New Sofa

Well, new to me. I hadn't planned on adding furniture until my carpet is replaced, but fate stepped in, in the form of a slow leak in my air mattress. After the fourth day of waking up on a flat hard floor, my head was turned by the local second hand shop's £45 sofa bed ad. May I present my new click-clack...

Bought sight-unseen. It's actually firmer than I would like, but it's still miles better than the airbed on the floor. And every time I catch sight of an actual bed in the corner I smile all over again. What a mood booster. And it will work well if my kids come to visit. 

New staffer started today... she seems ok. Her availability is trash. Our frustration with the local talent pool knows no bounds. The only applications we seem to get are sensational people who just can't work when they're needed.

Contemplating a Split Personality

Work has given me so many freebie plants that I really don't need them all. About half have survived (that's par for the course when we can only take them home at the point they are all wilted and half-dead). I am considering selling the survivors on Facebook Marketplace, only that's a bit tacky so I made a new account to protect my identity. Dodgy I suppose, but in my defence I have rescued them, tended them and allowed them to recover and grow bigger. Currently searching for some cheap planters and I might make up a few baskets.

Less free stuff is appearing right now as we have improved our sell-through of reduced items. I prefer the lower waste ethically even though it means fewer freebies for me. I've been shopping at Cheap Competitor Store even though their shop is a train wreck right now with half-empty shelves and an abysmal lack of staff (mainly I feel sorrow for them, it's clear their suits are decimating their payroll and I remember when ours did that to us).

Balance

Well, just as yet another catastrophic day reached a crescendo mid-week, our caretaker boss Lolly declared that it's our shop and if we haven't got time to do all our tasks, it's our call on what to do and what to put off. So we dumped some of the training. Lolly then authorised us to go over staffing budget because it was necessary. So we did.

To her credit Boss Lady has been responsive since she returned, and finangled permission to hire more humans. So we're recruiting and interviewing right now. Yesterday I had the loveliest evening shift I've had in about a month, with an extra human and everything getting done. Ah, peace.

I booked two movie tickets (for free, thanks National Lotteries) but then work has rearranged my weekend into a split, so I don't even know if I'll find the energy. We will see.

Disgustang.

Close to fed up. Demiboss injured her shoulder - agony-level - so I cut my week off short and went in to cover for her. I really don't mind that part, she has helped me so many times and it was nobody's fault. The part that got me fed up is that Boss Lady has been fooled by Teddy's bullshit... and has made him permanent even when he's often ditching us in favour of working his other job. Sigh. Sassy did even worse, refused to change her socialising plans when we needed her to work. Her father called, cussed us out and said she quits. What a completely embarrassing and unprofessional thing to do. If this space cadet is dumb enough to try a pleasant goodbye at the end of her notice week I'll have to bite my tongue. Way to burn bridges.

And we have a new rota that's completely inadequate for running a supermarket. It looks like they've put us on skeleton staff and then shaved a bit more off. It just isn't tenable and now Boss Lady is away on holidays for another two weeks so can't do anything about it. How do you keep a place running at 60% of bare-minimum staffing levels, I just don't get it...

I am the only duty manager who refuses to work like a fiend. I work at my pace. What doesn't get done doesn't get done. But the other three are burning themselves out. Nobody will thank them and nothing will come in reward, just a new expectation that we can keep it up permanently.

Four more boxes of free plants this week. Two trays are marigolds. You'd better believe I am milking the freebies for this pain in the arse work situation.

Side Hustles for May

£0.50 StreetBees

£29.94 Prolific Academic

Ho hum, another lazy month. At least I did a few more PA studies than usual.

Spendy McSpenderson: bamboo incense holder, new mousepad, compost, and more boring wall stuffs like sandpaper pads and filler. A joining fee for becoming a company director of the freehold company, and legal fees to the solicitors handling our enfranchisement (£800).

Coming: a new front door (fire regulations) and that ever-looming roof bill plus the enfranchisement itself, all of which will be rather painful but worthwhile.