I Made It

It's Saturday and I'm OFF.

Well, I'm off from paid work.

TODAY HAS GOT TO BE my getting-ready-for-Thanksgiving day (and my company-for-dinner-tomorrow day).

This week has really been a very full week for me.... maybe not ordered just like last week was because there were no babies born early this week, but nonetheless, very busy.

I started my shopping for the Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday night--after I got off from work. Went to Kroger and got my turkey. (Just doing that made me feel accomplished since the turkey is the KEY PART OF THE MEAL.) That wasn't all, but it was the MOST IMPORTANT part.

It was late when I got home.

Then, of course, Wednesday is my freight day. I had a sizable order, but NOT as huge as the some previous weeks. I was not given any help. I guess that only comes when I have the HUGE orders to get out.

I did get home in time to take a shower and wash my hair before going to church. It's always a blessing to go to church. That's where I get my "recalibration". That is, that helps me to stay focused on what is most important in my life regardless of how important other people try to make other issues. (Of course, it IS NOT REALLY OTHER PEOPLE who do it. It's ME --or anyone else-- who CHOOSES TO ALLOW other things to become more important to them than the UPKEEP of their souls.) Anyway, I do see the importance of regularly being with other like-mined, like-focused people. People who agree with me that keeping their hearts clear before God, keeping Him first place in their lives, and pleasing Him is more important that whatever else comes up to "entice" us to put it before Him. (And even the things that could or would stress us can tempt us to put them first if we are not diligent to be sure it doesn't happen.)

Anyhow, Wednesday was a full day.

On Thursday, I had expected to be children-sitting after work, but that plan changed because the baby Jeni was going to help in the delivery of came in the middle of the night on Wednesday, so she was back home on Thursday. However, I had planned to have her girls, Brad, Felisia and Lexia as soon as I got off from work. Then the plans changed, (So, in truth, a baby coming earlier did change things around for me.) but I called Felicia from work on Thursday morning and told her I'd come to the hospital and "sit" with F&L while she and Tim did baby care.

Meantime back at the job, we get the message that we will be having a stock test on Friday. All my freight will not be out by the time I leave at four, and I'd already committed myself to going to the hospital as soon as I got off. So I told my co if she let me go just a little earlier so I could be there for the four o'clock feeding, I'd come back after Tim and Felicia did their "baby care" and get the rest of my freight out. She was fine with that but ended with the question:

Did you get your order done?

Duh.

Of course not.

She wanted them to ALL (without exceptions) to be turned in by noon on Friday and I wasn't scheduled to come in until ONE.

So I told her--if it was agreeable with her-- I'd come in early, do my order, go do grocery shopping, take it home, and then come back Friday night to close.

That's what I did.
In early.
Grocery shopping.
Home for a little while.
Back to work at 4:30

I was tickled I'd be missing the stock test. But when I got back, the supervisor had come and decided not to do it. (It was her day off but she had to come and take care of a check list of stuff that the DM was requiring HER to get in that day.)

Since she would be returning on Saturday to do the stock test, our co -- who was the closing manager -- felt it was extremely important that the store be in tip-top shape before we left last night, so it was close to 9:30 before we got to leave.

But, I am NOT there today. So I will still not be there for the stock test.

Why don't I want to be?

It's nerve wracking.

As long as there are people shopping-- and we have lots of that-- there will always be empty slots or pegs. ALWAYS. But when they do those tests, they get real "testy" if you have an empty spot for the item they are checking. At this time of year, they concentrate on seasonal items and those are the items most likely to not be there.

They have been getting so "testy" about some people missing that they were actually "written up" for missing items on a stock test. BUT, that is NOT a consistent policy. It is a matter of "mood" and that is as changeable as the weather.

So, I just like to avoid the whole situation.

There's other reasons for ME to steer clear. I'm still in the learning process of accepting that you do not question these people about ANYTHING. You just Yes-Sir or Yes-Ma'am them regardless of what is happening. I tend to the side of asking why they made a certain pronouncement.

Like one time I was told my end cap wasn't set properly and I knew it was so I asked to see the picture that I was being judged by. When I looked, I pointed out to the supervisor that my end cap WAS CORRECT.  (It was just that they had changed the items on the end cap and had reduced the amount of stock we were to carry of one item, raised the amount of SPACE given to another WITHOUT RAISING the amount of the merchandise we were to carry, so I had put the overflow of what wouldn't fit onto an EMPTY shelf  that was supposed to be for an item we could not stock enough of to fill the shelf with.  It would have only been that way until the first item sold down to fit the new set.)

It just "doesn't fly" to show them something like that.   Her response to me was, "It may be set right, but it's not merchandised right."

Then a couple of stock tests ago, I asked the supervisor, Why is it,  if I'm ordering and the warehouse is out of what I ordered and it doesn't come in, that you didn't miss it on your stock test too? If it's out for me, why is it not out for everybody? (Her store is generally given the stock test the day before we have ours, but she gets her freight in a day before we get ours in.)  One of the items I missed had been "out in the warehouse" for several weeks.  Her answer was that she stayed stocked up.  I replied, "But we are told how much we are supposed to keep on hand and I stay within those guidelines." She didn't say anything to me, but later said something to the co that showed she was "upset" by my question.

I tried to show the DM one time-- when he said I was overstocked on an item-- that I had what the book said I should have and he was nice to me but later told my boss I had a bad attitude.  (I was very  respectful to him when I showed him.)

So, it's best for me to not be there when they come in. These people don't want to know how things really are; they just want to be bosses. That's something that is very hard for me to understand. You'd think they'd be glad to find out that I was working to get things right. But, with them, it's more about being able to find something wrong with what we are doing than it is about us getting it right.

I made it 'til Saturday. And today, I'm the boss. And I don't intend to be critical of my work today. I am going to be nice to myself all day long.