It was one of those days at work that just...unraveled.
Like it starts out really well. Everything is going great!
And then one thing after the other goes wrong.
Until you're running around with your head cut off attempting to complete at least one task among the chaos.
The unraveling began soon after I had finished opening the floor, but hadn't yet gotten to the task of doing the reptile bedding change.
As you remember that Notice of Violation we got last week?
Yah. I got a response back to the email I sent to a couple of different people, and they wanted to know more information about which product had received the violation.
I had no idea. As I wasn't the one to directly deal with the dude when he was serving us the notice.
It was my other manager, and they were on vacation this week.
But going out on a limb I sent them a text asking if they knew which specific product of the Hemp stuff we sell that was in violation.
Thankfully the manager answered back rather quickly.
Telling me that it was "All our Chews" and our "Mary Tail's" product.
-I'd never heard of the second one until that moment. I don't often look at product names unless a customer is looking for it and this particular one looked rather new.
But yah.
I ended up making a half dozen trips between the aisle where the product is sold and the computer to try and compose an email for the person that was detailed enough to be helpful but not overly detailed.
It took a bit of time.
And around that same point we were made aware of another issue.
Apparently our online store....was having a major glitch.
Where our more expensive products -like the large dog igloos, the big bags of Blue Buffalo, the Kong Beds, All our Fish Tanks, and like $200 dog clippers....were showing up online at dirt cheap prices.
Like $200 clippers being sold for like $10 dirt cheap.
And corporate was sending out a frantic email to all the stores to not accept any of those orders and to decline those picks as 'out of stock' until the glitch could be fixed online.
At one point our 'picking system' actually went down. I'm guessing so that customers couldn't order things and we couldn't pick them.
But when it finally got back online, we had like 20 orders waiting for us.
And I had the fun task of going through all of them and comparing them to the list we'd been sent of items that were part of this glitch...and then go through and decline those picks as out of stock.
It took forever.
But we finally got caught up and it seemed like things were gonna get back on track now that the system was back up and the website glitch had been fixed.
And then things fell apart once again with the coming in of our closing crew.
As the midday manager who was supposed to stay until dinner time...ended up leaving like three hours early because they were in pain from a krick in their neck.
It wouldn't have been that big of a deal because we still would have had a closing manager, a cashier, and a person in petcare.
It's not ideal because I was off at 430 and the closing crew came in at 3. So getting lunches covered? Much harder.
But we were gonna make due.
But then 3pm showed up....and our petcare person did...but our cashier didn't.
And normally this cashier is on time.
But 20 minutes later...they still weren't there.
Giving them a call....it turns out the cashier misread their schedule. And thought they were off today. And couldn't come in. Why? Because they had a second job. And they were currently at their second job. Working the closing shift.
If our other manager had been able to stay longer....this may not have been as big of an issue.
But with the cashier gone...if I had left....it would have just left the closing manager and my petcare person to run the store.
We tried to call the one other person we could at the time to come in.
As 2 of our workers were out on vacation. And everyone else had worked the morning shift.
But they were unable to come in and be our cashier for the evening.
And I could sense that if I left...things would go badly. I could sense my other manager was already having a rough time and to leave them alone to handle this with just the petcare as backup?
Yah. Not good.
So I checked tomorrow's schedule to see how much coverage we would have. And noticed that I would basically be considered an extra body. Not necessarily needed.
So I called my head manager to see if it would be okay if I stayed later tonight and worked a shorter shift tomorrow to help out my closing manager.
Head manager gave the okay.
So I ended up staying until closing time to help out. Which meant, yep, I worked 13 hours. *exhales*
Thankfully, I had taken some excedrin earlier in the day, and my roomie was kind enough to bring me some Taco Bell around dinner time to give me an energy boost.
So despite the long day, I was doing rather well keeping my energy up.
My closing manager on the other hand....was having a super difficult time.
It was just one of those 'bad days' for them. Where minor inconveniences became monstrous problems to them.
To the point where they ended up in the breakroom basically in tears because it was that hard of a day.
Honestly...it felt like my manager was moments away from just quitting on the spot. So I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't stuck around to help with the burden.
Especially since any plans we made seemed to be derailed.
Like our dog trainer was in the store today, and indicated after her last class she could stay a bit longer and help us out.
And really I just needed her on the register for half an hour so me and my petcare person could focus on closing down the department.
But the dog trainer never ended up jumping on the register.
Because they ended up helping a customer who came into the store with a very sick kitten.
One that died while in the store.
One that the vet thought might have parvo.
And the vet was very concerned about everything the customers had touched also having the parvo germs left on their services. So we had to go pull all the product they touched but did not buy off the shelf and bag it up and deep clean other surfaces and yah....pretty sure if I hadn't been around to be the voice of reason and to calm down my manager, that would have been the straw that broke the camel's back for my other manager.
Needless to say.
We closed down the store as quickly as possible. And were out of the store within half of an hour of us closing our doors to customers.
Because even my petcare person -who ended up being the cashier all shift- was done with today.
It was a long day for them.
Moreso for me having worked 13 hours.
But overall I felt pretty good. Grateful I was able to help my manager out.
And hopefully they can talk to the Head Manager about some of their frustrations and maybe take a vacation soon -since our vacation time resets with the new year- so that they could get away from work for a bit. As I think most of their frustration is just having no time away from work to properly unwind.
We'll see how it goes.
But at least tomorrow I only have to work a 3 hour shift instead of an 8 hour shift. So woot! <3
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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