Crazy busy, but productive day at work. Yesterday and today my friend and I went in an hour earlier than we normally do. The difference is night and day. It may not seem like much, but having that extra hour to get things done before customers start coming in is huge. A lot of life is doing what you can with what you have. Today I discovered that due to our ancient pricing software and inadequate training, the profits from a line that my department purchases have been going to the grocery department. This isn't the first time this has happened, it's very frustrating to say the least. You wouldn't think that a department that's as small as mine would require four full time people and a part time person, but it does.
Part of it is people's reluctance to embrace technology. While I've always considered myself to be something of a Luddite, two of the other people I work with don't know anything other than the absolute basics and even that may be questionable. A trend I've noticed at our company is cutting costs in ways that hamper productivity. We can't get office supplies, but the company will spend money in other ways that I wouldn't. I guess every company is like this to a certain extent, but this company seems to carry it to an extreme as in my boss can't even request that the company buy her a small pocket sized notebook to carry around so she can take notes.
Everyone wears a green apron except for our general manager and the owners, I didn't think I would like wearing an apron as much as I do. It's green, my has three pockets, some of the older versions have two. I have two aprons and wash them regularly. One woman I work with told me that she doesn't think she's washed hers since March. That's a philosophy I don't really understand. The company provides fresh aprons for certain departments as people who work in the meat department or the cafe may need to change theirs while they're at work. The aprons protect our clothes from dirt, you can wipe your hands on them if you need to, and the pockets come in super handy for storing things.
There's an apron protocol that some of us follow when it comes to stocking the pockets. I keep a pen, a permanent black marker, and something to write on in one pocket. The middle pocket is reserved for Out of Stock tags and red dots that we use to indicate excess inventory while the last pocket has my box cutter in it. Sometimes I stick things in my pockets and forget about them. We had an essential oil of myrrh bottle that wouldn't open. I took it upstairs, soaked it in hot water, and was able to get the top off after I remembered it was in my pocket. Sometimes we drop and spill things at work. The other day I knocked over essential oil of sweet basil. I think that was also the day that we had a bottle of lavender leak over a shipment.
The way your brain has to think at my job is very fragmented. I might be in the middle of a project like the one with the water bottles and food containers when the front desk asks me a question. I might have to call for credit memos if our accounting person won't do it, she likes to pass things along that I think she should be doing and then take more time explaining what needs to be done than it would to just do things herself. We put up our October sale tags early, but our system won't recognize certain vendors so certain things weren't reflecting the sale price when they ring up and I had to fix that. We're constantly getting shipment in, our GM is a shopper, and has a habit of not listening to my manager when he should.
As an example, he ordered a thousand bottles of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap in the 32 ounce size. To give you an idea of how much that is, our shelf holds four bottles at a time. Fortunately the grocery department is going to let us borrow an end cap to try and get rid of this stuff. The price break is not worth the frustration it's causing employees, we don't have room for this, and what really ticks me off is he's the person that's always complaining about the inventory we have in back. I took a woman on a mini tour of our store as I walked around showing her different things. This is a service I wish we offered in real life, you get a lot of bang for your buck when you know how to work our store.
My job is interesting, challenging, and very fast paced. For the most part I really like it, even being frustrated there is better than being stuck at home without gainful employment. I absolutely love my manager and my friend, I like the part time person, and I'm managing to get along with the former assistant manager. In other news today I left early to go to the dentist. I was positive that I had a cavity, but learned that was not the case according to the dentist and hygienist. They're not sure why my tooth hurts, it could be cracked, they have no way of identifying if it is, I'll know when it falls apart which is not what I wanted to hear. I have significant wear on a cusp which could be causing the sensitivity. They gave me a sample of toothpaste and sent me on my way after reducing a filling which hurt quite a bit.
The other day I was really frustrated with the guy I've been seeing. I felt that his responses were saying the right types of things without conveying any real warmth or personality. I grouched about that for a couple of days, and for whatever reason had a sudden change of heart that was helped along by the message he sent me last night. I don't know what changed in me, but I realized that I had been seeing things from my perspective instead of being empathetic and trying to view them from his. He's insanely busy with the postseason coming up and knows his team is counting on him to help them win. In addition to that there are several people over in Asia that he has to help, I'm not sure in what capacity, but it means he needs to keep those hours as well as the regular American ones.
I really don't know how he gets things done except he manages his time in a way that I probably never will although I'm getting much better now that I have a job where you have to manage your time or you will spend all day spinning your wheels and not making any progress. By the time my shift ends my brain is completely fried. I almost got into a car accident today because my mind almost couldn't concentrate on the roads when I was driving. The other night I went to bed before nine, and I'm proud of myself for recognizing that I needed that extra rest. This morning I laid in bed for over an hour after waking, again, I'm glad I gave myself that extra time to just lay there and be emotional.
Things are going very well, I need to remind myself of that fact because it doesn't always feel as if they are. I have a new chiropractor who is competent, and probably above average, but I miss my previous guy and his office staff. Maybe tomorrow I'll make some appointments for myself and the girls. I'm coming up on the one month anniversary of moving out of the house. Tonight I went over there to check things out and see if I had any mail. It's been painted, the front porch has tile, the flooring has been stripped and sanded, and the carpeting removed. It's going to look fabulous when everything is done. It's a great house on a prime piece of land and I hope that whoever buys it loves it and flourishes. I feel as if ghosts of the past are being purged by these renovations which is a happy feeling.
Hoping this finds you well,
J