Okay, so... Tuesday... WTF was Tuesday? Tuesday was the day I damn near lost my head, that's for sure...
So before the schedule started, after it had been posted, Jenny let me know that I would be off both Monday and Tuesday, but I would still be sitting at 30 hours, even with the 2 days off. And I told her I was fine with that. Hell, 30 hours and 2 days off? Means that by the end of the week I'll probably have 4-5 extra hours without getting called in early. I usually end up staying on the clock for a little extra to help Dylan with the inventory log since I love numbers as much as I do.
So the day after she shows me the schedule she lets me know there's a manager's meeting on the Tuesday and she can't do it because she has a doctor's appointment with her son, Dylan can't go because he has his daughter on Tuesday's, which leaves Tanner... Who is supposed to open the store. The thing there is that he can't be at the store until 5 or 6 when the closing manager comes in, and they haven't gotten my drug test back yet so I can't legally open the store on my own yet. So Jenny and I work out that I'll come in at 12:30pm (EST), since the meeting isn't until 1pm (EST), to cover the store until Tanner gets back from the meeting. So there's the extra 4, maybe 5 hours I was thinking I would wind up with.
I get in there on time for Tanner to head out, and when I get in he's letting me know I still need to prep the 4 cheeses, butter/prep the pans for the pan pizzas, have Kyle or Brit do wings, cut the bread for sandwiches, and put up the Coke order whenever it comes in. No big deal. I'm a little miffed that he had 2 drivers and himself to put away the truck and do prep and still had prep left over when I got in. I know it can all be done way before 12:30 because of when Jenny had me come in to see what an open was like. But as I said, no big deal, nothing big is going on.
Honestly, all of that is something I can handle since the store is usually pretty slow from 12:30-4 with a pop or two here and there. So as I'm pulling on gloves, and Tanner is headed out there door, he hollers out, "Oh, by the way the training class will be here around 1:30, bye!" And there he goes...Leaving me with a couple hours of work, orders to take and make, and keeping the store clean and presentable.... In an hour...
Are you kidding me!? So I have an hour to do everything that would take about an hour and a half,
without phone calls or internet orders, God knows how long when those come in, and hope to God the class isn't early?
So bless Kyle's heart, he took my orders with a grain of salt and helped me out because he could tell I was stressed all to Hell. I got 3 of the 4 cheeses prepped, saving the Parmesan shake for last since it's the most detail-oriented cheese to deal with, and that's when the orders start coming in. While I'm taking care of those Kyle and Brit have to hit the road, leaving me to take orders, make orders, and deal with any walk-ins that happen by. I haven't gotten to the pans yet, still need to have them cut the bread, Coke order is pulling up, wings haven't been done yet, and the Parm needs to be prepped.
1:00 hits by then and I'm freaking even harder because the pans and the Parm are both the most lengthy processes because for the pans I have to butter them all and then put the dough in them. For the Parm I have to weigh an entire bag out into mini bags of 4oz each for the parm shake container. Pizzas are in the oven, no orders on the screen, I cut the bread real quick, check in Coke as quick as I can, and have Kyle jump on filling the coolers when he gets back in from his run. While I get the pans ready I have Brit doing wings, because it's almost 1:30 and she needs to have those done an hour ago. God forbid she's doing those, or anyone's doing any prep when the training class gets in.
I honestly felt like:
Let me pause this to explain something about the class real quick; maybe help you get why it's so important to me to have everything perfect. Heading the class is the head of training, Charlie, who is in tight with the other upper heads. He's in charge of training all future and current managers, and all he has to do is tell Mike Chastain that I couldn't have the store ready for his class on my own, and that damages my reputation, which is not something I need right now. So, get why I'm panicking yet?
By the way, in the midst of all of this there was a phone audit on me. I later found out that I managed to ace it 100% even though I was stressed all to Hell, and worrying about my job maybe being on the line.
Okay, Coke is gone, Kyle is putting it up, Brit is almost done with the wings, bread is cut, 3 of the 4 cheeses are done, no pizzas are in the oven, or on the screen.... Pans and Parm. I can do this, right? That's what Kyle kept telling me to try to keep me calm, but I am having one hell of an anxiety attack which is laced with venom at Tanner since he knew the class was coming and dicked around doing Gods know what. It's not pretty, and Kyle calmly tells me to cool it or he's slowing down, which is the opposite of what I need, but the threat is what I needed to ease up off the pedal some.
He's also trying to tell me there might not be a class because now it's way past 1:30, and it's coming up on 2:30. At this point I'm fine with this because it means they're late. Late meas I'm not caught with my pants down, so fine, by late, or Hell, don't come at all. That's fine by me.
I knock out the pans, and as I'm doing the last tray of pans, the class arrives and starts filling up the parking lot. As I finish the last pan itself, in come the class. Okay, everyone's moving to the back and Charlie isn't here yet, but hey, it's the Parm shake. As I said before all I have to do is weigh it out into baggies and then date it and I'm done. I can just say I just found out there was none and that's why it's being prepped late. I'd rather him have that story then come in earlier and see what I all I had still had to have done when they were actually due in.
When Charlie gets there, everything goes off without a hitch. No problems at all. I didn't calm down until the class was actually gone because I kept worrying Charlie might find something wrong, or something might go wrong. Luckily for me very few orders came in while they were there, and I got everything done before hand. I kept out of their way, and busy with small things so I wasn't just standing around in front of an important class.
When they're gone, I look at my phone to see if Tanner had text me about being on his way back yet, since he was supposed to so I could give my ride a head's up, and there are 2 messages from Jenny.
The first one was her letting me know I had passed the phone audit since she gets results in her e-mail as soon as they post. To which I was like:
And then I saw the other one...The one that said I needed to have the store ready for the training class at 2:30... 2:30, not 1:30...
So.... I stressed for nothing? I would have been a Hell of a lot calmer if I had known I already HAD that extra hour to work with instead of waiting for the axe to fall when they showed up late, but before I could finish...
Fucking Tanner. I find the Noid very fitting for how I felt...
So yeah, Tuesday... I hate Tuesdays... I hate being improperly informed, and under-prepared. With his recent strings of slips and mess ups I'm wondering if maybe Dylan's right and we need to worry about him sabotaging us. If he ends up manager in Acworth, I'm going back to Kennesaw. Dylan would also jump ship, and if I'm left with Tanner, there is no way he's going to keep me on my path of advancement. He's one of those people that are obviously threatened by anyone better than him.
But anyway, I'm still chilling in the chat, so feel free to hop on in and say hey!
Signing off,
Lily
