Another Fresh Hell

It’s another day of bliss here at the "other job" which is turning out to be a bitchfest between myself and my usual Saturday morning shiftmate. She and I are two of four left of the original 16 partners that opened the store in December 2003. We've gone through 4 different managers: The first was fired for yelling at customers. The second left to have her third child. The third left to open a store in one of the best neighborhoods in town.

Then there's this one. She came from a competitor's store where she was an assistant manager before that store closed. She became the manager of a kiosk store that was built in the center of the busiest mall in town. She refers to that store as "(blended drink) hell", which I can completely understand, since the average age of the people on that mall is somewhere around 15. Well, she came to our store, which is a regular store, with retail and everything, except a drive-thru, about 6 months ago.

We've had nothing but trouble since the day arrived. She probably felt threatened by the previous manager, since we all loved her, and everything was running really smoothly when the transition happened. Then she alienated several regular customers with some of the things that she said. Then we began to consistently run short of everything, which forced us to have to call other stores for stock, which was a change, since we usually had plenty of extra for our store and the stores around us. Then she began running off partners. We have had a HUGE churn in partners here, mostly the new hires and transfers. I've seen almost 2 dozen partners cycle through this store in the time that manager 4 has been here. Some of them last a couple of months, some a couple of weeks, and some just a couple of days. We've lost 2 partners in the last week, and one called in "sick" (morning sickness) and we've been scrambling to get coverage for the 2 shifts that are left empty. Instead of working my 5 hours and going home, I'm pulling at least 7.5, which isn't all that bad, because it's an extra couple of bucks, but it cuts into my naptime :@)

It's getting so bad here that I've already typed up my 2 weeks notice letter. All I have to do is add the date, print it out, and I'm done. Hopefully things will get better, and I won't have to drop that bomb.