I was really worried about my first close all by myself, and while I don’t think it was a complete failure, it was definitely a bit of an adventure. I’m not even going to embellish this one. It is pretty entertaining on its own merits.
(Note: I’ve decided to use fake names for my coworkers because I am not sure how they feel about me talking about them on the internet. Not that it will really help, but at least I can feel like I am providing some kind of anonymity.)
First of all, I started the day thinking that I was going to be closing with Bill as my delivery driver. (Most times there are only a manager and a driver working on a close shift.) I was not excited about this premise because Bill does not know how to do managerial things, so if I couldn’t remember something I would be up the creek. The store manager called me that morning for an unrelated reason, and told me that Bill had quit, effective immediately, that morning. (I suspect that this is related the yelling match that he had with another driver two nights prior.) She also told me that it didn’t matter to me, because my closing driver was supposed to be Dimitar (who does know how to do managerial things). So I went in to work at 5:00 armed with that knowledge, thinking that my close might not be a disaster after all.
I got to work and the store manager informed me that Dimi was not my driver after all. It was supposed to be Diego. This was troubling, because he does not know how to do managerial things, or even basic non-driver things, so he would be no help at all. (Especially combined with the fact that I find his accentreally hard to follow.) Then about an hour into the shift, the manager gets a call saying that Diego has just found out that he is getting deported, so he has to quit, effective immediately. Dimi was at work at the time, so we asked him to stay and close (even though he had already been there since 10 AM) but he was feeling fairly unwell, so he opted to go home and sleep. We called in the assistant manager to close with me, which meant that I probably wasn’t going to fail. Bully for me.
The night went on fairly uneventfully. The store manager went home, the assistant manager drove deliveries, there was a little rush, we dealt with it, the night went on. Then, at about 9:30 or so, Mr. Assistant Manager called me up while he was on a delivery and told me that he had blown a tire and had no idea when he would be able to get back. At this point I had no idea what to do. I texted the store manager and she said to call Dimitar, so I did. I told him the story, and he grumbled and thought about it for about a second and then said “Fuggit. I’ll be right there.” (I later found out that he was only hesitant about coming in because he was in bed and full of Nyquil.)
I called all of my delivery customers and told them the story, and they were all very amicable about it, and agreed to come pick up their orders. Great. Now I had just called in Dimi and dragged him out of bed to not make any deliveries.
After that the night was fairly uneventful. Dimitar, in his true fashion, was not upset at all, (or at least didn’t seem it) and said that I should have called him right away instead of waiting. Assistant Manager came back after Dimi had been there for about half an hour, and then he left and the we finished the close, (very late,) after I dropped the scale on the floor and broke it. But that was one of the less concerning parts of my evening. Hopefully my next close goes smoother.
It is what it is.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
16.5.10
Distraction
I had originally written a long and elaborate series of words about the tiny herb garden that I recently acquired, and then I remembered that I have to close at work tomorrow, ALL BY MYSELF and I am terrified, and that is much more interesting than me not knowing how to identify a bunch of plants. Maybe I will talk about my plant-related confusion another day.
So work. I am SO SCARED to close tomorrow. It is a Monday night, so hopefully it won’t be busy, but I don’t have a good driver helping me, and I don’t want to have to call the store manager in the middle of the night and ask her what the crap I am supposed to be doing, so I will have to figure it out. I am just concerned that ten million people will decide that they want pizza at 10:30 on a Monday night and I will have to make them by myself because I will be the only one there because the driver will be out delivering ten million pizzas. I am also concerned that I will forget how to do all of the computer things that are necessary for a close because I still haven’t ever had to do them myself without some serious prompting from someone else.
I guess time will tell. I’m sure I will have a ridiculous story to tell tomorrow night, but I will be too tired to tell it, so maybe the internet will hear about my exploits on Tuesday. We’ll see.
So work. I am SO SCARED to close tomorrow. It is a Monday night, so hopefully it won’t be busy, but I don’t have a good driver helping me, and I don’t want to have to call the store manager in the middle of the night and ask her what the crap I am supposed to be doing, so I will have to figure it out. I am just concerned that ten million people will decide that they want pizza at 10:30 on a Monday night and I will have to make them by myself because I will be the only one there because the driver will be out delivering ten million pizzas. I am also concerned that I will forget how to do all of the computer things that are necessary for a close because I still haven’t ever had to do them myself without some serious prompting from someone else.
I guess time will tell. I’m sure I will have a ridiculous story to tell tomorrow night, but I will be too tired to tell it, so maybe the internet will hear about my exploits on Tuesday. We’ll see.
13.5.10
The Work Day from Hell
(Note: I’ve decided to use fake names for my coworkers because I am not sure how they feel about me talking about them on the internet. Not that it will really help, but at least I can feel like I am providing some kind of anonymity.)
Today I ran the store for the first time. For eleven and a half hours. From opening, at 9:30, (after getting out at 12:40 AM on my close last night,) to a scheduled 8:00, which turned out to be 9:00 when I finally got out. I had Will there helping me out, but it was still largely my problem to deal with things that came up. It was a Thursday night, so needless to say, it was stupid busy. People like pizza on Thursdays. Something about it being pay day or something. Not only was it ridiculously busy, my first shift as manager, and my seventh shift ever, but I was saddled with the two worst drivers in the store.
The whole day was a bit of a fiasco, but the worst didn’t really start until the dinner rush. My drivers were alternating on boxing pizzas, which is always a bit dicey, because while one of them seems to be able to read the labels, the other just takes the first box and the first pizza and puts them together, regardless of what the label says. Needless to say, disaster ensued. At LEAST two pizzas were switched around and delivered to the wrong places. I only heard from two customers, at any rate. Who knows how many suffered in silence. I shouldn’t let the drivers box, but if they don’t do it we’ll be even slower. One set of people called back and were really good natured about it. We were swamped with deliveries, so they said that they would come out and pick it up, and all was well with that order. Another wronged delivery recipient called, and were much less friendly about the whole ordeal. (You can’t win ‘em all I guess.) At this point I had a lobby full of people, I was the only one on the phones and front counter, Will was buried in pizza orders, and my drivers were both out on unnecessarily long delivery runs. I am pretty sure I sounded like an absolute idiot on the phone with these people, as I had like ten people trying to talk to me at once and I was trying to get advice from Will on what to do for these people. In the end they opted to come pick up their order too, because god knows when my drivers were going to get back in. So they brought back their pizza and talked to Will about the order. I was too busy freaking out and being frazzled to talk to them, and Will seemed to have it under control. He took the old pizza, (though why that was necessary I am not sure,) gave them the fresh one, and all appeared to be well. After another little while of running around like an idiot because I didn’t know how to deal with it being as busy as it was, Will and I noticed that the pizza we had taken back had vanished. One driver had gone home and the other had no idea what happened to it. I just pray that it didn’t get brought out to a customer, but I am seriously worried that it might be the case. I suspect that I will hear about it later, and who knows what will happen, in that case. I know I would fire me, if I were the boss and that is what has happened.
Today I ran the store for the first time. For eleven and a half hours. From opening, at 9:30, (after getting out at 12:40 AM on my close last night,) to a scheduled 8:00, which turned out to be 9:00 when I finally got out. I had Will there helping me out, but it was still largely my problem to deal with things that came up. It was a Thursday night, so needless to say, it was stupid busy. People like pizza on Thursdays. Something about it being pay day or something. Not only was it ridiculously busy, my first shift as manager, and my seventh shift ever, but I was saddled with the two worst drivers in the store.
The whole day was a bit of a fiasco, but the worst didn’t really start until the dinner rush. My drivers were alternating on boxing pizzas, which is always a bit dicey, because while one of them seems to be able to read the labels, the other just takes the first box and the first pizza and puts them together, regardless of what the label says. Needless to say, disaster ensued. At LEAST two pizzas were switched around and delivered to the wrong places. I only heard from two customers, at any rate. Who knows how many suffered in silence. I shouldn’t let the drivers box, but if they don’t do it we’ll be even slower. One set of people called back and were really good natured about it. We were swamped with deliveries, so they said that they would come out and pick it up, and all was well with that order. Another wronged delivery recipient called, and were much less friendly about the whole ordeal. (You can’t win ‘em all I guess.) At this point I had a lobby full of people, I was the only one on the phones and front counter, Will was buried in pizza orders, and my drivers were both out on unnecessarily long delivery runs. I am pretty sure I sounded like an absolute idiot on the phone with these people, as I had like ten people trying to talk to me at once and I was trying to get advice from Will on what to do for these people. In the end they opted to come pick up their order too, because god knows when my drivers were going to get back in. So they brought back their pizza and talked to Will about the order. I was too busy freaking out and being frazzled to talk to them, and Will seemed to have it under control. He took the old pizza, (though why that was necessary I am not sure,) gave them the fresh one, and all appeared to be well. After another little while of running around like an idiot because I didn’t know how to deal with it being as busy as it was, Will and I noticed that the pizza we had taken back had vanished. One driver had gone home and the other had no idea what happened to it. I just pray that it didn’t get brought out to a customer, but I am seriously worried that it might be the case. I suspect that I will hear about it later, and who knows what will happen, in that case. I know I would fire me, if I were the boss and that is what has happened.
5.5.10
Disaster Averted
Aside from some very minor, and not particularly amusing disasters yesterday, I would say that my first day of pizza-making was a success! Actually, I think it may have been one of the less awful first days on the job that I have experienced. Let me tell you though, rolling pizza dough is exactly as hard as it looks. (That is to say very hard.) A person needs a lot more hand-eye coordination than I possess, but I managed to avoid throwing any dough across the room, so good on me.
The fact that I will eventually hold the title of ‘manager’ at this place doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot. More responsibilities, like a quarter more per hour, and otherwise exactly the same work. But what can you expect at a place where there are never more than two people working at one time?
On a non-pizza related note, I made some really revolting cupcakes this morning for no reason whatsoever. I had a box of cake mix and a sleeve of cupcake… sleeves (?) so I made cupcakes. As it turns out, you really can’t substitute margarine for shortening in that kind of situation. You will wind up with frosting that is nothing but margarine and sugar, and it will not be at all delicious. At that point, Bryan showed up and saved the day witha stroke of genius a flash of inspiration chocolate syrup. Now I have a bowl full of watery, poo-coloured frosting that is fit for a king. Or maybe a starving baker.
The fact that I will eventually hold the title of ‘manager’ at this place doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot. More responsibilities, like a quarter more per hour, and otherwise exactly the same work. But what can you expect at a place where there are never more than two people working at one time?
On a non-pizza related note, I made some really revolting cupcakes this morning for no reason whatsoever. I had a box of cake mix and a sleeve of cupcake… sleeves (?) so I made cupcakes. As it turns out, you really can’t substitute margarine for shortening in that kind of situation. You will wind up with frosting that is nothing but margarine and sugar, and it will not be at all delicious. At that point, Bryan showed up and saved the day with
28.4.10
Thank You, Papa John!
I have just completed one of my shortest job hunts ever. I suspect that this is because I was willing to settle for whatever job someone offered me. Here’s the story:
Yesterday I did my first day of actual resume distributing in person. I went to about a dozen places, though only a couple of them were actually hiring. When I got home, Bryan called and told me that he read on a piece of paper stuck to a pizza box that the pizza place down the street is was hiring managers. Thinking that I really have no managerial experience, and didn’t really have a chance at all, I sent off a resume. An hour later, I got a call asking if I could come in for an interview. I went in for that interview today, announced that I wanted to be general manager, and the manager basically said “Okay. Can you start on Tuesday?” (There was a little bit of ridiculousness in the middle where I had the manager and my mom laughing at me simultaneously, but that’s a different story.) So… Now I am going to be a manager at a pizza place, despite having never made pizza nor been a manager before.
Sounds like an adventure to me!
Yesterday I did my first day of actual resume distributing in person. I went to about a dozen places, though only a couple of them were actually hiring. When I got home, Bryan called and told me that he read on a piece of paper stuck to a pizza box that the pizza place down the street is was hiring managers. Thinking that I really have no managerial experience, and didn’t really have a chance at all, I sent off a resume. An hour later, I got a call asking if I could come in for an interview. I went in for that interview today, announced that I wanted to be general manager, and the manager basically said “Okay. Can you start on Tuesday?” (There was a little bit of ridiculousness in the middle where I had the manager and my mom laughing at me simultaneously, but that’s a different story.) So… Now I am going to be a manager at a pizza place, despite having never made pizza nor been a manager before.
Sounds like an adventure to me!
27.4.10
On the Hunt
Today I am going to apply for jobs. In person. This is always a scary experience for me. I like to apply for jobs from the safety of my own computer where I don’t have to track down managers and try to articulate real words. I just have to proof read my resume and cover letter and click send, and then I am done! But it seems like employers realize that, and don’t like to hire cowards. It makes me wonder why so many companies put up online applications and then don’t actually look at them. Why not just be honest about it? “Look, we’re barely even going to look at your online application, because you were too lazy to come to our location and talk to a real person.”
At any rate, I am sinking to my most desperate of states where I walk over to the Tim Horton’s down the street and humbly submit an application there.Someone has got to want me, right? It’s a far cry from the executive assistant spot that I had a month ago. I am still kind of bitter about that, but you can’t win ‘em all.
At any rate, I am sinking to my most desperate of states where I walk over to the Tim Horton’s down the street and humbly submit an application there.Someone has got to want me, right? It’s a far cry from the executive assistant spot that I had a month ago. I am still kind of bitter about that, but you can’t win ‘em all.
21.4.10
Unemployment
I need a job. Bad things happen when I spend my entire day sitting around by myself. I am still in a housecoat at two o’clock in the afternoon. I have determined that blogging is a good idea. (Again.) I have started talking to my cat as if I expect him to answer. In fact, I have reached the point where I start asking the cat questions. This actually just happened:
Me: (Noticing a gross smell) Cat, did you just barf everywhere, or is that just your natural perfume?
Cat: (Looking at me, most likely wondering why I am talking to an otherwise empty room)
That is the exact moment where I realized that sitting at home alone is bad for me.
On the other hand, the only reason that the place where I live is not a complete disgusting, squalorous hole is because I spend my entire day wondering what to do with myself. When faced with such a challenge, I will eventually resort to cleaning to keep myself amused. This leads inevitably to one question: Does my desire to live in a clean house outweigh my need to actually be able to afford food?
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