First Shift of 2021

 I should have figured that my first day of 2021 back to work would be...adventurous. 

Mostly in the sense that I totally had everything handled, but it felt like I was walking on a wire the entire time, just waiting for the thread to snap and for everything to go wrong. 

Of course...I feel like I tend to handle pressure (when the stress doesn't give me a headache) far better than other people...maybe because I'm used to constantly being stressed? Who knows.

In any case.

I came into work today to find my opening manager with their head in their arms in the office. 

Not the best of positions to find someone in. And normally indicates a "I'm not feeling well" sort of vibe.

That vibe proved right when my opening manager indicated that they weren't feeling well at all. They'd been fine when they woke up this morning, but the longer they'd been at work, the worse they felt.

With their symptoms being chills and feeling nauseous, as well as slight headache. 

I was like "Dude, Go Home." 

Since I too am a manager, my fellow manager would be able to go home and rest. 

As we need to have a manager present in the store at all times. 

Though with my next manager not due in for another couple of hours...

This meant that I would be the only person 'in charge' this morning so if something went wrong...I'd be the one to deal with it. :S

Yikes.

I mean, I've run the closing hours of the store by myself.

So opening hours aren't that different, especially when I know backup will be coming along soon enough.

However as my opening manager was leaving, my midday manager called and was like "Hey...I don't feel that great....but I'm still coming in! Just...I'm gonna be another hour or so later."

Checking in with them they their symptoms were only temporary...so yah. I didn't have to worry about them working sick.

And I'm grateful they came in as I'm sure my closing manager would have blown a gasket if they discovered this particular manager had called out.

So yay for the midday and closing managers being able to come in.

But that meant that I would be the only manager in the store until lunch time.

Which again, still stressful, but nothing I can't handle.

It's just not fun knowing that you're the one person everyone will need to come to if there's issues.

And considering I was supposed to be more PetCare today...I was pulling double duty of being the Petcare person and the manager until my next PetCare coworker could come in...at lunch time.

so yah. I did a bunch of running back and forth lol.

Add onto that that our Cashier wanted to leave early so that they could get to their second job because of a schedule conflict that had occurred earlier this week...

It was stressful.

Thankfully the cashier was willing to stay their entire shift if needed.

But we had enough closing people coming in for the evening shift, that i only really needed them to stick around until everyone else showed up.

And everyone else did show up.

So yay.

Lol still. It was a bit more of a stressful morning than I wanted to face. Especially for my first shift of 2021.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi