change agent

so after three days off, i left my work and it was 8 cents under or over, i can't remmber which way. i come back and it's near thirty or forty dollars in the red.

no one can seem to figure shit out while i'm gone, so as soon as i come in, i start off the shift the way i normally do. counting everything, documenting everything.

what my young co-managers don't understand is that they are not only protecting themselves but the staff by counting everything and documenting the dollas.

i can't get them to understand this though. with them it's clock in, clock out. that this shit happens when i'm gone is good in that i'm not there to get tangled up in it all. but bad, in that it's happening at all. that's a lot of money to be down.

and finally, since i did the inventory it's "better."

come on kids, how hard is it to keep track of stuff.

but i've seen a lot of bad accounting for product, sloppy standards, etc. so it's to be expected that shit goes missing or can't be found.

i completely rearranged the entire back cage and storage areas while doing inventory. it's the only way to be thorough, knowing exactly what is and isn't there.

i need a higher paying job though. so i won't be there forever. i'm making beans compared to what i could be or used to make.

i consider it, my dues for getting into management.

but i'm so tired of the headaches, though the other newer (not in length of employment, but in upcoming assistant mgr. status) assistants seem amazed that i can get the kids to work at all.

i tell them, there are always at least two things to do.

i ask them (or whomever i'm working with), which do you want to do?

and do the one they don't want to do. i don't really care, at this point, what i do. there are some things i have to do, but most of it is negotiable. so if the kids don't want to wash dishes, i'm happy to have them do something else. but no one stands around on my watch. we work together, as a team. everyone participating.

something about letting another person choose what they want to do, makes it more palatable somehow. all this is a great social experiment for me, having no previous management experience.

but i tend to save the dirty, hard jobs for myself. and i don't mind this. they have to get done and i think, when i finally ask one of them to do it, they will have seen me slogging the dirty mop bucket (which i managed to topple over tonight--that's fun kids), that when it comes their time to do it, they don't object so much.

i'm easing the princess (one of my favorite co-workers, a kid who doesn't even know how to sweep) into mopping. she's overcoming her aversion to touching the mop and broom by retrieving them. and soon, she will be sweeping and mopping, but she doesn't know this yet.

:D

i'm evil. i know. but the girl has got to learn and contribute. we all do.

i forgot to tell you this (and i tell you everything--not really), the disabled vet, last time we worked together said to me,

susan, we got off to a bad start. you're one of the nicest people here.

which made me smile inside. i don't need to be liked, i don't need to be "nice" i don't care to be friends with anyone at my place of employ. what i want to see is a job done well to the standards we need to meet. that's it. do that and we're good. don't do it, and i'll try to help change what needs to be changed. (this is seen as pickiness by many. they got some horrible habits before i came on and since they were all trained together, making the same sloppy mistakes together, i could see them plainly). now, when they see my sloppy mistakes, i say,

you're right. and thank them for pointing it out.

i figure, if you can't take direction, you shouldn't be giving direction.

i think they understand this about me now. i'm not above correction and never want to be. i'm grateful for it, in fact. but sometimes, shit's just got to change. and i tend to be a change agent.

peace. out.