wherein the smoke shop suffers from shitty karma
So, uh, stuff about my coworkers:
1. Lemme-Tell-Ya
Lemme-Tell-Ya is in the hospital. He collapsed on Nov. 30th, was hospitalized on Dec. 1st, and to make a long story short, he has a liver severely damaged from alcoholism (we knew he drank, but none of us knew he drank that much), a mild hematoma on the outside of his brain (probably from falling; he was in a bad state for a few days before the hospitalization), some malnutrition, an abscess near his spine, and probably spinal cancer as well (though a biopsy and spinal tap are needed to be sure). So things do not look good.
We have sent him a get well card, and Melodrama suggested we set up a collection jar the way we did when Josh (Ms. Conviviality's son) was in a terrible car crash a couple years ago, but we need Mr. Speakerphone's approval for that and have not heard back yet.
We're all feeling kind of guilty about disliking him and being glad not to work with him when Boss Lady benched him in November. I'm also wondering how much of his work-related failure can be ascribed to medical conditions versus being a jerk, and just... it's weird and awkward and messy all around.
I hope he wakes up, gets treatment for his spine, and gets help for the alcoholism.
I do not, however, hope he comes back to the store.
-----
2. Sweetheart
Sweetheart is still living in a state of perpetual stress, which is doing a number on her immune system. I don't have the details -- Boss Lady and Melodrama felt it wasn't appropriate to share them -- but she came in to work sick this morning and Boss Lady sent her home early. Hopefully she will manage to see a doctor at some point.
...
Every year Mr. Speakerphone gives us a holiday bonus gift. It used to be a certificate for a free turkey at Wegmans, but a couple years ago he switched to just giving out $20 Wegmans gift cards. I do my grocery shopping at Tops, so a Wegmans card is useless to me. Sweetheart, however, does shop at Wegmans so we have been in the habit of swapping my card for $20 cash. Yesterday I decided that she'd been having such a bad year that I would just give her my card outright. It is a small thing, but she needs it a lot more than I do.
I'm glad I did, but I wish I could do more.
-----
3. Puppydog
About half an hour before closing tonight, I got a call from Puppydog's mom to say that he had passed out in his kitchen around noon, hit his head badly as he fell, and had been seizing when she and his roommate got into the apartment to find out why he hadn't shown up to lunch and hadn't been answering his phone. Nobody is sure what happened, or why. The suspicion is that it may be related to the brain surgery he had five years ago for some kind of slow bleeding, but that had healed just fine and he'd been off his seizure meds for over three years with no problems, so that still doesn't explain why disaster struck now. In any case, the local hospital has transfered him to the hospital where that old surgery was performed, and they are keeping him in a medically-induced coma for at least twenty-four hours.
We have no idea how bad this is, or how long it will take him to recover, or even if he'll recover.
...
I am covering Puppydog's Thursday shift, which is not a big deal (I just stay two hours later), we can get by without him on Friday, but Saturday may be tricky. Also this means we are down to only two closers -- me and Boss Lady -- which will make for very awkward scheduling. Our new hire starts training on Wednesday, and we have another potential who looks good and will hopefully take the little "are you a thief, liar, or druggie?" test by Friday, but man, this is not the time of year to run short-staffed!
-----
I know this is entirely random chance, but I can't help feeling like we must have done something terrible to trigger such a cascade of bad karma. And I really, really hope everybody gets better soon.
:-(
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
1. Lemme-Tell-Ya
Lemme-Tell-Ya is in the hospital. He collapsed on Nov. 30th, was hospitalized on Dec. 1st, and to make a long story short, he has a liver severely damaged from alcoholism (we knew he drank, but none of us knew he drank that much), a mild hematoma on the outside of his brain (probably from falling; he was in a bad state for a few days before the hospitalization), some malnutrition, an abscess near his spine, and probably spinal cancer as well (though a biopsy and spinal tap are needed to be sure). So things do not look good.
We have sent him a get well card, and Melodrama suggested we set up a collection jar the way we did when Josh (Ms. Conviviality's son) was in a terrible car crash a couple years ago, but we need Mr. Speakerphone's approval for that and have not heard back yet.
We're all feeling kind of guilty about disliking him and being glad not to work with him when Boss Lady benched him in November. I'm also wondering how much of his work-related failure can be ascribed to medical conditions versus being a jerk, and just... it's weird and awkward and messy all around.
I hope he wakes up, gets treatment for his spine, and gets help for the alcoholism.
I do not, however, hope he comes back to the store.
-----
2. Sweetheart
Sweetheart is still living in a state of perpetual stress, which is doing a number on her immune system. I don't have the details -- Boss Lady and Melodrama felt it wasn't appropriate to share them -- but she came in to work sick this morning and Boss Lady sent her home early. Hopefully she will manage to see a doctor at some point.
...
Every year Mr. Speakerphone gives us a holiday bonus gift. It used to be a certificate for a free turkey at Wegmans, but a couple years ago he switched to just giving out $20 Wegmans gift cards. I do my grocery shopping at Tops, so a Wegmans card is useless to me. Sweetheart, however, does shop at Wegmans so we have been in the habit of swapping my card for $20 cash. Yesterday I decided that she'd been having such a bad year that I would just give her my card outright. It is a small thing, but she needs it a lot more than I do.
I'm glad I did, but I wish I could do more.
-----
3. Puppydog
About half an hour before closing tonight, I got a call from Puppydog's mom to say that he had passed out in his kitchen around noon, hit his head badly as he fell, and had been seizing when she and his roommate got into the apartment to find out why he hadn't shown up to lunch and hadn't been answering his phone. Nobody is sure what happened, or why. The suspicion is that it may be related to the brain surgery he had five years ago for some kind of slow bleeding, but that had healed just fine and he'd been off his seizure meds for over three years with no problems, so that still doesn't explain why disaster struck now. In any case, the local hospital has transfered him to the hospital where that old surgery was performed, and they are keeping him in a medically-induced coma for at least twenty-four hours.
We have no idea how bad this is, or how long it will take him to recover, or even if he'll recover.
...
I am covering Puppydog's Thursday shift, which is not a big deal (I just stay two hours later), we can get by without him on Friday, but Saturday may be tricky. Also this means we are down to only two closers -- me and Boss Lady -- which will make for very awkward scheduling. Our new hire starts training on Wednesday, and we have another potential who looks good and will hopefully take the little "are you a thief, liar, or druggie?" test by Friday, but man, this is not the time of year to run short-staffed!
-----
I know this is entirely random chance, but I can't help feeling like we must have done something terrible to trigger such a cascade of bad karma. And I really, really hope everybody gets better soon.
:-(
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)