimand him...
                    i just told the other stewards that we're
working with this lazy *** who keeps ******* off...
useless... a collective shaming tactic...
    it worked... since in the end the other guys and gals
worked out a system of breaking each other...

under me these two girls who some other supervisor
warned me against: how they would wander off,
this that and the other... how she was forced to send them
home: even this other supervisor said:
i don't want to work with her... she ends up sending half
her staff home...
  that's the thing... some people are but a little authority
and they go ego-tripping... on authority...
it's like that quote is actually true: power corrupts...
absolutely power corrupts absolutely:
they were once in the same position these poor souls
are in now... it's like the inverted power dynamic
doesn't trickle into their thick skulls...

then again women are mean to other women:
in general...

these two supposedly "troublesome" girls?! perfect angels...
i talked with one before the shift...
listen: work with me... keep me informed...
if there's any problems let me know...
   the other was creating problems early on...
two toilet breaks... one break in general... and this other
woman from another company started to bother her:
telling her what to do, so she retorted with:
but you're not my supervisor...

   something had to be done... girl, do you want to move
from this nagging *****? yeah... please...
swapped her with another girl...
  she ended up sharing a vomitory with a pristine example
of a steward... some hours later i had management
come up to me and tell me: these two stewards
are doing an amazing job... well then...

good call on my behalf... please: leniency...
don't just bring the stick... bring a carrot...
    there's no power dynamic: or at least let's pretend
there isn't one... no hierarchy...
i had no issues with people looking at their phones...
absolutely none... i never once heard my code
name mentioned on the radio... my ear-piece was
completely deaf...

              just before Ed Sheeran was about to come on
i walked up to a kiosk selling burgers
while getting a coffee for one of my stewards
and asked: so... tell me... what happens to all the leftover
burgers?
they get thrown out...
                   really? seems like such a waste...
do you think my stewards could have them?
yup yup...
     off i went and asked all my stewards whether
they could eat beef...
   two Muslims stewards said they'd rather go
hungry than eat meat they didn't know was Halal or
not... but would love some chips...

and? i managed to feed all my stewards for free...
happy customers... they stayed in position...
complied with everything i was insinuating...
showed genuine interests in customers...
obviously what helped was that i was always visible
to them... roaming docks 102 through to 107...
chatting with them... not really stomping over them...

the other supervisors? you think they fed their
underlings?! i hardly think so... i hardly think so if they
kept complaining about their attitude...

at the end of the shift one of these "bothersome" girls
came up to me and said: thank you...
it was an immense pleasure working with you....
well... i did give her what she wanted and from time to time
checked up on her asking her if she was happy...
thumbs up came the reply...

i must have learned my people skills from my grandfather...
he taught me: be humbler than whatever
humble job there is...
                         there's no need to over-stretch authority...
there really isn't...
people don't learn to comply by force...
by constant nagging... not if they're teenagers
and this is something of a side-gig for them:
or their first job...
                            ****'s sake... i've only been doing
this "job" from December of last year
and i'm already supervising: even though i don't have
any qualifications to do so...

maybe that's why i wasn't paying much attention
to the Ed Sheeran gig... seen him once... second time wasn't
as spectacular... while... the Chillies were probably more
spectacular the second day than the first:
even if they didn't play all their popular songs...
Scar Tissue... Under the Bridge...

hmm... am i writing about work, or am i writing
about interacting with people? i think the latter...
i'm writing about... how people interact with me after i hear
about how they interact with others
and how others are always wrong about what i find
in my stead...

i must conjure a term for all of this:
perhaps i just look the part and people don't have a problem
with associating with some "higher" authority...
i do remember not being a poet
at the briefing... i stood up before the whole lot of them
and told them that i wouldn't be speaking
about all the nitty-gritty *******...
my bossy colleague would...
i just stared into the distance and then sometimes
at them... raising my voice on certain points...
stressed-stern...

    masculine-bias... no no... that's not the term i was going
to use... masculine-leniency... that's the one...
i did have rules that were to be unbroken
on an unspoken level of communication...
i just implored: work with me, work with me:
and i'll work with you...

after all... this is almost like target practice...
i'm trying to get skills should i eventually do settle
on the path toward becoming a high school teacher...
i'm orientating myself...
speaking to a bunch of people is going to be my
greatest "defeat" before i conquer this "fear"...
having authority...