Thoughts

Did I spell that right? It doesn’t look right but my browser isn’t screaming at me about it so…

I called. The store manager is at lunch, so I have to call back in about ninety minutes.

As far as Queeg goes, I don’t see how she could have done anything different, honsetly. She is who she is. She reacts to things the way she reacts to things. There isn’t any way of getting around that. In the same situation I could not yell, scream, and be hateful like she is because I don’t have it in me. Yes, if the performance was below standards (not just below my expectations, which I know can be unreasonable sometimes) then there would be a talk. But I’d do it in the office, not on the sales floor in front of everyone. In fact I have done so in the past. It got to where the folks that worked for me on days wouldn’t go in the office with me unless I told them what it was about first. One of them actually said they were afraid I had "[found] your lack of faith disturbing" and did the thing with the hand. But I never belittled my employees. I might have asked them what they were thinking (or smoking) when they did whatever it was I was fussing at them for but I never raised my voice or pitched a fit. I think that mostly I conveyed dissapointment in their lapse in judgement.

One more than one occasion she’s said that if we thought *she* was hard to work for then we should try working for her aunt (she’s a facility manager in Florida somewhere) and we’d see how easy we had it. There was once, not too long ago, when we were almost going to get out on time because she was in a good mood and we’d had a really good night, but then she found one or two dust bunnies under one display and that was all it took, we were stuck. Normal people don’t change from thanking you for the job you’ve done and getting ready to send you home to making you re-sweep the store because of a few dust bunnies.

The other two senior managers have both told me that they support me in whatever decision I make, but that if I’m doing this to get away from Queeg then I should know that she is counting down the days to when she can transfer back from whence she came. They’ve said as soon as policy will allow her to go (sometime in March or April if my math is right) she’s going to be gone. They have also told me that she does not foresee the need to put another reprimand in the system for me anytime soon if I continue to perform like I have been, which is good news since another official reprimand would keep me from transfering or promoting for at least a year, maybe longer since that policy is under review right now. If she had just kept her hands off my schedules and allowed me to do my job I wouldn’t have gotten the first reprimand.

I’ve talked to Critter, and beyond telling me I have to fly her and Ember up there for visits, she said to do what makes me happy. I told her I was asking her opinion because I was one of the few reliable people she had to help with the kids, and she told me she’d find someone else if she had to.

I talk to Ember about it in about twenty minutes. She knows I want to talk and why, and she’s using it as an opportunity to get fed. She’ll probably tell me the same thing Critter did, including the part about flying them up there for visits.

I still have to talk to the manager of the store, but I’m really leaning towards taking the job. I’ve been checking out apartments and homes for rent in the local paper and the prices are not that different from what I’m paying now. Of course I have to come up with a security deposit and what not, and I’ll need to see how much time I have to make the move. I’m probably going to sell or give away most of my stuff, just keeping the electronics, my bed, and my dishes and stuff. I’ll still need a trailer but that’s all I’ll need, I won’t need a truck. And if I route myself through Oklahoma I can see Thumper on the way and it won’t cost me much in extra mileage.

Of course that could all change, you know how I am…