Nov 23, 2010 10:12
The past few weeks have been rather surreal. Things are starting to get into normal mode at work but we are soooo short handed that we still have to work at high gear for most of the week. We are down to about 55% of the recommended staffing level, that's 1 full time person and 4 part-time people that we just don't have. I honestly don't know how much longer I can run like this, I'm having difficulties keeping up.
We've also discovered that while we aren't making as many dollars as we expected we are selling a high number of units, which means we are selling a lot of smaller pieces so the earned monies are lower than we expect for the amount of effort we put in. Plus, since we opened with constant sampling people are expecting to taste everything and not purchase, they just want to browse through the store. We've pulled back our sampling hours to the normal ones that are run in the other stores - but still have one-on-one sampling that happens. When others see that a crowd starts to form and they all want to try it. Frustrating!!!
Sunday we had to pull 4 pans of product off the olive bar because people stuck their fingers in there or let their unsupervised kids reach their entire arm in. Yes, seriously, there was no parent in sight and this 5 year old kid *with a cold and snot streaming down their face* stuck their arm in two pans of olives just to see what it would feel like. ! Thank god someone saw it.
Anyway, I'm working the closing shift today and am supposed to run up to the model train dealer and pick up some more track for Timothy. It's up by Hunt Valley which means I need to scoot if I'm going to make it to work on time. I have tomorrow off (yay!) and will be working on my petticote for the Steampunk outfit, the waistcoat just needs the side seams assembled and it'll be done. The fabric store opens at 8am and I need to pick up a pink tie at some point before Friday. Busy, busy, busy. We aren't cooking this year so that's really going to help my sanity level. I haven't made a batch of cheese in a couple of months. I'm starting to go into serious withdrawal...
My next "vacation" is January 10th when I go in to have surgery to undo my dialysis access. I get the entire week off - woohoo! Wish we could go somewhere warm and sunny, like the Bahamas, for the recovery.