Wednesday, June 17, 2015

RICOCHET

Just checking in quickly.
So that you don't think I fell off the face of the Earth.
I'm just working A LOT.
6 days a week, but some of them are half days.
But those half days are so super busy that I come home and crash.
The other day I came home and sat down and was looking at Pinterest on my phone
and I feel asleep for a moment and sent a link to one of my contacts!
Luckily it was my friend/co-worker and it was just a photo of a fence idea.
I told her what had happened and she laughed.
I'm still thinking POSITIVE but some days are hard.
The girl who has been working part-time for me for years has been needing so many weekends off.
In fact she had the majority of weekends off last summer because of horse things and
she now tells me that she needs ALL weekends off this summer to go bow-fishing with her new boyfriend.
She's been whiny and grumbling and spending a lot of time on her phone when she needs to be working instead.
I know this because co-workers told me this is what she does while I'm gone.
I confronted her and told her I'd put her back of weekends if she didn't straighten up
and she said she would NOT work weekends again and if I put her on the schedule,
she would quit without giving me a 2 week notice.
I was so angry but with a skeleton crew and the one woman going back in for knee surgery
I bit my tongue and told her she'd have to be a team player in case of emergencies on weekends.
She said she would, IF she was in town.
I'm furious but I don't want to work every day so for now, I'm doing weekends
and hopefully I can "visualize" another person for her shift.

Good news though! 
The new girl I hired is working out perfectly.
She does have a full-time job, so she's only available a few evenings but....
who knows!?
Maybe somehow, something will work out.
NO, it WILL work out.
But right now, I'm just not thinking about it.
It's in the back of my brain and some day it when it slows down
and my other girl has recuperated from surgery
I WILL put that girl back on weekends and what will be, will be.

I have more to share but ...must get to bed.
I'll leave you with this.
ricochet
[rikə s̸hā′, rik′ə s̸hāBrit, -s̸het′]


noun
  1. The definition of a ricochet is an act of bouncing off a surface.
verb
  1. Ricochet is defined as to bounce off a surface and go another direction.
Ricochet.
Yep, that's her name now.
I would stop and hesitate and try to remember her name
as she bounced off the furniture.
I swear, sometimes she doesn't even touch the floor.
She just flies from sofa to chair to ottoman and back.
She does slow down long enough to cozy up to Jimmy Chew
and take his toy away.

 
 

Jimmy Chew has more than met his match.
Yep, pay backs are Hell... both for him and my grumpy complaining part-time girl.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Cynthia!

Ricochet sounds like the perfect name for her. And you can call her Ricki for short, too. It sounds like she's pretty rambunctious. What a face!

I work in an office where I supervise a few people -- so, I can sympathize with your work situation. The people I supervise are college students and some of them are very responsible and a some of them are not. It's hard when you have to deal with someone who is basically challenging you to fire them. I think that if I were presented with that particular scenario of someone telling me that if I schedule them to work on the weekend they will quit without notice, I think I would go ahead and schedule them to work THIS weekend. I would rather call her bluff and see if she's serious about quitting so that I can replace her sooner rather than later. To me, it would be better than trying to keep her in that kind of uncertainty.

I guess what bugs me the most about her attitude is that she is acting as though she thinks you're the one she is inconveniencing if you inconvenience her by making her work on the weekend. But she needs to realize that it's the animals she is supposed to be taking care of that she is REALLY hurting not you.

Yours in solidarity,
Grace

At Rivercrest Cottage said...

Poor you! Being retired it's hard to remember how problematic co-workers and employees can be. I feel for you doing those 6 day shifts. Keep positive, and ask yourself what do you really want? Sometimes the situation starts to feel normal when it's not, and you can get sucked into accepting it's got to be that way.

Christer. said...

I know You really need her but doies she need a bad working review if she stops working with You? It is still tough to get a new job and it would be rather bad for her if she quit just because she had to work weekends. I would just fire her and give her a bad review! and then hope the positive thinking will send You a new one really fast :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Cindi Myers said...

Grace,
Yes! Ricochet fits her personality!
I'm glad you like it.
:)

Today was my only day off and I wanted to try to catch up on sleep and I almost slept until 7! Then about 9, this girl text me and asked if I was busy because she was sick and wanted to go home. I didn't reply.
Then about 20 minutes later she text me again that she was leaving and that she had spoken with one of the techs and that they would take care of boarding.
So I didn't call her but rather the clinic. She had left and said she was cramping so bad that she was sure she had a cyst? The tech told me not to come in, that a couple of them would alternate working back there until the evening girl came in.
I didn't go in. It killed me not to but I didn't.
Later in the afternoon I noticed a post by the "sick" girl on Facebook and I commented and asked how she was feeling to which she replied that she felt awful. I then asked what the Doctor had said, no reply. Then I asked if he had given her meds. She replied much much later with a simple "no".
Yeah, right.
So... I have the June schedule made but the July one will have her on it either working weekends or alternating. I haven't decided.
But I'm sick of this and if her behavior isn't improved, then I don't want her there anyway.
It's just so exhausting. Doc says she's young and...well, he says inappropriate things. HR will tell me to get rid of her but then I will be struggling to find help again.
But I will do it.
Thank you SO MUCH for the advice.
xoxo

Cindi Myers said...

Sharon,
You are so right. I have gone along for so long just dealing with this.
The way I let this girl gets what she wants.
The way that HR doesn't take action to help until I lose my mind and break down.
And Doc thinking that it's more important that everyone else enjoys their life and have fun except me.
He's always counted on me to just deal with it all. Even when we had the horrible snow storms and at the staff meeting a few weeks later, he went around the room pointing out who made it in and who hadn't and when he pointed at me, he just shook his head quickly and said "of course YOU were here".
Yep, it's not normal and I must figure it out.
I have bills to pay so...I have to stay, but I can also focus all my spare time on the things that are important to me and that will eventually pull me out of that situation.
Thanks for the advice!
xoxo

Cindi Myers said...

Christer,
I don't want to fire her, I will just make her quit by not giving her what she wants.
She works at a barn a few days a week to pay for the board on her horses so if she quit, she would probably just work there more.
She lives at home so she has no rent to pay and her new boyfriend supposedly has loads of money. So she's not to worried about any of it I guess.
She used to be a hard conscientious worker but not any longer and I guess it's just time that she goes.
It's just exhausting to try to find people. The last two people before her just didn't show up one day. Yep. I got a call from the front office that no one was there and I had to rush in. These people both never showed up and just quit.
My sister is dealing with the same thing at the hospital she works at. She can't find good help.
People say there are no jobs, but there are. It's just that very few people have a work ethic anymore.
Sigh!
ANYWAY! I will be POSITIVE that I will find new GOOD help.
Thanks for commenting!!!

CheerfulMonk said...

Good luck! I worry about you.

Doreen@foxdenrd said...

I absolutely HATE the situation of having an employee that needs to go but you feel they have you over a barrel. I owned a business with about 20 employees for nearly 14 years and believe me, BTDT. Here is a bit of unsolicited advice: if she quit, you'd be forced to get by and things would somehow work out. When you let one person get away with crap, it's like a poison that spreads throughout the workplace and undermines your peace of mind and even your leadership. If the original parameters of the job were for her to work weekends, she doesn't get to change the rules. She also needs to do her job while she IS present. You're not paying her to be on her phone.

Change of subject. I saw a dog on Facebook that has been in boarding for over a year. Long story short I contacted the advocate and left a message. She called me back and did the same. Since we weren't connecting, I called again and left my email. Twice. Never heard from her. Meanwhile the dog still languishes. Any dog that lives with us would have the life of Riley. Makes you wonder doesn't it?!

xxx

Cindi Myers said...

Jean,
Thank you and don't worry.
I just needed to vent.
Somehow it will work out.
xoxo

Cindi Myers said...

Doreen,
Thank you for the good advice.
I need to get rid of her ASAP.
I'm going to talk with HR and see what I can do
and if there is anyway I can get some of the employees to help with coverage if need be.
The problem is that last time I was short-staffed they asked for volunteers and no one would.
I posted a sign-up sheet and nothing.
But I will figure it out like you said.
Thanks for letting me vent.

And about that dog. That frustrates me SO much.
I know of an elderly dog at a shelter and this wonderful couple went in to adopt him. The husband is retired and they have a beautiful home and they dote on their pets but because they had 2 dogs and 2 cats already, they were denied. The limit being 4 in their town. (and that's why I don't live in that town!)
The sad thing is that some not so great owner could have come in and adopted him because they had no pets. Where is the logic? Shelters and rescues so many times set up silly requirements or don't follow through on good homes and yet profess they can't find adopters. PEOPLE never cease to drive me crazy.
On a happier note, someone I know, went in and adopted the old dog and then drove him to the perfect couples home where he has been in the lap of luxury ever since. Sad that they had to do it all underground like that.
I wish you luck in rescuing that poor dog.
I will think positive that it will work out.
XOXOXOXOXXO

Jan said...

Your other commenters give such good advice, I don't have experience with working with other people in a boss capacity. I wish there were more people like you who want to help the animals and have a job. You'd think there would be more people like that but evidently there aren't. Good luck. I love seeing your pet photos, they are so dang cute and so well loved.

tammy j said...

i'm calm now.
i get so mad at the place where you work.
i hope they read this. because i think they are a bunch of self serving idiots.
ricochet's name is perfect!
and little jimmy chew has a wife! who runs him ragged and bosses him around! LOLOLOL.
what goes around comes around!
probably will be true in your workplace too...
if you can live long enough to see it.
i am going to win some kind of lottery or get tons of money from an unexpected source... and we will SPLIT IT!
and you can retire in LUXURY!!!!
we must picture that happening!!!
please note... i did not say from an inheritance.
i don't want anyone to have to die to leave money!
it will come from wonderful fun amazing places instead! LOLOL! XOXOXOXOXO♥

Cindi Myers said...

Tammy!
ROTFL!
YES! I'm imagining TONS of CASH!!!!
and we both can never worry about finances again.
And I love that you thought to rule out inheritance.
I certainly would not want to someone to pass away either.
Well, maybe someone that's 120 and wants to go and decides to write us both in the will! That would be alright, I guess.
Donald Trump just said he has billions, maybe he could send some our way?

Yes, this place is exhausting.
I'm here now, taking a moment as I let dogs outside to answer your comment.
I'm focusing on the beautiful weather and the fact that I work the late shift today so all humans will be leaving here soon! LOL!
I would tell you about the latest things that I discovered when I arrived today.
So much more drama, but I won't.
I'm not dwelling on it.
I'm just focusing on the cute little faces of my boarders and all the Art ideas spinning in my head!
Love ya!
xoxoxoxo

Cindi Myers said...

Jan,
Thanks! I'm so glad you like my pet photos!
I do love this crazy gang!
I'm very lucky to have such great blogger friends.
Truly.
If I didn't have this wonderful support system, some days I just don't know what I would do.
Yep, the very best friends!
:D :D :D

Nita Stacy said...

She makes me tired just looking at her.

Cindi Myers said...

Nita,
I wanted someone who was high energy
to play with Ping and wearing out Jimmy is a bonus!
LOL!
She is kinda exhausting but a good exhausting.
She's so sweet.
A perfect fit.
Thanks for commenting!
xoxo