Rough week

I am so glad it is finally Saturday. On Thursday I seriously thought it was Friday all day long. The week just seemed to go on forever.

I am so tired of working in a place where there is something that either falls apart or is on the brink of falling apart EVERY DAY!! And, I don't know if this is true or not, but I feel like I am the only one that does anything about it. I think my boss pretends like he doesn't notice and leaves it up to me because he knows I will do it. It is nice to be thought of as reliable and getting the job done and such, but it is very draining, too, when I have to do all of these things on top of my everyday job. And I am only there part-time.

We are short staffed at the moment (we are actually chronically short staffed, but right now we are one or two supervisors short, so it effects me more) so I am working more hours. I get teased a lot by my customers because 30 hours is seriously a lot of hours for me. I have a hard time handling much more than 20. It is just physically VERY draining. I am on my feet nearly the whole 8 hours, constantly interacting and being overly cheerful with customers, planning the shift, delegating jobs to my barista, checking the food delivery to make sure we got all of the food we ordered, dealing with whatever is happening in the store that day (deliveries, maintainance, etc), and dealing with whatever suprises are being thrown at me (Deli, the espresso machine isn't working; Deli, we are out of mocha; Deli, the police are asking for you; Deli, Deli, Deli!!!). On top of this I have to do duties each week such at ordering our change for the week (if it hasn't been ordered I have to run to the bank), ordering our supplies for the week, putting away our delivery so I can figure out what I have to order for next week, keep track of our dairy and amend our order accordingly, check on the food order to make sure my boss has done it (good thing I checked this week otherwise they would not have had food for this weekend. HA!). And then I am always running around fixing things, calling maintainance, calling maintainance again to see why they haven't come out for the last 5 work orders, unclocking our ever-clogging ladies toilet, counting how many light bulbs have gone out this week (seriously, bulbs in the country do not last long. We normally have to have about 50 changed every few weeks). We have 2 new baristas so I am training nearly every day, which takes time away from the other duties I need to get done. I am also the resident activist, so there was a time where I was constantly advocating for my baristas just to make sure they got their basic rights such as breaks and holidays.

So this week I had to deal with all of this and more. I was scheduled for 30 hours, which did allow for more time to get my duties done, but also more time for general craziness to occure. My boss (full-time and salaried) is hardly working more hours than me this week and next. We have been having problems with one of our tills and on Thursday it just decided to quit on us. This was a big problem as I really needed the extra till to start training our new baristas. I'm sure it was an ever larger problem today as they normally use both tills throughout the whole weekend. We have new frappaccinos which are a pain in the REAR to make and they are so confusing. They are increasing in popularity and really slowing things down at the bar. It is getting busier, yet we do not have extra coverage to deal with the flow of customers. We had a problem with something which I cannot share here. As always, it was left up to me to deal with it. I called the appropriate company, they scolded me (it wasn't my fault!) and said they would deal with it. Good! Then they called back and said, "Actually, we are not going to deal with it. We think you can get by." When I hung up the phone I bawled from all of the built up stress and tiredness.

I normally get 3 days off over the weekend, but I only have 2 this time and I have to go back for another 4 day week. I am so tired. And Josh is sick, too, so I was trying to take care of him (at which I failed miserably) and I can tell my body is fighting off his cold as well.

So, here's to hoping for a better week next week...

Sorry for the rant