Perhaps I've spoken too soon, but I'm so pleased about how things went this week at work that I feel the need to gloat.
Last week I was worried that sales were never going to pick up and that I'd be fired because there were going to be catastrophes, sales were going to be crap, and someone was going to stop in from the head office and give me hell for something. I wasn't sure what, but I just knew that if they stopped by I'd be in the middle of my after lunch gallstone pain and the head office person would be giving me hell.
Yeah, so obviously none of that was going to happen, but that didn't stop me from thinking it.
This week hasn't been so bad actually. The paperwork on Monday morning went very smoothly, I had it finished before I even opened the store. Of course, I had half of it done on Friday, but that's neither here nor there. Sales were really shitty, but we got a lot done.
Tuesday wasn't so bad. Of course, I arrived Wednesday morning to find that both computers had frozen sometime the night before. A couple of things that I specifically asked to be done were not done, and the shipment still hadn't arrived.
It did show up eventually, and was small-ish, but filled with bargain books. Which means, that I had to rebuild the bargain tables. Which doesn't sound like a lot of work. But, it is. I hate those damn tables. They hold a hell of a lot of books, but still, whomever got the idea that it was smart to stack books into pyramids should have their head read. Oh, Wednesday was also the day of the conference call. Which went fine, till I discovered I was supposed to have numbers to report. Remaining calm, I frantically dug through the pile of papers on the desk in the office and found the numbers that were being requested. Most of them anyway, I had to report one of the numbers later in the day.
Thursday was the day from hell. Half of the credit and debit card transactions didn't make it to the bank on Wednesday night. None of the debit card transactions would go through Wednesday morning. Right, turns out that an electrical outlet in the office has stopped working, therefore my DVACS box (it's a black thing that hangs on the wall, which obviously has something to do with the debit transactions) wouldn't work. So, I had to unplug the music to get the DVACS box to work.
And then I had to make about a zillion phone calls. I always thought that our support office was there to provide support. Apparently providing support means bumping you around the support office till you finally find the right person to talk to. And then once you've found that person, they'll give you yet another phone number to call someone else.
Eventually an electrician came and fixed the outlet, I was able to turn the music back on (it's very quiet without music) and all was well.
When I arrived on Thursday, aside from the computer problems there was a note from Barb, who was supposed to close Thursday night that she couldn't come in because her daughter was really sick and she couldn't leave her with a babysitter. Since there wasn't anyone else to work, that meant that I got to stay till close. Yay me!
I can't even remember what else went wrong that day, but something did.
The true panic was not all those things I've mentioned, it was really that we'd make sales this week. Because it's Easter tomorrow, if we couldn't do it this week, then we were never going to do it. In the long run though, when all was said and done this week...I passed the test. We made our sales. :)
Now, lets see what happens next week.
Posted by Michelle at April 20, 2003 09:41 PM