One of my employees at the smoothie shop is my boss's
nephew. He was scheduled to close tonight and since he had made plans
for the evening he told me he would be unable to work. Working for a
family owned company means you get caught up in their squabbles. I've
been on vacation for the past two weeks. When I informed my boss that
I wanted off he gave me a hard time about it but I didn't let him get
to me. My boss works hard but he is not a good boss. Formerly his
sister was my boss. She was a good boss. She communicated well, she put
a lot of herself into her work and she went out of her way to encourage
and support the people who worked for her.
Today her son called to tell me he couldn't get out of a family
event. Standing up for myself isn't something I'm very good at.
Normally I let people take advantage of me but today I informed my
employee that I hoped he could find someone else to work for him since
I was unable to. He replied that he had called one of his co-workers. I
said that was good and hung up. About five minutes later he called me
back upset that no one would work for him. I told him that I was sorry
but I had already made plans. He got mad and started yelling at me.
Eventually he hung up on me but I still didn't back down because as an
employee it is his responsibility to find a replacement for his shift
if the schedule has already been posted.
After he hung up on me I
was so mad my hands were shaky. I took some deep breaths, drank a
glass of water and called my aunt who knows my problem employee. Before
I could go into why I was upset my boss called to tell me that his
nephew no longer worked for my store. I told my boss that I was
quitting and I could have told him why but I didn't bother because as
one of the other kids who works for me said this morning my boss
doesn't give a shit. When I'm at work I do my best to take care of the
people I work with. My boss called me a control freak
and that label fits but when I was gone things went well and apart from
my boss having to come up twice to replenish cash in the coin box my
being gone didn't affect him.
A while back I applied for a job at a company I used to work for. I
used a current employee as a reference and I have an interview this
coming Tuesday. Part of me really wants the job and another part
remembers the corporate crap I put up with last time I
worked there. If I don't get the job my plan is to go back to school. I
have most of the coursework done for a nursing degree and even if I
hate being a nurse I will at least make decent money hating it. On a
different note I've recently had some good conversations regarding how
to become a better writer. I joined E2 because I
wanted to learn more about writing. Numerous people have helped me
with that and this is my way of publicly thanking those people who
spent their time discussing writeups with me.
Recently I've had to make some decisions about where
my life is going. I write because I like to take
characters and work them through problems. In one of my writeups
a girl tries to let go of the past. Like the girl
in my story learns, letting go isn't easy. Last month I got into a
fight with two of my sisters. It was kind of funny because at one point
during the fight my sister accused me of pushing people away which is
what I think she does. For whatever reason my family hands out advice
to other family members. Everyone means well but our feelings are
easily hurt and I've found myself withdrawing from relationships that
aren't nurturing me. If I walked away from E2
tomorrow there might be some people who miss me but the website would
go on and that's how life is. It goes
on.