I’m Real Real Gone

As of tomorrow, 5:30 a.m.  Off in a cab to the airport, flying to Hamilton, boarding plane number two and arriving in Halifax late afternoon.  Spending two weeks touring the Atlantic provinces with Ann and Murray.  Then another four days to take in Pumpkinfest weekend in Port Elgin.  Going to be an awesome holiday.  And likely the last one we take for awhile!  Is there such a thing as holiday overdose?  I think not. 

I’ll be back.  With pictures.

My Lovely Life at Work

This is what I wrote on September 3rd…..

…….Okay, it’s time for a serious life update.  HAHA.  My life is not all that serious right now.  There will be some changes going on at work – I was going to say could be, but nope, they’re definite.  Because both our CSA’s have quit, as university students tend to do so that they can get on with their real lives away from the optical business which was an interesting experience, but no thanks, not for me, can’t see myself doing THIS for the rest of my life. 

Our DM in his infinite wisdom (please get the SARCASM in that last little phrase) has decided (after giving us all raises in the spring) that too much money is going out in wages in our store.  Doh.  And our sales aren’t going up.  Double doh.  Every store around us has been upgraded to a super centre.  Our traffic has reached an all time low.  People will travel a little farther to a bigger center.  All this is not rocket science.  So two of us, in the interests of getting the wage expense down in our VC, and at the non negotiable request of our DM,  have joined the WM travelling Optical Circus and have been working all the way across the city, each of us one day a week in a different store.  I hate it.  The drive, the people, the stress.  One more Wednesday and I’m done with it.  DM from Mars can kiss my butt.  I’d rather go down to three days a week than spend that fourth day of work being miserable.

However….it may not come down to that.  There are changes in the works.  I can’t talk about them or they’ll get jinxed.  So I don’t even know why I brought it all up, except to vent a little and fill up some blog space……..

YES I KNOW  the above is boring as all get out.  That’s why I stopped blathering and didn’t publish it.  Now that it’s September 10th (or 11th if you count it being after midnight)  the whole thing hasn’t gotten any more interesting, except for the fact that I did NOT talk about the changes and therefore they did NOT get jinxed.  Although in a rather different way than expected but with a similar outcome.  See how things work out?  Well of course you don’t because you have no idea what I’m talking about.  The long and the short of it is that ‘one who need not be named’ had yet another in a series of dramatic emotional meltdowns when asked to do something she didn’t want to do.  Then she gave her notice.  Put it in writing and everything.   I’m guessing that over the weekend with time to think about it she regretted that impulse.  At least a little bit.  Had second thoughts after calming down.   I’m trying hard to understand her priorities and where she’s coming from, but the truth is, I just don’t get it.  All she was being asked to do was change her availability so that she could work Mondays. It’s one of the days of the week that she looks after her two grandchildren while her daughters work.  Wednesday is the other day, and no one was messing with that.  We’ve all worked around her having those two days off a week for the last two years.  Give or take.  I don’t pay attention to time lines, I just know it’s been awhile.  And I know that it meant that two other people ended up working 8 day in a row stretches every other week.  In the interests of cutting at least three shifts a week, our DM took a look at the schedule and told our manager to fix it.  No more eight day stretches.  No more split days off. 

So the new schedule had me down to three days a week, with the possiblity of another shift if we got another Doctor night.  Not happy with that money wise, but it was my choice to accept it, or travel a day a week to work at a different location and probably die in traffic somewhere.  It had another co-worker being available to travel wherever she was needed whenever she was asked.  She agreed to that too.  Not happily in the least, but she said okay.  She’s that kind of accommodating person.  Then we’re down to number three who flips out at the thought of finding someone else to look after a three year old  and an after school 6 year old three Mondays a month, so that she can contribute to making the schedule work and help us meet the DM’s demands.  In her eyes of course it is way more complicated than that, but from an objective standpoint, that is what it is.     

I’ve tried to listen and be sympathetic, but like I said, I don’t really get it.  And frankly I’m tired of hearing about it.  If you don’t want to quit, then don’t.  If you think it’s more important to go home and look after your adult children and their families, then go ahead and do that.  Do not tell me you don’t have a choice.  You have infinite choices.  If you died tomorrow, chances are your girls would figure things out on their own.  Chances are we’ll survive with three staff members, even though you really and truly believe we’ll be lost without you.  And there are three other people in this scenario who have lives almost as interesting as yours.  Full of committments.  Imagine that.  That we’re no longer able to revolve our lives around your sacred Mondays.

The hardest part of all this is the fact that I sincerely like this person, and that I don’t want to embrace any of these changes, whatever they turn out to be.  I would like things to continue as they are.  For the most part I like how we work as a team.  But change is inevitable, and most of the time it’s a good thing in the long run.  I will roll with the punches, weather the storm, wait for the dust to settle. 

For once our DM and our Manager are standing together on something.  That’s pretty weird.