Moving right along, kinda...
And the V-Day week is here. I didn't think I'd be doing it this year, but here I go nevertheless.
Honestly, I'm glad I'm back, at least in a fashion. While I admit I'm a bit sore(some lower back stuff and my constantly complaining feet), at least my knees aren't screwing up on me and things just seem much easier and more enjoyable this go-round.
I'll lead into why we've been losing people, though this is a story that stretches back several years and needs some major background to build it up. The shops opened in 1996(our first one in April, which is no longer around and our second in October). One of our first employees has been there off and on since pretty much when we started. While she was good for a while, she started taking on more responsibilities and became the de facto 'manager' of the shops. However, her character became very much a duality... a sickeningly sweet, 'family is everything' June Cleaver clone on the surface, and an incredibly unhinged, manipulative, hedonistic person on the inside. She tried hard to be everybody's 'best buddy' at the shop, to the point where pretty much everyone who worked there over the years with a few exceptions always went over to her house for parties and the like. I'd been to a few; lots of kids running rampant and tons of alcohol involved, which was never a good combination.
Something that has some bearing on things was the fact this lady and her husband liked to 'have girls on the side,' in that fashion. Now, styling myself a relatively open individual, that's all fine and dandy. However, she liked to use the shop as her dating pool. One of my coworkers had a rule that I followed pretty strictly: "You don't get your meat where you get your bread." Crude way of saying it, but dating coworkers is a rather bad idea. The problem with this is that we had only a handful of people working for us, between two(later only one) stores. If relationship drama happened(and oh boy, it did), it spilled over to the shop and we all had to deal with arguments and people 'inexplicably' not working well together. Since there was a fair bit of this lady and her husband 'trading up to the younger model' going on, it just caused a ton of problems over the years.
On top of this, she constantly played my mom and stepdad against each other; think the whole 'kid asking mom for permission to get told no, then going to dad and being told yes' situation, only cranked up to 11. This was a pretty major player in their marital strife, which pretty much almost completely upended my family. That's the major reason I was looking to move out to Louisiana(and later Dallas): they were planning on divorcing and dissolving the business. I'm not saying there were other issues, but they were pretty firmly caught in a huge web of manipulation and employees that viewed this lady as the one running the show, not my folks.
Beyond that she was incredibly judgmental and probably the primary reason I really didn't like my job. I felt that I was constantly treated like a child, despite doing this throughout my 20s. I got so much flak for my choices in lifestyle it wasn't funny; I was grilled incessantly about my decision to be childfree and the fact I hardly ever dated anyone. I think the constant 'outcasting' I got there because of her is a pretty big reason why I won't tolerate it from anyone else and tend to rant about it at most any given opportunity. And don't get me started on the snide remarks she gave to a couple of my close friends(who were furs) who showed up wearing a tail... that pissed me right off but I felt I was never in the position to say anything because she was the de facto boss.
All of this came to a head last year, when my mom was browsing Facebook and saw some comments leading to a competing floral business this lady was running right out of our shop. She was being quite sneaky about it, but several pictures she took of arrangements for her customers were on our counters, using our supplies and product, and we were paying her for it. Not cool, but that was the final straw. My folks were prepared to fire her on the spot, but it was before a major holiday(Mother's Day) and she decided to 'resign' after that. I went back to work there a couple of months after she was gone, and I have to say that it was much nicer without her being around.
So, all of that out of the way. The lady who did all this had several friends still working for her up to this point. One was a younger girl who I may have mentioned earlier who tried to boss me around. She was fired while I was working IT. A part-time delivery driver(who was homeless and rapidly becoming a drug addict) quit right before I came back here. Her cousin, who had been working for us for several years was also fired a couple of days ago, and I'll launch into that story as I was more or less directly involved.
A couple of days ago I was hanging around, waiting for the department happy hour at my other job to start(I didn't feel like driving all the way home to wait, then drive downtown to go there). A customer comes in, requesting we deliver something on V-Day. We've been booked up for a while so we couldn't. Without a beat and right in front of me, she tells him to give her his telephone number, 'I don't normally suggest this, but my cousin does wedding flowers and she could likely make something for you and get it sent, she's doing free delivery....' Not cool. Not cool at all. I'm not sure if I should have been pissed, but I was. I walked out of the store, fired up my trusty Quattro, and parked a few blocks away to call my folks. A couple of hours later, while I'm with my other coworkers, I get a call from my mom. They fired the girl, not entirely for suggesting her cousin's business, but for a lot of verbal abuse at the same time. I should mention this girl has constantly been between 15-30 minutes late every single day for the past 3-4 years, had turned in notice she was leaving at the end of the month, and there were constant complaints of her coming in just reeking of pot. Legal or not, you shouldn't be showing up to work drunk or stoned, no matter what you do for a living. There's likely going to be an unemployment battle over this, but I'm confident we will win it.
What caused all this backlash? My folks hired a former employee, a friend of my mom's from before they opened the shops. She was working as a floral designer in one of the most ritzy, high-end shops in the city; one of those joints that caters to very high-end social functions and events. We're talking weddings where the flowers alone were almost six figures. She hated the stress and wanted to go back, so she was snapped up. I'm on pretty good terms with her, especially after fixing her computer when Best Buy's highly vaunted Geek Squad said they couldn't. She doesn't treat me like a child, either. However, the other people didn't like her because she was placed in a position of authority and she wasn't part of the 'old guard,' so to speak.
Me? I'm glad these folks are gone. We'll be able to concentrate on making this business better and getting better value and quality to the customer, rather than a bunch of drama ruling the roost. My stress levels have dropped significantly since coming back, and I feel more at ease with myself. I won't go all sentimental and talk about new beginnings, but once my time in the IT department has petered out and my material goals are mostly satisfied(computer built, cars taken care of, all of that stuff) I'm going to move forward on my own PC repair business in order to shore up my income. However, I want all my ducks in a row before that happens.
Honestly, I'm glad I'm back, at least in a fashion. While I admit I'm a bit sore(some lower back stuff and my constantly complaining feet), at least my knees aren't screwing up on me and things just seem much easier and more enjoyable this go-round.
I'll lead into why we've been losing people, though this is a story that stretches back several years and needs some major background to build it up. The shops opened in 1996(our first one in April, which is no longer around and our second in October). One of our first employees has been there off and on since pretty much when we started. While she was good for a while, she started taking on more responsibilities and became the de facto 'manager' of the shops. However, her character became very much a duality... a sickeningly sweet, 'family is everything' June Cleaver clone on the surface, and an incredibly unhinged, manipulative, hedonistic person on the inside. She tried hard to be everybody's 'best buddy' at the shop, to the point where pretty much everyone who worked there over the years with a few exceptions always went over to her house for parties and the like. I'd been to a few; lots of kids running rampant and tons of alcohol involved, which was never a good combination.
Something that has some bearing on things was the fact this lady and her husband liked to 'have girls on the side,' in that fashion. Now, styling myself a relatively open individual, that's all fine and dandy. However, she liked to use the shop as her dating pool. One of my coworkers had a rule that I followed pretty strictly: "You don't get your meat where you get your bread." Crude way of saying it, but dating coworkers is a rather bad idea. The problem with this is that we had only a handful of people working for us, between two(later only one) stores. If relationship drama happened(and oh boy, it did), it spilled over to the shop and we all had to deal with arguments and people 'inexplicably' not working well together. Since there was a fair bit of this lady and her husband 'trading up to the younger model' going on, it just caused a ton of problems over the years.
On top of this, she constantly played my mom and stepdad against each other; think the whole 'kid asking mom for permission to get told no, then going to dad and being told yes' situation, only cranked up to 11. This was a pretty major player in their marital strife, which pretty much almost completely upended my family. That's the major reason I was looking to move out to Louisiana(and later Dallas): they were planning on divorcing and dissolving the business. I'm not saying there were other issues, but they were pretty firmly caught in a huge web of manipulation and employees that viewed this lady as the one running the show, not my folks.
Beyond that she was incredibly judgmental and probably the primary reason I really didn't like my job. I felt that I was constantly treated like a child, despite doing this throughout my 20s. I got so much flak for my choices in lifestyle it wasn't funny; I was grilled incessantly about my decision to be childfree and the fact I hardly ever dated anyone. I think the constant 'outcasting' I got there because of her is a pretty big reason why I won't tolerate it from anyone else and tend to rant about it at most any given opportunity. And don't get me started on the snide remarks she gave to a couple of my close friends(who were furs) who showed up wearing a tail... that pissed me right off but I felt I was never in the position to say anything because she was the de facto boss.
All of this came to a head last year, when my mom was browsing Facebook and saw some comments leading to a competing floral business this lady was running right out of our shop. She was being quite sneaky about it, but several pictures she took of arrangements for her customers were on our counters, using our supplies and product, and we were paying her for it. Not cool, but that was the final straw. My folks were prepared to fire her on the spot, but it was before a major holiday(Mother's Day) and she decided to 'resign' after that. I went back to work there a couple of months after she was gone, and I have to say that it was much nicer without her being around.
So, all of that out of the way. The lady who did all this had several friends still working for her up to this point. One was a younger girl who I may have mentioned earlier who tried to boss me around. She was fired while I was working IT. A part-time delivery driver(who was homeless and rapidly becoming a drug addict) quit right before I came back here. Her cousin, who had been working for us for several years was also fired a couple of days ago, and I'll launch into that story as I was more or less directly involved.
A couple of days ago I was hanging around, waiting for the department happy hour at my other job to start(I didn't feel like driving all the way home to wait, then drive downtown to go there). A customer comes in, requesting we deliver something on V-Day. We've been booked up for a while so we couldn't. Without a beat and right in front of me, she tells him to give her his telephone number, 'I don't normally suggest this, but my cousin does wedding flowers and she could likely make something for you and get it sent, she's doing free delivery....' Not cool. Not cool at all. I'm not sure if I should have been pissed, but I was. I walked out of the store, fired up my trusty Quattro, and parked a few blocks away to call my folks. A couple of hours later, while I'm with my other coworkers, I get a call from my mom. They fired the girl, not entirely for suggesting her cousin's business, but for a lot of verbal abuse at the same time. I should mention this girl has constantly been between 15-30 minutes late every single day for the past 3-4 years, had turned in notice she was leaving at the end of the month, and there were constant complaints of her coming in just reeking of pot. Legal or not, you shouldn't be showing up to work drunk or stoned, no matter what you do for a living. There's likely going to be an unemployment battle over this, but I'm confident we will win it.
What caused all this backlash? My folks hired a former employee, a friend of my mom's from before they opened the shops. She was working as a floral designer in one of the most ritzy, high-end shops in the city; one of those joints that caters to very high-end social functions and events. We're talking weddings where the flowers alone were almost six figures. She hated the stress and wanted to go back, so she was snapped up. I'm on pretty good terms with her, especially after fixing her computer when Best Buy's highly vaunted Geek Squad said they couldn't. She doesn't treat me like a child, either. However, the other people didn't like her because she was placed in a position of authority and she wasn't part of the 'old guard,' so to speak.
Me? I'm glad these folks are gone. We'll be able to concentrate on making this business better and getting better value and quality to the customer, rather than a bunch of drama ruling the roost. My stress levels have dropped significantly since coming back, and I feel more at ease with myself. I won't go all sentimental and talk about new beginnings, but once my time in the IT department has petered out and my material goals are mostly satisfied(computer built, cars taken care of, all of that stuff) I'm going to move forward on my own PC repair business in order to shore up my income. However, I want all my ducks in a row before that happens.