Softly Stressed

 It was a softly stressful day today.

Soft stressful because like.... .... nothing majorly went wrong today? It was just....just....it was softly stressful because there was so much potential I guess for something to go wrong. So I was stressing over the potential of having a bad time when we didn't really have a bad time?

In any case.

It started as I arrived at work today because I only remembered basically as I was pulling up that my morning cashier would be leaving right as I was coming in. 

And like.... when I'm the closing manager, I'm totally used to having the last two hours of the store being opened having me be the only manager in charge.

And like it's fine to be the only manager in charge when my other manager goes on lunch because it's like 30 minutes of just me in charge.

But being the only one in charge for multiple hours during the middle of the day? 

That's a tad more stressful mostly because the middle of the day customers are a totally different beast compared to the dinner time night time customers. 

And it doesn't help that I'm not used to working the mid shift at all. Like being scheduled 11-7 hasn't happened to me for at least 2 or three months now. And if I do get scheduled the dreaded 11-7 shift....it's usually on like a Friday or a Saturday.

And today is Thursday.

And for the past like....8 weeks?? I've had Thursdays off.

So not only am I'm working on a day I've had off for like 2 months....I'm working a shift that I haven't worked in the same amount of time....

And to top it off....because my morning manager needed to leave early today. It meant that I would be the only manager in the store until the closing manager came in at 2.

So from 11-2 I would be the one in charge. 

Which is like prime lunch time rush chaos to unfold. 

And like....it was busy. Granted that. But we had enough coverage that it wasn't too chaotic though I was doing my best to be six places at once.

No what upped the chaos/stress level was that a little bit after 1pm my head manager sent me a text telling me that our District Manager was currently at our sister store. 

Or at least they'd been at our sister store around an hour ago.

Which meant that they could be showing up at our store any second now. Or if they were stopping to grab lunch first...would be showing up any minute now within the next half hour or so. 

Because our sister store is really only like a 15-20 minute drive away.

So it's totally feasible they could come to us and visit. 

So I spent the next hourish worrying that the DM would be coming with other Corporate people to come visit us.

WHEN I WAS THE ONLY MANAGER IN THE STORE.

AHHHHHH.

Like my closing manager was in at 2. So there was the chance that they would show up before the DM showed up.....

But until then I was trying to softly not panic about having to hold the DM's attention...while also desperately hoping that the DM would choose not to come to our store because they usually try to come to the store when the Head Manager is there and the Head Manager was off today. So like....they shouldn't come to the store....but there is the rare occasion they come to the store anyways even when they know the Head Manager isn't there.....

And at the same time I had to warn like everyone in the store to be ready just in case and since the DM was with Salon BigWigs I had to ensure that Salon was aware they could be visited and it was just a big stressful hour....

Until I got another text from the Head Manager a little bit after my closing manager showed up saying that they'd ended up at a different store in the next valley over.

Which since that valley is to the North of my store and in the opposite direction of my store.

Meant that we were in the clear.

Because if they wanted to visit us they would have come down to us first as it would be silly to drive to the sister store then drive back up to a different valley then drive back down to us.

So after an hour of stress....we were in the clear.

YAY!!

But ugh.

I hate that the DM has stressed me out TWICE this week and they weren't even ever in the store themselves!! Like How. Dare.

*exhales* 

I really hope this means they won't be coming by anytime soon....like I would love it if we could avoid seeing the DM until next year.

But odds are the DM will drop by when we least want them too....

In any case.

It was a stressful few hours for me at work today being the only manager with a potential DM visit hanging over my head.

*exhales*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi