But, there's candy!
So: on Thursday the supervisory staff met with our new branch manager. She informed us that as of the 28th of December the client is cutting back hours at our job site. Unless something momentous happens, we are going from three full shifts of supervisors to one.
My position is being eliminated.
She asked us to decide amongst ourselves who is going to stay.
None of us were particularly shocked; it's become a standing joke that the quickest way to get fired out here is to get promoted to supervisor. One of us, Bill, who trained me when I first started and has become sort of "Oh Captain, my Captain" to me in the time I've known him, quit outright. A mild, grandfatherly man, he said before he left that she was lucky she had not been told to go fuck herself. I asked the day-shift supervisor, Bob, if he wanted to work a push-pull (12 hours for him, 12 hours for me), to cover Bill's absence the next day. He said no, the other swing shift guy, Les, could come in and cover it. So I went home, told Jimmy what was happening, didn't sleep, came back and said good-bye to Bill. I worked my regular shift that night, then slept in somewhat to make up for having to skip sleep in order to go to that meeting the day before.
That afternoon, Friday, I woke up around 4:30 p.m., stumbled out to the living room and found Jimmy there on the couch. This was not good, because he was supposed to be at work. Yep, two guys from his sales team were supposed to get laid off that day; Jimmy helped the managers decide that he should be one of them by quitting. After being screwed out of a deal that would have been $1400 to us. My sister turned up somewhere in the middle of all this, needing to use our computer. She heard what was going on, and suggested that we all go out to dinner: her and her husband, Jimmy and I. I got dressed, etc. and we headed out to a local Indian restaurant.
I had just sat down when I happened to glance at my phone and see "Field Supervisor" had called. Shit.
I knew that it meant that Les could not come in for some reason, and I needed to do a push-pull after all. A push-pull that should start at 6 p.m. It was, at that moment, 5:51 p.m. I left the restaurant, called Bob on the way and told him that I would be there as soon as possible. I did manage to make it there by 6:30 p.m., and that includes going home to change into my uniform. When I got there, I said, "Where's Les?" The reply was: "At the hospital - his wife's had a heart attack." Great cheesy Gorgonzola on crispy crack-sprinkled crackers! We're losing people right and left! What next?!
Well, because Les was undoubtedly going to be tied up for a few days, that left me and Bob. I thought I might well have to work 12-hour shifts right through December 28th. Which would have been rough, to work that much over Christmas, (although when you're job is being discontinued, overtime is certainly welcome!) I am working another push-pull tonight, but, against all reasonable expectation, Les is coming back tomorrow. Which means I only have to work 8 hours that night, and presumably for the rest of the week. (I was afraid I might be going to have to cancel on you, Sonya, but now it looks like I will not. Yay!)
In other, still happier news ...
Last night, I tried making the White Chocolate Holiday Bark from the Food Network website. It was my first attempt at candy-making, and I must say I am rather impressed with the results. It's a dead simple recipe. Somehow the addition of "nut oil" (I used walnut) to the white chocolate during tempering changes the flavor from something that makes me want to gag and then go wash my mouth out, to something that had me licking the bowl. And it looks nice, too: red, white, and green. This may become a staple in my holiday arsenal. All I have to do now is keep Jimmy from eating it all before we can give it as gifts.
We broke down and bought my first-ever fake tree. It's an extremely cheap and fake-looking sort of a meta-tree, the suggestion of a tree, but it was $13 at Target and I don't care. I find that I must have something tree-like, and this meta-tree is about all I have the time and energy for this year, so it's a good compromise, and I'm sure once I get it decorated (today, dammit!) it will bring all the tree-like attributes that our home is currently lacking. And I will be content.
My position is being eliminated.
She asked us to decide amongst ourselves who is going to stay.
None of us were particularly shocked; it's become a standing joke that the quickest way to get fired out here is to get promoted to supervisor. One of us, Bill, who trained me when I first started and has become sort of "Oh Captain, my Captain" to me in the time I've known him, quit outright. A mild, grandfatherly man, he said before he left that she was lucky she had not been told to go fuck herself. I asked the day-shift supervisor, Bob, if he wanted to work a push-pull (12 hours for him, 12 hours for me), to cover Bill's absence the next day. He said no, the other swing shift guy, Les, could come in and cover it. So I went home, told Jimmy what was happening, didn't sleep, came back and said good-bye to Bill. I worked my regular shift that night, then slept in somewhat to make up for having to skip sleep in order to go to that meeting the day before.
That afternoon, Friday, I woke up around 4:30 p.m., stumbled out to the living room and found Jimmy there on the couch. This was not good, because he was supposed to be at work. Yep, two guys from his sales team were supposed to get laid off that day; Jimmy helped the managers decide that he should be one of them by quitting. After being screwed out of a deal that would have been $1400 to us. My sister turned up somewhere in the middle of all this, needing to use our computer. She heard what was going on, and suggested that we all go out to dinner: her and her husband, Jimmy and I. I got dressed, etc. and we headed out to a local Indian restaurant.
I had just sat down when I happened to glance at my phone and see "Field Supervisor" had called. Shit.
I knew that it meant that Les could not come in for some reason, and I needed to do a push-pull after all. A push-pull that should start at 6 p.m. It was, at that moment, 5:51 p.m. I left the restaurant, called Bob on the way and told him that I would be there as soon as possible. I did manage to make it there by 6:30 p.m., and that includes going home to change into my uniform. When I got there, I said, "Where's Les?" The reply was: "At the hospital - his wife's had a heart attack." Great cheesy Gorgonzola on crispy crack-sprinkled crackers! We're losing people right and left! What next?!
Well, because Les was undoubtedly going to be tied up for a few days, that left me and Bob. I thought I might well have to work 12-hour shifts right through December 28th. Which would have been rough, to work that much over Christmas, (although when you're job is being discontinued, overtime is certainly welcome!) I am working another push-pull tonight, but, against all reasonable expectation, Les is coming back tomorrow. Which means I only have to work 8 hours that night, and presumably for the rest of the week. (I was afraid I might be going to have to cancel on you, Sonya, but now it looks like I will not. Yay!)
In other, still happier news ...
Last night, I tried making the White Chocolate Holiday Bark from the Food Network website. It was my first attempt at candy-making, and I must say I am rather impressed with the results. It's a dead simple recipe. Somehow the addition of "nut oil" (I used walnut) to the white chocolate during tempering changes the flavor from something that makes me want to gag and then go wash my mouth out, to something that had me licking the bowl. And it looks nice, too: red, white, and green. This may become a staple in my holiday arsenal. All I have to do now is keep Jimmy from eating it all before we can give it as gifts.
We broke down and bought my first-ever fake tree. It's an extremely cheap and fake-looking sort of a meta-tree, the suggestion of a tree, but it was $13 at Target and I don't care. I find that I must have something tree-like, and this meta-tree is about all I have the time and energy for this year, so it's a good compromise, and I'm sure once I get it decorated (today, dammit!) it will bring all the tree-like attributes that our home is currently lacking. And I will be content.