Bah Humpug

It has been The Week From Hell - anyone in retail can relate, I'm sure.  Many hours prepping for The Sale, all for it to be over in a flash.  We all work hard, stay late, go the extra mile, all so our customers can get what they want to buy for their Holidays.  This is my 17th Season in retail, and I can honestly say I don't enjoy much of it any longer.  I may put on a brave face if family happens to come over, but they've learned over the years that I'm not at my best .....  Nothing takes the joy out of setting up a Christmas tree in your home when you've already been setting up trees in your store for more than 60 days.  Ugh.  Any more, I'd just rather have some kind of "destination gift" - a movie and treats for the whole family, a hike out in nature somewhere, just about anything to get away from the commercialism that the Holiday Season has become.

My gift to family each year is a calendar - one that I fill with custom photos that I've taken all year, or that I've dug up out of family archives.  As the family grows, it's impossible to have photos of everyone included but I do what I can.  At least on the first (or second) of every month, when they turn the page, it's something new to look at.  And if there's a photo that brings up a memory for them, all the better, in my book.  Yes.  I'm weird.  But I'm ok with that!

An update on the whole Elvis thing at my BigBoxStore.  I had a meeting with the area HR manager.  And basically her message was this:  "let the system work".  My comeback:  I've been letting it for six years now.  It doesn't.   He has this uncanny sense of timing and when he's coached, he overturns it as high as he can take it.  In the latest case, it took Upper Management six months to complete the hoop-jumping; and he knows that they a)  won't coach him for anything else while he's in the midst of this process (so he gets to literally skate his way through) and b)  that the coaching drops off after 12 months, basically buying himself those easy  months.  And while he was biding that time, he knew he could get away with extended breaks (on the clock, but not working) over and over again.  While me, I'm the one stuck with babysitting his mistakes, being the one who has to point out each of the issues and/or mistakes while management literally turns a blind eye - because *they* aren't the ones who have to work with it on a daily basis.  There are times when I have to talk to him about an issue, and management has sent in a witness, so that it won't be his word against mine -- the old "he said she said" defense. 

I also asked about his wanting a meeting to "clear the air" between us.  He was literally asking that I be told to "like him".  He was told I only have to treat him with respect.  That's my job.  And while it's OK that he gets to run around and bad-mouth me, spread rumors, I have to be respectful.  In the end, it seems that the reality of the situation is this:

::they aren't going to do anything and it's probably time for me to move on::

With that being said, it would be better to leave with my good name and the reputation I've built intact and find a store willing to transfer me in.  Of course, nothing will happen with the holiday season, so I have to bide my time until January.  As a sanity saving course of action, I have set an alarm on my phone for each day to remind me to go to the gym for my lunch hour, rather than be within the confines of my building, subjected to rumors, inuendos, and flat out ignorance.  

Work rant over.  

Thank you for reading!