Can I Panic Now?

There are just some days at work that really sap your energy.
Like today.

I already hadn't been looking forward to being at work for a variety of reasons.
Because it's basically the culmination of a stressful work week.

It was my latest shift of the week. Meaning I started later in the day and ended later in the day...
I mean, I was scheduled to be the first person in the department....an hour before the store opened.
Which is intense considering that cleaning out our cat cages usually takes an hour, and then the rest of the department like another two hours after that....

Thankfully, we had a volunteer come in today at the same time as me, to clean out the cats,
So I could cross one thing off my list of 'to dos' this morning.

And opening seemed to be doing well.
Because I was in 'speed' mode.
So I got most of the department open in 45 minutes,
when I got the bad news.

The volunteer was actually sick....like throwing up sick...
and decided at that point that she couldn't finish cleaning out the cats...
which meant that I needed to switch gears and put off some other opening tasks, and spend my last 15 minutes before the store opened, cleaning those cages.
Which I managed.
And managed to get the rest of the department open within the first hour of the store opening.
Which was great! Because there were hardly any customers in the store at that point, so I was able to get that done without interruptions.
Which was great.
Because....we were already short handed in work.

For one thing it was Fall break.
So I already had two coworkers gone in my department on vacation.
Another celebrating their birthday,
Another with weekend plans they couldn't miss...
And then...
A manager disappeared on us. (Quit. Left for lunch on Sunday and never came back.)
One of the remaining coworkers in my department quit on Monday....
And they'd been scheduled to work today (Saturday) as a closer -highly needed on a Saturday night. Not good to have just one closer.
And last but not least....
My second person in my department of the day....had to call out, because they ended up having an infection in a spot that they had just had surgery in and had spent the last 10 hours in the ER and will probably be in/out of the ER for the next three days....
Which left me by myself my ENTIRE shift.
And my closer by herself for her ENTIRE shift.
Because there was no one else to call in, to help us out.

Sound stressful yet?
Yah.
It was.

Thankfully, the managers managed to move people around so that I was able to get a little bit of coverage in my department from one of the managers in the middle of the day (towards the end of my shift.)

But that doesn't even cover the crazy going on in the store.
Product displays that need to be reset.
Truck to be unloaded.
And even better....the auditors are in town. So we've been desperately trying to get auditor ready....

All while short handed.

Talk about...yeeshness.

lol Fall Break...
Where you fall and can really potentially break....

Even with all the crazy....
I thought work went pretty well today.
There were some trial customers.
The ones that make you run all over the store and call every vet place you know and don't like getting 'can't do this' for an answer.
The ones that leave huge messes for you to clean up.
The ones that are just difficult in general cus you're not sure what they're looking for.

*sighs*
No wonder I came home with a headache.

I mean I managed just fine at work. With the pressure.
Getting home was just the knocking point to finally let myself feel the stress and the pressure.

Which meant spending the evening...
Hanging out in bed.
with a headache that won't go away.
Trying to relax muscles that are tense.
Trying to relax legs that are sore.

And know...
That I won't get a day off from work for another 6 days... (a 9 day work week without vaca...)

Oh the joy of work lol.

Gotta love it when things go crazy just when you don't need them too.
Hopefully things go better the rest of the week,
When we get people back from vacation.
When the auditors finally leave.

Yes.
I'm looking forward to when super crazy goes back down to normal crazy. lol.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi