Where Did You Stop Listening?

 The problem I have with delegating tasks to people....is that when I do delegate...odds are that no matter how much or how little I explain the task....the person I delegated the task to is going to mess it up somehow and I'll have to redo the task anyways.

Which is why I struggle to have people help me. Why I struggle to delegate. Like what's the point of giving anyone a task if I'm going to have to end up doing it myself anyways in the end?

Like...there was a thing that came down through the higher ups that they want us to make the store shelves look fuller. So we're looking for clearance skus or skus that aren't yet clearance but haven't had any inventory sold within the last couple of weeks are have 0s across the board in our system.

And like...the problem with delegating a task to multiple people...is that I don't always say the same thing to each person. And I don't always remember what I said to who. 

Which makes it difficult to remember sometimes what I actually did and did not tell people. 

Like I remember talking to my other three underlying managers about covering up SKUs that weren't going to be used. 

I don't remember if I talked about flexing product over the empty spaces to everyone. I know I brought it up. I don't know if I brought it up to everyone.

I remember mentioning to at least one of them that we didn't need to worry about Dog really because we'd just reset most of dog food so cat food was going to be the main focus there. 

And like I thought I'd given enough information.

Cover skus that aren't getting in product. Fill them with other product. Call it good. I thought we were all fine and dandy.

Until head manager sent a "i'm holding back my temper" sort of text because they were pissed off...and honestly I was annoyed myself.

Because one of the three or maybe more than one of the three underling managers had gone through our recently reset dog food sections....and covered the BRAND NEW pricing there with cover ups because most of the product wasn't live yet as we set everything early....so there were still some empty holes in some of the areas.

And head manager discovered that this had been done and the cover ups used were sticky so tearing off the strip ruined the pricing underneath....

Which means we now have to go through the various resets and look at the original plans for the new resets and print out new pricing and make sure everything is where it should be. 

And by we I mean that I will be doing this because ... well ... I doubt my coworkers will get it right so I might as well skip delegation and do it myself. 

But it's frustrating because ALL of them knew that we had reset dog recently. We'd all had projects working on it. 

So like why didn't they THINK about the fact that we'd just RESET the section and therefore there would be NO CLEARANCE or HOLES we'd have to cover up.

It's so frustrating.

Like if I give them too little information like a generic "Here's what you're looking for cover them up" Then they don't stop to think that "hey we just reset this we should be good here." they just go "COVER UP EVERYTHING!" And then there were sections where they didn't even flex new product over it so you just have these huge empty shelves where there's no pricing and no product....

Or if I go into more detail "Cover these up, don't worry about Dog, flex product." They lose some of the steps in the deluge of information and forget things and therefore MESS IT UP anyways.

Like it's lucky that we're in an in-between stage where we're finished with our current resets and waiting on the new resets papers to show up that there's literally not much to do in the store right now so I have TIME to go figure out if everything is correct or not. 

But it's still annoying. So annoying.

Like I just want competent coworkers who can follow directions, think for themselves, be fast at their tasks, and like....give me LESS work instead of MORE work to do in the long run.

*exhales*

So frustrated.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Did I Get This Service?

So.

I'm not quite sure the full conversation as I only got pieces of it from another manager.

But the basic gist of the phone conversation that my other Manager had to take was this.

A customer called. Concerned.

She'd been trying to put the matter behind her, but it's bugged her enough that she finally called us.

You see.

She had brought in her cat to us to get groomed back in JANUARY.

But she was concerned that she paid for a groom that wasn't actually done. 

Because the cat didn't look great at all when it came back. 

And she wanted to put the matter behind her, chalk it up to like a bad day or whatever....but she really wanted to know if she'd actually been charged for the service because she....apparently couldn't find any indication her cat had been groomed that day. She didn't see any charges and such.

My manager who took the call was a bit frazzled...because she'd already been dealing with another grooming situation the past couple of hours.

But trying to look up the customer's phone number for receipts in the system didn't pull up anything.

But the customer also mentioned that she'd had a friend pick up her cat. So therefore she didn't know if the customer had used her own phone number or the customer's phone number or any phone number at all.

In any case. The other Manager was like "Let me research this a bit and I'll get back to you within the next hour." 

What really happened was that she needed to go on lunch, so she looped me into the situation to see if I could figure out anything while she was getting energy and a break from the crazy.

So I went the more logical route.

The customer wasn't sure if the cat had been groomed on the day in January it was scheduled to come in and wasn't sure if she'd paid for the groom or not.

Which I wasn't sure what the customer wanted the resolution to be since we only guarantee grooms for FORTY EIGHT HOURS and it had been nearly TWO MONTHS since the groom. 

But looking in the grooming system I found that the customer had had two cats go into the salon the day she mentioned. One early in the morning, the other right before lunch. 

The information I had had indicated that it was the early morning cat that she was concerned didn't get groomed properly. 

And you know what I found when I looked at that early morning appointment?

It had been CANCELED.

Meaning that we'd never seen the cat. Never touched the cat. We did not Groom that cat 

Why? The most likely cause was because there was no records of vaccination in the system. So unless we see physical proof that the cat had it's rabies shot...we can't do the service. 

So IF the cat the customer was concerned about was the early morning one....We Never Saw The Cat. 

If it was her second cat that came in later in the day then our records show that she DID get that cat groomed and did pay for the service. 

I left the phone call for my other Manager since she'd talked to the customer already.

But basically the gist was to figure out if the early morning cat was the cat the customer was concerned about or not.

And turns out it was.

So the customer had been needlessly worrying that we didn't do a good groom on a cat that HAD NEVER BEEN GROOMED because the appointment got cancelled.

Like....lesson in procrastination much?

Did she ever ask the friend "Hey did this one cat get groomed?" because that could have solved a lot of issues.

But also like... CALL SOONER if you DON'T LIKE SOMETHING. Because 48 hours is the limit for any potential refunds and such. 

At least we solved it painlessly with the customer happy with the outcome.  

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Paper Jam?

 There's some rather cool things that technology can do now that you wouldn't have considered possible even a couple years ago. 

Today's amazement deals with our Salon Printer...

And the fact that it hasn't been working the last couple of days.

I had no idea what was wrong myself, had only heard it from others that it wasn't working and that Head Manager wasn't able to get it fixed after messing with it. 

And I'd thought a work order had been put in before this point...but it apparently hasn't been....

So deciding to help grooming out so they didn't have to constantly make the trek to our office printer for their invoices. 

I got on the phone with our service center to see if I could get a work order placed so that we could get someone out here to look at the printer. 

And understandably telling the dude on the other end that "we've tried everything to fix it." isn't really believable. 

I know. I've dealt with customers who haven't actually 'tried' everything. 

And it was cool because the IT dude was able to pull up the Salon Printer to see what all the fuss was about and he's like "Oh it looks like you're experiencing a paper jam" which I was pretty sure wasn't the case because like....that would have been an easy fix. "and your imageing is at 0% and it's not recognizing the toner or that the tray is in the printer..." 

So basically the printer has gone "RED ALERT" all over nothing is working. 

Then the IT dude was like "Do you have a work phone on you?"

And I was like ?? What does that have to do with the printer?

Well, he can access our work phones remotely too. 

Which I was aware of because they've had to do that to fix problems with the phones before.

But he was like "I'm going to access your phone so I can get into your camera so I can see what's going on."

Which is exactly what he did. He was able to remotely access the work phone get into the camera app and actually see what I was showing him without ever stepping into the store.

Though that did mean I had to be his hands and eyes.

Because first he had me take out the toner to examine it and make sure that was in good shape and free from like hair build up -because in the salon hair gets EVERYWHERE.- and the remove the imaging device to examine it...and then remove the tray and examine it. And then look at the top of the printer and the back of the printer...basically looked everywhere that could potentially cause a 'paper jam' 

And there was nothing.

Literally nothing. 

No paper, no hair clogs, all the items I pulled out for him to look at through the camera looked in fine condition....

But the printer wasn't recognizing any of it. 

It couldn't recognize the tray being installed. Couldn't recognize that there was no paper jam.

So the IT dude was like 'Yah...looks like I'll have to escalate this and get a tech out to you." 

Which HA.

I was right that we'd need a tech to come out and look at it. 

Though I am sad that I won't be able to see the resolution to this issue in person since the tech will most likely come in tomorrow and I have the day off.

Because I am curious as to why the printer isn't recognizing anything being where it's supposed to be. 

Like will the end result be a whole new printer? Or just new parts? The IT dude was talking new parts...but like...I could see it having to be a new printer as well....

Guess I'll have to wait and see if I get an answer next time I come into work.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

They're the Same! (Not)

There's multiple reasons why I chose to go more into the Product side instead of the Customer Service side when choosing what manager position I wanted to go into when corporate revamped their leadership tiers last year.

And that main reason was?

Grooming. The Salon. 

Because the Salon is nonstop drama in one way or another. Whether it's the associates themselves stirring up trouble or Karen customers...Grooming usually is a headache that won't go away. There's always something going wrong there.

And I wanted nothing to do with it. 

I already have enough stress in my life that I don't need to add the constant Salon problems on top of it.

That being said....

with our EL on LOA for the foreseeable future, that means that those tasks that go to he EL now fall to other people.

Most the time it's the head manager who deals with the major crisis and the el (little el not big EL) that deals with the day to day things. 

Unfortunately....Head Manager wasn't in today or tomorrow.

So as being the next highest manager ranking in the store with the EL gone....it got left to me to deal with a Karen that called yesterday and terrorized my closing manager. 

Who told me today that they'd never come close to crying before last night. 

So what happened?

Apparently this Karen shares a grooming account with their child.

And for the past little while they've been getting their dogs groomed and both of them have paid the same price for their dogs.

However, that changed this most recent groom -two weeks ago- where Karen was charged more because the price of grooming changes as the puppy becomes an adult and Karen's puppy had reached the age where they no longer get Puppy Grooms but Adult Grooms. 

Karen was fine with paying for it at the time of service....

Until last night, when her child took in their dog to get groomed at a different location....and paid the same amount they always paid. 

So she apparently called freaking out that she was charged more while the adult child was charged the same for their dog. 

And she would not listen to reason.

That 

1. The breeds weren't the same.n -which influences the price-

2. The dog was old enough that the puppy groom no longer applied and therefore the adult groom would cost more. 

But Karen wasn't having it. She claimed the two dogs were the exact same breed. Poodles.

And while the adult child's dog was listed as a Poodle...Karen's dog was listed as a Labradoodle.

Which are two different breeds of dogs and therefore the pricing for those dogs would differ. 

My manager last night couldn't get that through to her...and manager wasn't actually sure what she wanted in the end. 

So it ended up being my job to call the customer today to either a) tell her "yes that's the price you will have to pay" or b) if the breeds were actually the same as she claimed then give her a refund for putting the wrong breed in the system. 

And it's one of those stupid things where it shouldn't stress me out, but I hate talking to confrontational customers and Grooming Karen customers are the WORST to talk to. And this lady sounded like a beast because she was yelling and screaming over the phone to my closing manager. 

So I didn't really sleep well knowing that I'd have to call her in the morning. And potentially get an ear full of yelling. 

Lucky me though...the customer didn't yell at me. 

I think she did mute me at one point but I stayed on the line until the 'connection cleared up'

In any case.

The first priority was to clear up what breed the dog was. If it was a Poodle or Labradoodle. 

And the lady legit never gave me a straight answer.

"They're the same breed."

And what breed was that?

She never said directly. I couldn't get her to tell me if both dogs were poodles or labradoodles. She just kept saying that they were the same breed. 

The closest I got to her admitting anything was when she said "They both have the same hair why does it matter?" 

Because Labradoodles DO NOT always have the same hair as a Poodle because sometimes the Labradoodle's hair ends up more Labrador instead of Poodle. So they have different needs. 

Which I explained to the customer and also explained that the price increased in the first place because the dog is no longer considered a puppy in the salon and therefore it costs more to get the adult groom.

The final bit of conversation was her asking "So will I always have to pay $$ now?"

To which I said "IF the dog is a Labradoodle then Yes." 

Because again she hadn't said if the dog was a Poodle or Labradoodle yet.

Her response?

She hung up on me.

Which kinda proves the point that the two dogs WERE NOT the same breed. She was just hopping to try and pay her original price by acting like her dog was the same as the other one when it's not.

And this is why I hate grooming customers because a lot of them try so hard to get free grooms or get discounts and such.

Like yes it's expensive to get your dog groomed. I get it. But if you don't want to pay the money then don't come get your dog groomed.

At least I didn't get yelled at by this customer. So yay. 

But yah.

I hate dealing with Salon. So. Much. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Can't Deny the Shiny

I may have made a slight mistake.

But like....if I'm having fun and finding joy is it really a mistake?

Probably lol. 

You see....I like rocks. I like collecting rocks.  

Mostly I like unique carvings, but if something catches my interest and is a good price I'll go for it.

And like. With how stressful life has been in the last few months. 

I'm trying to find little bits of joy wherever I can.

And currently that's finding rocks. 

So I'm fully looking forward to next month when the Gem Faire comes back into town and I can see rocks in person and go buy them....hopefully for a good price though I expect a lot of things will be slightly more pricey because of the....you know, various economic factors. 

But a while ago, while following a Pokemon guy on Youtube....

-I'm not quite into Pokemon myself, but I have a friend who is and so it kinda is like a secondary obsession. 

In any case this dude gives away cards...and a while ago said he was going to be on Whatnot giving away cards.

I checked it out that day....

Didn't buy anything because WOW people are quick to purchase things and I have no idea what sort of cards are...good. I had the vague idea to get cards for a less expensive price for my friend.

But that hasn't panned out yet.

In any case.

I checked out WhatNot for like two days....and then forgot about it. 

Until the same Pokemon dude said he would be giving away more cards there back on Pokemon day.

So the night before I went onto the site once again, to refresh myself on it's layout and make sure I knew what I was doing in case I could get a chance to win some cards for my friend. (I did not win) 

And what did I discover?

So. Many. Rocks. 

It's so crazy how many people there are on the site that are selling crystals and rocks of all shapes and sizes.  

And ....needless to say....my bank account is a bit lighter this past week.

Because I got caught up in the fun of bidding and getting rocks for less than I can currently find in the local shops in the area. Plus being able to see carvings I haven't seen before and styles of rock that I wasn't as familiar with, plus my favorite types of rocks....

Yah.

No surprise that I caught the bug. To buy rocks. 

So yah...I'm having fun, but oof. I may be in trouble. If I'm not careful I'll probably be able to set up my own rock shop because soooo many rocks. lol

Will definitely need to be careful...and like....save some of my paycheck so that I can buy stuff when the Gem Faire comes to town next month. 

But yah. It's been fun getting 'presents' in the mail and opening them to find stones. 

So much fun.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Why Did You Do That?

 I tend to watch various crime shows while I work on my craft projects....until they get to be a bit too much and then I switch to something different to have as background noise.

But there's just this morbid fascination with seeing just how many different ways and reasons that people just....kill each other. 

It is rather disconcerting though, when an episode I'm watching covers a crime in my own state. Most of them take place elsewhere in the various episodes....

But it's weird when they name a town and I'm like "Wait! I've been there." 

Of course the shows I watch most of the crimes have happened before I was born or when I was a kid....so it's not like there was anything active to be worried about.

...

...

...

But today at work, while I was on my break I happened to see an article about 3 murders that happened in the southern part of my state.

And I'm just kinda mindboggled.

Because like....the story just is crazy itself.

And I feel so bad for the victims because like...there was literally no reason why any of them had to die. 

As right now the motive for killing them was "I needed a car and money" 

Like. The suspect didn't know the victims...he just picked them out randomly. 

And just going over what details of the crimes have been done...

I do wonder if this particular murder spree will eventually end up in one of those crime show episodes that I watch.

Like I want to see the surveillance footage, get more details on how the victims died, see how they narrowed it down to this dude as the main suspect.

But I'm also like.....

Are there other murders that this dude has committed that we don't know about yet?

Because like...he's from Iowa which is on the other side of the country from here....and he'd been to Alaska in the recent past....like how did you end up down here? WHY did you end up down here?

Like the dude hit an Elk with his truck that I guess basically totaled it......

And then decided "Well I need a new car, guess I need to kill someone to get it. But wait! I don't like this car let me go find someone else with a car I do like and kill them." 

It's just....so weird. So convoluted. And so senseless. 

And like he's had other minor crimes charged to him....so why escalate? What triggered him to kill now? 

Has he killed before and no one connected him to those crimes? 

Was the Truck even his like he claimed?

It's just crazy. 

And I keep checking to see if there's new details new motive, new analysis on why and how and what and everything.....

Like I think it's the uniqueness of the crime that has my attention because again....it's just so random and senseless. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Migraine Galore

 One of the things that has been causing me stress the last little bit, which kinda is like a cyclical stress....is the fact that my migraines have been returning more frequently.

Which is a pattern I have noticed in the last almost year since I first went to see a doctor about the migraines....is that the more stressed I am...the more headaches I get....which getting headaches also stresses me out especially if I can get rid of them. 

So like....get stressed out get a headache that won't go away get even more stressed out and get more headaches.....it's a vicious cycle really.

Which the main solution is....stop getting stressed out. 

But kinda hard for me to not be stressed when life kinda imploded in all directions.

In any case.

I had a check in appointment back in January to see how I was doing with my migraines. 

And we decided to up my dose of Topirimate to see if that would help me fully get rid of my migraines. 

As it's great that they have decreased....but the goal is kinda to not get any at all.

So I tried increasing my dose throughout January. First jumping up to 50mg and then a week later up to 75 mg when I was still getting migraines.....

Only to find that I was STILL getting migraines and that was kinda the highest safe dosage to take...so I went back to the doctor.....

And I asked to double check my vitamin B12 levels because the last time we checked those in July they were stupid high. Like broke the chart high.

And despite being told that high B12s won't cause headaches....a Google search (which yah who knows how believable those are) state that high B12s can also cause headaches. So too high of B12 or too low of B12 and I could get more migraines.

It was also decided that I would go off of the Topirimate because like...it's not helping the migraines go away so why continue them?

But I wanted to wait and see what my b12s were before making any decisions, though we did talk through a few other options of meds to take. 

And my B12s?

They're still high. Up in the 1000 number range. 

So instead of taking B12 daily I've decided on my own to decrease the amount of that vitamin I'm taking to only twice a week in the hopes that lowering the B12s into a more 'normal' range will mean a decrease in headaches.....

Again with the state of stress I've been in the last couple of months there's other mitigating factors to destress myself that I need to look into as well.

But at least decreasing the B12 intake is something tangible I can do.

Especially when I was told to "stay the course" so to speak and not change anything because otherwise my lab results looked normal so there was no concern. 

So I weaned myself off the Topirimate fully a few days ago. And for now I'm just keeping an eye on my vitamins and my stress and  you know.....ensuring that I have Nurtec on hand to take for those migraines that Advil and Tylenol don't help. 

My next check in is in May so we'll see how everything looks then I suppose and get an idea of maybe potential meds to take if my migraines are still being a pain by that point. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi