A "Secret" I Found Out Today

I like my co-manager. He's a somewhat cocky "outspoken" kind of guy. But he COMMUNICATES well so you know what to expect out of him. He's friendly. He's talkative. He's nice. And he likes to get the work done quickly. I've gotten along well with him from the beginning back in October or so when he first came to us for "manager training".

In March, there were some complications that developed at the other store in town and the co-manager there quit and since we had two co managers at that time, it was decided that they'd move him over to the other store.

I was sad.

Until January there had been two co-s at the other store, but the other one was the one who had been chosen to be our new manager, the manager that I hated to lose when he quit a couple weeks ago.

After the big "blow-up" in our store back in April, when we lost our co-manager who had been with us for years, we no longer had two co-managers. We didn't even have one. So they bought him back.

And I was glad.

Since our boss quit, he's been carrying the load and been trying to get as much done as possible before this new manager comes in on Monday. It was to him I volunteered my time today to come in on my day off and work in seasonal.

While I was up there working, he said to me, "I'll tell you a 'secret'" And he confided in me that MONDAY WAS GOING TO BE HIS LAST DAY with us. ... that today really was supposed to have been but he's the only one who has got the code to open the store on Monday morning.

So on Tuesday he will be going back to the other store.

That made me sad... even after he told me who was going to be our new co-manager. We are getting the one from the other store.

That's a bittersweet trade.

I LOVED working with the person who is coming. She came (back) to this company years ago and I worked with her for a long time before transferring to this location. She used to be a Manager in another of this company's stores out west somewhere, but her husband's job relocated them and she stepped down. Over a process of time they ended up in Huntsville. When she decided to go back to work, she decided to apply for the job she was already trained for. She worked for a long while as a department head. Just before we left that store, my manager made her an assistant. She did very well in that capacity. (She did well in everything she did when I was working with her.) Just a few months ago, she was interviewed (at our store by someone sent from corporate who does the interviewing) to be considered as a co-manager and was promoted to that position. So she is very much acquainted with the in-and-outs of how this company wants things done.

And she's just a wonderfully nice person. Efficient. Smart. Friendly. Quick. And, as someone said today who works with her, "she's everywhere". I was always amazed at how quickly she could get from one place to another to take care of WHATEVER the need when I worked with her before. He also said, "Since she's been a co-manager, she's there all the time. She leaves and comes back." You could tell he didn't see the sense of THAT. But, I'm pretty sure co-managers are salaried employees and therefore are not RESTRICTED in the amount of time they can work. That might seem to be a bad thing to some people but, evidently not to her.

So I'm not sorry she's coming.

She will be excellent "machinery" to make this operation run smoothly while the new manager-- who was a co-manager had a high volume store up north-- is getting adjusted to the added responsibilities that a manager has to take onl

But I still don't like the idea of losing the one we have.