Amazing things and what the heck?

The amazing thing is that I got to walk out of work a full half-hour early today. The store looked good and the senior manager got there a little early and walked us off and said to go before Queeg got there or we’d be there another ninety minutes. So we ran.

OK, so the new senior manager just went overnights to help out, and this is the first week we’ve gotten to take our full three days off. I had Mon/Tue/Wed (not my normal days, but we’ll come back to that), the new senior manager got (by choice) Sat/Thr/Fri, and Mego got Sat/Sun/Fri. Next week we’re all back on the "right" schedule, which means Mego gets Sat/Sun/Mon, new senior manager gets Tue/Wed/Thr, and I get my Wed/Thr/Fri back. Anyone else see it? Anyone? Yep, that’s right, Mego gets a four-day weekend, I get left alone (again) on the busiest night of the week with three people on personal leaves and I have to work six days straight through to get a day off. Add to that I have to stay late on Sunday (Monday morning for a pop-up conference call) & Tuesday (Wednesday morning for Queeg’s farewell) and I have a mandatory district training thing on Friday morning why do I even bother?

To top it all off the Friday thing is a "Safety" class becuase of that poor Wal-Mart worker that got trampled up in New York during their after-Thanksgiving sale. Even though it’s a different company I don’t see where Wal-Mart did anything wrong there – it’s all on the animals (excuse me, customers) that ripped the door off its tracks, mowed him down, and then wouldn’t make way for other people to get in to try to rescue the poor man. So unless a) the stores my company runs in our district are going to start closing (we’re all 24/7) or b) they’re going to let me carry a side arm or cattle prod, there’s nothing I can be told on Friday that will do anyone any good. I mean really, what in that store was worth a man’s life? We’ve already been told a hundred times by a hundred people if someone holds us up and wants the money, give it to them. If a shoplifter gets violent or brandishes a weapon when you try to stop them let them go. My company is very concerned about safety, and I’m sure Wal-Mart is too, but they didn’t do anything wrong and there’s nothing my company can do to make that tragedy go away.

So let me have my day off, please.