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edenfallingTuesday passed safely, mostly because Melodrama and Lemme-Tell-Ya spent the day not talking to each other. Well, mostly; there were a couple times direct communication was unavoidable, but nothing exploded so eh, whatever.
I was more worried about Wednesday, since that tends to be a busier day and there was therefore a greater chance they would be forced to be in closer physical proximity, even if I had plans to carefully direct them to work on separate tasks. As it turned out, the day was stressful in a completely unexpected direction.
To sum up, Lemme-Tell-Ya somehow aggravated his sciatica on Tuesday and came in Wednesday looking like, as Melodrama and Ms. Conviviality said, death warmed over. So they sent him home early, and Melodrama punched in at 11am rather than noon. Then Ms. Conviviality (aka AO) left at noon because she had to get her son Josh to a physical therapy appointment and had only been helping out as a favor to Boss Lady, so Melodrama and I ran the store shorthanded for five hours. This is perfectly doable, but it's not exactly desirable -- the margin for error disappears, you see, and it would become untenably stressful in the long run. :-/
But we got everything done, even though the Elmira delivery did not arrive until a quarter to five, less than twenty minutes before Melodrama's shift was over. I spent my evening checking in and pricing all the stuff, not to mention all the usual closing tasks.
While Melodrama was on lunch break, I received a call from Boss Lady, trying to get a clear explanation of what had happened Monday, since the story she got from various Facebook posts was understandably vague and garbled. (Everyone at the smoke shop, plus several previous employees, belongs to the same Facebook social circle, you see. This technically includes me, but since I never use my Facebook account and have scrubbed it of every bell and whistle I could figure out how to delete, I only learn the online gossip secondhand. I am quite sure I'm happier that way.)
Boss Lady then called back and spoke to Melodrama while I was on lunch break, and it looks like we may finally get some action to resolve the problem! She has put a help wanted ad on Craigslist, and as soon as we get at least one new hire (preferably two, but one will do), she will shift Lemme-Tell-Ya from full-time to part-time. This will remove one piece of his leverage over Melodrama and Sweetheart -- that he doesn't have to listen to them because he's full-time and therefore higher on the status ladder (i.e., they are "not the boss of him") -- AND make it easier for Boss Lady to arrange the schedule such that his shifts overlap theirs as little as possible.
We currently have one applicant who has passed the first round of scrutiny (basically, does your previous employment history seem reasonable and did you lie about your driving record; you would be amazed how many people lie through their teeth, as if they don't realize we can and do check their licenses) and is ready for the second round (a little test booklet that purports to discover if you are a thief and/or have troubles with alcohol and drugs; again, you would be amazed how many people flunk it even though the "correct" answers are blindingly obvious). I need to call him tomorrow to set up a time for him to come in and fill that out, and also I guess for me to answer any questions he has.
*crosses fingers* I really hope this works out.
I was more worried about Wednesday, since that tends to be a busier day and there was therefore a greater chance they would be forced to be in closer physical proximity, even if I had plans to carefully direct them to work on separate tasks. As it turned out, the day was stressful in a completely unexpected direction.
To sum up, Lemme-Tell-Ya somehow aggravated his sciatica on Tuesday and came in Wednesday looking like, as Melodrama and Ms. Conviviality said, death warmed over. So they sent him home early, and Melodrama punched in at 11am rather than noon. Then Ms. Conviviality (aka AO) left at noon because she had to get her son Josh to a physical therapy appointment and had only been helping out as a favor to Boss Lady, so Melodrama and I ran the store shorthanded for five hours. This is perfectly doable, but it's not exactly desirable -- the margin for error disappears, you see, and it would become untenably stressful in the long run. :-/
But we got everything done, even though the Elmira delivery did not arrive until a quarter to five, less than twenty minutes before Melodrama's shift was over. I spent my evening checking in and pricing all the stuff, not to mention all the usual closing tasks.
While Melodrama was on lunch break, I received a call from Boss Lady, trying to get a clear explanation of what had happened Monday, since the story she got from various Facebook posts was understandably vague and garbled. (Everyone at the smoke shop, plus several previous employees, belongs to the same Facebook social circle, you see. This technically includes me, but since I never use my Facebook account and have scrubbed it of every bell and whistle I could figure out how to delete, I only learn the online gossip secondhand. I am quite sure I'm happier that way.)
Boss Lady then called back and spoke to Melodrama while I was on lunch break, and it looks like we may finally get some action to resolve the problem! She has put a help wanted ad on Craigslist, and as soon as we get at least one new hire (preferably two, but one will do), she will shift Lemme-Tell-Ya from full-time to part-time. This will remove one piece of his leverage over Melodrama and Sweetheart -- that he doesn't have to listen to them because he's full-time and therefore higher on the status ladder (i.e., they are "not the boss of him") -- AND make it easier for Boss Lady to arrange the schedule such that his shifts overlap theirs as little as possible.
We currently have one applicant who has passed the first round of scrutiny (basically, does your previous employment history seem reasonable and did you lie about your driving record; you would be amazed how many people lie through their teeth, as if they don't realize we can and do check their licenses) and is ready for the second round (a little test booklet that purports to discover if you are a thief and/or have troubles with alcohol and drugs; again, you would be amazed how many people flunk it even though the "correct" answers are blindingly obvious). I need to call him tomorrow to set up a time for him to come in and fill that out, and also I guess for me to answer any questions he has.
*crosses fingers* I really hope this works out.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-22 03:24 am (UTC)I really, really, really want some functional, amiable new coworkers. Surely that is not so much to ask of the universe???