Random Ramblings Are Random

So, my best friend is doing some shifts over the holiday season at the spa attached to the hotel I used to work at. She started at the spa when I brought her in over a year ago - she was brought down to the hotel primarily because we needed staff down there and she was able to work it so that she could do shifts at the spa and the hotel. And then, as more spa guest services staff was hired and trained, she eventually was doing all hotel shifts. At first it was all okay, but none of knew how bad Nicole would end up getting in terms of how she handled staff and the pressure of running a business in the first place. Narcissists don't have a clue how to properly delegate and all the little gods and goddesses know that is the case with her! In the end, my friend quit the hotel without notice. Rightfully so, by the way. Too much bullshit all at once and no clear sign of there being an end to that particular tunnel. Well, she made an offer to the spa manager to help out during the holiday

Inventory didn't suck as bad as I had feared. It probably would have gone a lot smoother if I'd been given the correct pre-count list prior to today, but such is life. And Kelsey officially quit today. Or at least that is the impression I got from the message she posted in the store's group chat before she removed herself from it. Which was honestly one of the smartest things she's done in recent weeks. I don't know if she told Will anything prior to her message, but we were all expecting her to not come back anyway. Especially when the plan had been to start the process of terminating her employment anyway. I wish her the best in all her future endeavors, and I hope that she gets the mental help that she needs in order to properly move on in her life. I actually ventured out this evening despite how tired I was after several long days of work in the past week. Not to mention being awake at stupid o'clock this morning. Y'see, a couple of years ago before the

So, it's been over a month since I last updated this thing so it's more than overdue. A lot has happened since then and it's mostly to the good. I'm basically the acting assistant manager of my store now. The senior sales lead Kelsey has completely shit the bed over the past several weeks and it's to the point that the territory manager wants her gone. The things I've been dealing with at the store level while I'm in charge are things that she would have flat out lost it over - badly clogged toilet that was bad enough to affect the business directly beside us, and the cooler compressor completely died. On the same weekend, no less. But after a brief freak-out on my part I got the toilet issue sorted in time to not have to close the store for the night (can't be open if there is no washroom access for staff, and we're the only 24/7 business in the strip mall) and stayed at the store until it was all taken care of and even cleaned the bathroom from top

By the time I'm done my shift on Sunday morning I will have put in 40 hours at work this week. Not bad for a gig that was only supposed to net me 30-32 hours a week. Of course, next week could very easily be back to 30 hours or less, but my fingers are crossed that I get more. I mean, I did say that I wanted at least 32 hours a week when I was interviewed. As long as I get enough to pay for rent, bills, groceries, and bus fare it's all pretty good. Anything extra is a bonus. I know that I've surprised more than a few folks at work with how hard I can work for an old bat. I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago and I'm the oldest employee in the store. Not that I mind at all, because being around younger folks helps to keep me young as well. Although right now I'm feeling my age due to how sore my feet and legs are after all the rushing around the store and back room I did this week. It seems that I will be routinely getting at least one overnight shift a week, although I&

So. Tonight I met the person who replaced myself and the other AGM at the hotel. If I'd known he was coming in I might have managed to hang on instead of quitting in a blaze of glory. I went in with my friend J as the new front desk employee had asked a question about something and nobody had the answer readily available via the chat. And J had to drop me off at home anyway so the hotel was on the way. The plan originally was to just stop in for a few moments, but sometimes the best laid plans go astray. Besides, I needed to run to the bathroom so I went inside as well. I met the new girl right away, and then met the missus who was brought in to do the laundry due in a large part to how backed up laundry had gotten. Who happens to be the wife of the person I mentioned at the top of this post...and he was still onsite despite having been there since 8am this morning. I managed to actually speak to him and explain WHY I left, and the circumstances under which I would be willing to re

I figured that I'd just put this out into the universe instead of writing it down in my physical journal... Back on the date of my last blog entry I quit my job at the hotel/spa. No, I didn't have anything lined up to replace it, but my mental health wasn't the greatest and I had hit the proverbial wall. I knew from past experience that if I attempted to push through and work at the hotel that I would have completely broke down and that would have been bad. I also knew that my final pay would be enough to float me until the end of October if necessary, with a bit of help from my daughter if I needed groceries. So that was some load off of my back. Even before I quit my job I had been sending out resumes and filling out job applications in the hopes of being able to get something lined up before I finally pulled the plug on the hotel. I knew that things were not going to get better, that my boss was never going to fire the predator, and that regardless of what she said that

For my own peace of mind I have started keeping a physical journal. It's sort of just a thing to get my thoughts down when I don't want to type - sometimes, just the physical act of handwriting what's on my mind helps more than typing the same stuff out. So, there may not be a lot of e-blog entries from me for a bit. I've got some stuff to work on for my mental health that I don't really want a lot of eyes on right now. Not that I have anybody who actually reads this blog, but on the off chance that somebody comes across this...well. Bleh.

The china cabinet is home! Well, it's in the house, which is better than leaving it in the work garage for however long. It took two trips with a hand dolly, a whole lot of sweat, and a change of clothing, but it's here. All I have to do now is clear the area in the kitchen for it and get both pieces the rest of the way up the stairs. Oh, and give both pieces a good clean with some bleachy water in the event that there is mold hiding anywhere on it. But it's home! It's hard to believe that even a couple of months ago I wouldn't have got even one piece of the cabinet home quite so quickly with just a dolly. I'd have had to abandon it half way up on the first trip because I'd have been panting entirely too hard and just not had the strength or energy to finish the job. Or I'd have managed to get one piece, but not the other. Yet today I managed to get both pieces out of the garage and up the hill to my place. Sure, one piece is still in the foyer on the fi

Well, I won't be able to get my china cabinet home...I went to go pick up the work truck from the other property, and guess what wasn't there? The fucking key. And the maintenance guy grabbed it yesterday and didn't bring it back. Colour me pissed off. So it looks like I'll be doing my best to figure out another way to get the damn thing home, probably on Monday. With the help of the dolly to get both pieces home and at least into the foyer of the house. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I'm not impressed in the slightest. Fuck it, I guess.

The job hunt continues, and I know that I need to get out of there before I lose what's left of my mind. Or I beat the living shit out of a coworker who has been a thorn in my side since he started. And the little fucker escalated last night by messaging my boss to say I was unprofessional because I told him I wasn't going to open the images he sent me and that I would look at the paperwork in the morning. What gets me is that he is the epitome of unprofessional in pretty much all his dealings and yet he has the nerve to call ME  unprofessional? And my boss pretty much backed him up and place a lot of the blame on me. And on my mental health. Which has almost no bearing on the situation with the asshole. Sure, the fact that he was caught sexually harassing a coworker and got little more than a slap on the wrist over it has triggered me to no end, but for the most part I can control my actions. Today, before I headed to the other property for my shift I stopped at the hotel and

Since my last post I managed to take an entire week off of work, but before my last day one of the employees approached me about another employee who has been sexually harassing her. Naturally, I took it up the line to my boss. Only to have my boss say that the employee's direct supervisor needed to look into the situation. There was proof of the employee's allegations against the other employee, and one would have expected that my boss would have taken the steps to remove the offender. Which is what would have happened at pretty much any other job, right? Obviously, that is not the case here, or I wouldn't have seriously stepped up my job search, spending a good chunk of my vacation sending resumes all over the place. Well, those chunks of time when I wasn't able to move out of my bed due to crippling depression. Considering I'd already told my boss that she needed to make a decision between me and the offender before any allegations were even made, well. I'm b

I do not want to go in for my shift tomorrow. I do not want to deal with the bullshit that I know is waiting for me there. I do not want to talk to my boss. I do not want to listen to my boss' repeated lies. I need a break from work that is longer than two days. I need a new job. I need to just toss all the bullshit at work in the trash and walk away. I need a boss who will listen and actually take action when things are reported to her. I need my vacation to start right fucking now. I need to report my boss' actions to the labour board. I am at my breaking point with work. I am self-medicating with alcohol again. I am wanting to just walk away from everything. I have been crying due to the stress I've been under because of work. I have hit that proverbial wall. I have no desire to do anything at all any more. I have had enough. I can't do this any more.

I heard back from the place I'd interviewed at this past Monday. I didn't make it through to the next round of interviews. Bleh. In other news I've managed to properly explain to my boss why I can't do the café job f/t from a physical health point of view. By the end of each café shift I am in so much pain that by the time I get home I can barely move. Even with better shoes that are meant for being on my feet for several hours, it just means that I go a little bit longer before I absolutely MUST sit down for an extended length of time. Yes, if I kept on going with it my body would probably adjust, but at the same time it might not. Why take that chance? So, my boss is now fully aware of why I really am not willing to take over the café. Besides, as she pointed out today when she called to touch base with me, my co-AGM is not really performing at his best either and has been dropping the ball on a lot of things, things that our boss has been relying on him to accomplish

I have officially started looking for a new job. Why? Because I feel that the longer I stay where I'm at now the more burnt out and angry I will become. Knowing that my boss doesn't feel the need to follow labour laws is just part of it. Knowing that I could get the same pay and hours with less responsibility elsewhere also ties into it. I really dislike working for unethical employers, and the worst part about what is going on is that I don't think the owner actually knows what is going on. Or the illegal actions the operations manager is taking in terms of screwing us all out of overtime pay, or just our pay in general. I sent out four applications today, each for front desk positions, at other local hotels. One I'm sure I don't have a hope in hell of getting due to having worked for their out-sourced housekeeping team and quitting without notice, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to at least try, right? If I do manage to get at least an interview there I ha

So, I've made the decision to have a roomie again. Not because of money concerns but more because a co-worker is in a bit of a situation that makes it hard for her to quit her job if she finds something else. It has to do with the fact that she rents one of our work's longterm stay apartments and knows that if she goes onto a different employer that she will either be evicted or have her rent go up sky high. She pays $1000/mo right now for a tiny basement studio apartment. Sure everything is included but it's not a great situation to be in. Especially considering that another coworker had a 1bdrm apartment for $800! Not to mention that she's not being paid properly for her job title, on top of everything else. Basically, we've both made a decision that if we can find better employment we're gone from the hotel. She's tired of only getting paid $14/hr when she's supposed to be getting paid more as she is the housekeeping supervisor, and I'm just plain

Vacation is booked...starting about a week after missus gets back. Yeah, don't @ me. It boiled down to me wanting make sure we actually had somebody available to work hotel shifts that I usually work. It does mean, however, that somebody is going to have figure out how to give the cafe person their two days off that week because I won't be there to do it, and my co-assistant GM will be needed at the front desk. Which also brings up an interesting tidbit - our boss has told him that she wants him primarily at the hotel front desk, yet she's told me that I can get him to switch up with me so I'm not working all the available cafe shifts each week. She really needs to stop telling us all different things, I swear, because she's not doing herself any favours. I am seeing up close and personal why this particular manager person has caused such horribly high turn-over when she's in charge - she freaks out when things don't go her way, changes her mind without tell

Well, I'm not at all impressed. Maybe I'm weird but if I were working two jobs I'd take the p/t job as seriously as the f/t one. Or at least definitely not state that the p/t job isn't something that takes priority to a member of the management team, friends or not. Despite the fact that the second job very much seems to rely on them...yet she doesn't rely on it? Despite her wanting to get more hours at the p/t job to help make up for the overspending she's done. Despite wanting more hours so she can bank more funds towards her almost two weeks off at the end of September. And her getting upset when I suggest to anyone at work that she not be called to cover shifts. And she wonders WHY the big boss tells me I can book nights at the hotel/B&B free of charge? It has a LOT to do with the fact that I work more hours than pretty much anybody else there, between my scheduled shifts and all the extra work I do outside of those shifts. Let's see...I'm on-cal

Monday I learned that my spendy friend is jealous of the fact that I have been given permission to book a free night at either of the company's accommodations whenever I want. Meaning the hotel or the B&B, my choice so long as I don't bump a paying guest to do it. I asked about a free room last week only because I felt that it was adequate compensation for giving up one of my days off the week before. If you don't ask, you don't get. And I figured that the worst that could happen is that I get told no. Instead I was told I could stay for an entire week if I wanted to! So, when I was touching base with my boss on Monday she extended the offer to me again, letting me know that I could do it whenever I wanted because she knows that I don't book on a busy night. And she knows that being able to just shut the world out, even if only for a night, does me the world of good. Or at least staves off complete burn-out for a little while longer. I'm thinking that closer

Day three of working in the cafe. My feet hurt and my back hates me. But it could be worse! It's amazing how quickly things came back to me in terms of cooking. Such as various kinds of eggs...I like mine over-easy, but not everybody does, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to recall the timings for the different eggs. I didn't need to worry about a damn thing...it was like riding a bike. Friday the cafe was busy, but I managed to do pretty good. The tips were definitely nice - between cash and credit I made more in a single day that the former café supervisor did in an entire month. And when I do the payroll tomorrow morning I know that my credit card tips will be more for two days than the former missus received in the pay period. Saturday wasn't as busy as Friday was and I had help too, not that I really needed it too much, but it was nice to get a chance to sit for a little bit. And I was able to do some training with the lady who was with me. I was rather dis

So, it looks like I won't be getting this weekend off after all is said and done. Why? The woman who had been running our café up and quit yesterday. From what I understand it was quite the spectacle too. Too bad I missed it. Anyhow, from what I understand, the café manager had been upset that she was expected to be there for 7:30am on the days that she worked to get the café set up for the day. By herself. Despite it not being busy enough to require two people on at that time of day. Besides, that was the usual start time when I first started there in the café over two years ago. It's not like she wasn't informed that she'd be working on her own. She had threatened to quit over it a couple of weeks ago too but it was supposedly smoothed over. Obviously not. So, yesterday, instead of asking for help when things started getting busy, she didn't ask until she was already in over her head and in a complete meltdown. It was bad enough that she yelled at the spa manager

Yet again the friend of mine who has issues when it comes to saving money had found herself somewhat in the hole. She is trying to get all the hours that she can at my work so she can pay down bills that were racked up in part by her needing to buy shit she really doesn't need but found some excuse for buying anyway. Let's see...she decided to take a private writing class with the same person who is running the group class that I just started. And then promptly started finding reasons to not attend it. So then she decided to join the class that I'm now in...and then didn't show up to the first class because she was working and then telling my coworker who does the scheduling to schedule her for class days anyway. Why? Because she needs the money. The first two sets of classes I took with her, and she basically stopped doing the assignments both time before the halfway mark and stopped attending. Throwing her money away and depriving the folks who were supposed to be rea

Slowly but surely my apartment is coming together. I just moved my computer desk into my bedroom and recovered the work surface from the plain black vinyl I'd installed on there over a year ago. The work surface is now covered in black 'marble' vinyl instead, installed in a single cohesive sheet rather than the multiple cuts I ended up doing with the other vinyl. Duck Tape products are much more user friendly and allowed me to make adjustments before I fully smoothed the vinyl down. I also found the itty bitty Command hook thingies I'd bought ages ago for cord maintenance, and now my keyboard and mouse have their cords nicely secured and out of the way, but with enough slack on the cable for me to move my keyboard tray in and out to its full extension. I love the look of less cords when I can manage it. For now, my old desk is in my old bedroom until I can get in there and do more work to get the room set up for my craft/storage area. That will be the room that takes me