First week of February so I figure it's time for a bit of an update.
The store is still standing, somehow. We've hired three new employees and fired one already - the first two we hired said they had open availability when they actually didn't.
The one that was fired was a guy we weren't certain about from the get go...he had his photo on his resume and he looked cocky. Brought him in for the interview and I guess he did okay. I didn't do his interview so I'm not entirely sure. But he was late for his first shift, didn't wear what we told him to (no sweats...he wore sweats), and didn't bring all the info we needed in order to properly get him into the system so he could be paid. And then when he was still in training he claimed he didn't know he was scheduled - despite the schedule being posted for over a week at this point and knowing full wll that he saw the damn thing - so he didn't show, and only came in because Will blew up at him. And then, instead of speaking to Will about possibly switching one of his training days, he spoke to another CSR who then promptly told him to speak to Will. He did this right in front of me and Will, and neither of us were impressed.
The other guy we hired at the same time at least shows up on time for his shifts. But the issue with him is that he's not confident enough for us to be comfortable ever putting him on a shift by himself. No only that, but he sits on his ass even when we are there, despite there being a daily task list for each shift that covers the minimum of what needs to be done each shift. He's been spoken to more than once about it and he's always got an excuse for why he hasn't done something, even though he's been told time and again to stop sitting all the time and accomplishing nothing on the list until we demand he do it.
The third person we hired used to work for the company several years ago as an assistant manager at a different store. So far, I'm fairly confident that he'll work out - he was upfront about his availability, and other than not being used to our POS as it's been updated since he last worked with the company, he seems to be getting along well enough.
But we do need at least one more person hired. Why? Because we've got two employees who are going to be getting their hours cut until they either get a clue and shape up, or they'll quit because one shift a week won't cut it. One of them has now officially been removed from working day shifts - more than once he's either been extremely late for his shift, or he's allegedly slept through his alarm. This morning he tried to say that Will told him not to bother coming in, which isn't something Will would have said UNLESS we already had somebody in to cover the shift. Which we didn't because there wasn't anybody else, and it would have taken me just as much time to get in as it did for him. And the other guy seems to be taking cues from the one who is late/flaky...which we don't really need, but at least he lives close enough that he can get into work withing 10 minutes instead of an hour.
But enough about work.
Things have been fairly tight in terms of being able to afford a whole lot so thank goodness for dollar store food being able to stretch an already thin dollar even thinner. And because I can't afford to go out a whole lot these days I've been making an attempt at reclaiming my living space.
My two days off this week have been spent working on my living room. I know that it's going to be a long slog until everything is done, but slow and steady wins the race, right? I picked up the empty boxes and bags off the floor between the TV and the chest that currently serves as my coffee table, and I was actually able to run a vacuum over that part of the floor! I also finally took apart my old TV stand and moved my new TV stand into the corner where I wanted it. This then freed up space for me to put together the bookcase that I'd bought back in late 2020 or early 2021 - it had been sitting in its box on the landing just below my apartment since the day I brought it home...oops. It's now where my TV stand used to be, and I'm slowly filling it up with geeky/fandom stuff that I put away almost a year ago when I painted my old bedroom.
I've also started making time to play video games again. They take my mind off of the fact that I'm broke as shit and give me a break from writing and cleaning. Honestly, the fact that I've been spending time in the living room is part of what spurred me into finally getting things cleaned up and organized. I really haven't been sitting in front of my computer much over the past week because I've been playing games on my PS4 rather than my computer. It's where all my Assassin's Creed games live and that's what I've been playing pretty much exclusively, with the odd bit of time spent on Dragon Age: Inquisition.
My cat has been loving having me in the living room - the love seat has more than enough room for her to curl up beside me while I play games or type away on my Chromebook (which I'm using right now to type this entry). And the fact that I'm really only using my bedroom to sleep in lately has been instrumental in me being able to fall asleep much faster when I crawl into bed. So there's a good chance that I may end up moving my computer desk out into the living room once I've got the space ready for it. Mind you, I've also been toying with the possibility of getting a new desk eventually, even if it's just new to me because the one I've had for the past 7-8 years just doesn't really fit my needs anymore. And the fact that I have to keep fixing the keyboard tray has been getting on my last nerve.
I think that ensuring that my bedroom is primarily for rest and sleeping will make a huge difference in my ability to get to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. I've got an entire 2bdrm currently at my disposal so why should I restrict myself to a single room most of the time? And eventually I hope to turn the spare bedroom into a craft room and not just a storage space for doom bags and other assorted shit. Perhaps I will even be able to pare down my wardrobe enough that it will mostly fit into the tiny closet in my bedroom...once I move the bins of fabric out of it, that is. And that WILL happen eventually, just not right away. I've still got a lot of crap to get rid of before I've got the space available to even open that closet door again. Such is the life of a clinically depressed person with ADHD. Bleh.
In the meantime, I need to crawl into bed because I have to work in the morning. I'm hoping that buses will be running so I can get there cheaper than having to call a taxi - I'm trying to make what money I have left after paying rent on Thursday stretch until I get paid next Thursday. Especially as I have to make large payments on my electrical and internet bills. I'm mostly okay for food - I've got a bunch of ramen noodles, some cans of soup, meat and veggies in the freezer, and some pasta and rice for filler where needed. Once I've got the bills squared away, I hope to do a nice shop the week after when I get paid. Thank fuck I get paid weekly or I just might be screwed in so many ways. Oh, yeah, I have to set aside bus fare for at least a day before I can put another 30 days on my bus pass.
Speaking of bus passes...I managed to lose mine the day before it renewed for another 30 days. The day I lost it I'd fallen off the bus, literally, and was clearly in a daze because somehow I managed to not put my bus pass back into my wallet. I'd also lost my work keys during the fall, between getting off one bus and getting onto another but somebody picked them up and made sure I got them. And I know I had my bus pass when I got onto that second bus, but I guess I'd lost it on the bus before getting off at my stop near my house. And somebody found it and used it, instead of turning it in.
I didn't realize until the next morning that I'd lost the damn thing. I went to pull it out so I could get on my first bus of the day to get to work, and it wasn't anywhere I'd think it would have been. Hello taxi ride into work, not that I could really afford it, but I had to get in for my shift. I thought maybe I'd left it at home, so I wasn't going to panic at that point. I just made sure that I had enough change for a couple of bus rides so I could get home that day and then into work the next morning, hoping that I'd find my bus pass. No such luck, of course.
I was fortunate enough to have registered my bus pass with Metrobus back when I first got it, so I was able to log onto the m-Card website and report the thing missing/stolen, paid a small fee to get a replacement card issued and mailed to me, and figured that was that until the new card arrived. So, the next day I figured I'd check to see the status of my old card as well as the new card...only to find out that my old card hadn't been deactivated the moment I'd reported it missing/stolen. I was even able to tell which buses it had been used on, and clearly somebody picked it up on the bus I'd lost it on, used it for a return trip on the same route, and then on a couple of different buses during the time I was at work. I chatted in with a rep from Metrobus and had to restrain myself from freaking out over the stupid questions I was being asked...the rep tried to tell me that the order hadn't gone through, blah blah blah, was I sure that the order went through because I would have gotten a confirmation number/email, and so on and so forth. I calmly explained that no, I didn't get any confirmation information but that the payment had gone through my account and that it wasn't my fault that the website didn't work the way it's supposed to, and that I would like for a supervisor to contact me ASAP about the issue as my card should have been deactivated immediately upon being reported missing/stolen instead of being told that it wasn't deactivated and that the rep couldn't see in her system that the report had been made or the replacement paid for. About an hour after that chat I received an email from the rep advising me that the old card was now deactivated and my replacement was on its way. Two days later I received my new card. Woo? I can only hope that whomever picked up my old card and was using it got a healthy doese of karma when they tried to use it again after - a message on the card reader telling them the card was reported stolen and that they had no change for bus fare. I'm just so grateful that I had registered the card back when I got it back when I was still going to MUN or I'd have been out all 30 days I'd just loaded onto that card because you can't do squat in terms of reporting lost/missing/stolen m-Cards if they aren't registered.
Anyhow, I do need to crawl into bed for the night. Hopefully buses will be running tomorrow morning so I can get into work. At least it's a management shift so if I'm a bit late it isn't as big a deal as if I had to relieve the overnight CSR. I won't know until morning what's going on with the buses in terms of the weather, so my fingers are crossed! And hopefully I'll have enough energy after work tomorrow to clear out another couple of doom bags :)
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