I've Been Bitten

I bought some Noro Yuzen a week ago from a yarn shop in Georgetown (awesome place and I wish I lived closer).  Well, I couldn't seem to hold onto it and it turned into this:

And that's how I spent the three days following that purchase.

Paranoid

I showed up to work at my usual time, punched in and started writing down the count (amount of product on the shelves at the time).  I finished that, and started writing down what I'd need to bake first.

Then my bad manager told me that I was going to be trained on storefront.  I'm no longer a baker.

Well, I was pissed!  I asked him why, after almost a year, this is being addressed now?  Why not tell me these things when I first started baking?

I lasted a half hour, then asked to go home.  I wasn't feeling well at all.

I won't quit because that's what they want.  They don't want me there because I follow store policy.  Whatever.  If they really want me gone, they can fire me with no reason, but I'll take it to the labour board.

Oops

Well, they were using that product.  I asked the bad manager if I should, and he started going on about how it had to be above temperature for four hours.  Then he called the other "local coffee shop" (our sister store) and had the two managers there come over to explain it to me.

Really, all I wanted was a yes or a no to me using the product in the freezer.

So these two managers come over and start going on about stuff other than the actual events that took place Monday.  (Insider story:  I'm claustrophobic and don't shut the freezer door behind me when I'm in there.)

Ultimately, I was told that I shouldn't be a baker if I can't go in there with the door shut (the light's not bright enough, either, and that was pointed out by baker #2).  I've been there almost a year and they're telling me this now?!

I don't know what'll happen tomorrow morning.  My good manager doesn't even know what's going on.  I suspect that, since I decided to follow policy, they're trying to find a way to get rid of me.

Will I be a baker tomorrow at 11am?  Who knows.  But they'd better tell me.  I don't want to show up in my uniform and be told to go home.

The Day Of Reckoning

Yesterday (Monday) was weird.  I arrived to a freezer that wasn't freezing, so I told my manager (the good one).  She immediately called our local freezer fixer, who said they could bring a new compressor.

That was at 11am.  By 4:30pm, the freezer fixer guy finally fixed the compressor (he had been there since 11:30am).  But because the freezer continued to act up, we lost all the product in there.  It was in the danger zone for more than two hours.  I'm interested in knowing if they've obeyed procedure or if they've still used that product.

Really, I'm not quite sure what I'll do if they have decided to keep this ruined food.

They're Actually Doing It

My "local coffee shop" is getting a new freezer.  How unbelievable is that?!  Of course, it won't arrive for three or four weeks, so, as I told my bad manager, we'll still be poisoning people for another month yet.

Oh, the bad manager.  Someone's come down real hard on him.  He's actually making an effort, getting stricter, telling the supervisors that they have to issue 10 write-ups every month.  They started cracking down immediately.  I saw two people written up within minutes of each other.  One of my co-workers came back to the kitchen and said (just to me) that if she ever gets written up, she'll walk out.

Made sense to me.  She doesn't have to work for a living yet.

Half an hour later, she gets written up.

Ten minutes after that, my supervisor goes outside for her break and my co-worker comes out of the washroom with her own clothing on and gives me a hug.  Then she left her uniform on the front counter and walked out.

I have to give her kudos for sticking to her guns.  Not that I would have said anything if she hadn't.

I wonder if I'll get written up soon.

Happy Belated Birthday

I realized some time during the night that this blog is just over one year old.  Cool.

Here are some pretty, slightly random pictures:

Hooray for Wednesday!

Trying Out My Bargaining Skills

Update:  We have the new apartment, and we move by August 31.  This is all settled, we've signed the lease, we've given our notice, we've started packing.

Now I have to figure out my work situation at my "local coffee shop".  It'll still be downtown after I move to the mountain, which means I won't be able to walk to work.  I'll have to take the bus, which will cost more.  Conclusion:  If they want me to stay at that particular "local coffee shop", they will have to pay me more to cover the extra cost.  If not, I'll get a transfer to another one.

I should probably do this through a letter, because words get twisted into a bizarre game of Telephone at my work.  It would probably be received as "Oh, Heather's asking to be paid more money to leave us for another job".  Completely, utterly twisted.

Like the day I killed the cockroach and wasn't feeling well and therefore left early with the permission of my supervisor.  I arrived the next day and the morning baker said she was surprised that I was there.  The night supervisor told her that I wouldn't be coming to work because I'd had a huge fight with my afternoon supervisor.

Right.  Because that's exactly how it (didn't) happen.  And the whole end-of-June mystery that was floating around?  Our manager just changed shifts three days a week, leaving the bad manager working in the mornings.  It really is more disturbing than it sounds.  I have no respect for the bad manager.

I haven't been knitting.  It's been too hot and my hands get too sweaty and then my project starts felting.  Not ideal.

Treating Myself

Noro.  'Nuff said.

My Kind Of Weather

It's 33 Celsius right now with a humidex of 44.  Bring it on!  Course, when I go to the mall tonight I'll have to bring a sweater.

About Face

That apartment we got?  We're canceling the whole deal.  (We haven't signed anything yet, so we can.)

Ultimately, our current landlord won't accept 30 days notice, despite the fact that we're beyond our one-year lease and are now month-to-month.  So now we're pissed at the whole company (which happens to own more than half of Hamilton in apartment buildings).  Since the apartment we were going to move into in August is owned by them, too, we've backed out.

Fortunately, we've already found a new option.  I like it a lot better.  This one has carpeting in the main hallways.  And it's on the mountain!  Believe me, I'm getting right sick of downtown.  Just tonight there was some punk playing solo street hockey in the middle of my intersection.  Anytime someone wanted to get by, they were sworn at.  It'll be funny tomorrow morning, I'm sure.

Maybe I Did It On Purpose

I started packing a couple days before we knew we had the apartment.  I'm impatient like that.  So's my dad.

I looked up "packing" on Google and apparently one can get super-anal about it.  I've chosen to put labels on my boxes based on which room they go in.  For example, kitchen = K, living room = L, my room = H, and so on.  Then each box is labeled further with a number (H1, K4) depending on how many boxes there will be.  And in a notebook I can write what is in H1 (bernat cottontots, Anne of Green Gables books) and not have to write the entire contents on the box itself.

Which brings me to my next idea.  I packed all of my yarn that isn't on any needles.  This will force me to knit my WIPs and not start anything new.  Of course, since I wrote down which yarn is where, I can find it if I need it.

Back to work.  Yesterday was Wednesday, and one of the managers from the other store was working with us because our one good manager is on vacation and the other bad manager is "sick".  This replacement manager decided, since my name was on the health inspection sheet (someone had to sign the darn thing) that I had been the one to call in the complaint.  I had to explain to him that no one else would sign it and there was no manager or supervisor around.  He still thinks I phoned it in.  I won't admit to him that I did, unless they get solid evidence.