It’s Over
This week is finally over.
I’m going to relax.
Watch some TV.
Do some work in the truck.
Stop hurting.
Then get back up and do it all over again next week.
Because I gotta.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Vent For Vent
Yesterdayβs post and itβs content came back around to me today. Well, itβs content anyway.
The boss needed to vent today and I let him.
Kind for kind. I also apologized for losing it on the phone with him. And he graciously accepted and said he didn’t even think of it in that way.
Good man.
I gotta say it was a good day.
Ice Cube
My part-timer and I hit the ground running today. It has been a rough week, but we were heads down and bulling through the rough parts today.
We aren’t what we once were. Backs start to give where they used not to, bodies ache. Weβve run twenty-four hours straight on projects taking care of our stores before. Those days are behind us. Lol.
I am getting old, it sucks.
Tomorrow ends this reset week. I have a lot to do before end of business.
I’ll suffer through.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Those Who Canβt Manage
I have an excellent manager. He is truly a great guy, and I hadn’t had one this good for over a year and a half. He’s always ready to help, and I want him to know I appreciate him. I tell him this face to face or over text.
He appreciates us, those of us who put ourselves into our work and accomplish more than we can hope for with what we have to work with and around sometimes in our day-to-day roles.
Today I had to call him about a manager for a company we work for who decided he would try to make things difficult.
We, in our roles as employees, are paid for what we do when we are in an activity. The company makes its money for what we do and our time in these activities. You always have to be in one of these activities, or the company as a whole isn’t getting paid for the time spent, even though the employee is.
The manager in question wanted to know why I didn’t βfinish the jobβ for which they paid.
What had happened was that I didn’t remove security devices from some pieces removed from displays.
Time and time again, Iβve been told that I’m not in the asset protection business. I am neither to place or remove security devices unless specifically told to do so by my management. And so, I did not.
I was told that this βwas the worst (expletive deleted) service that they’d ever receivedβ and that I βwould be (expletive deleted) returning to the store todayβ.
There was so much more said and I was cool, calm, and collected.
You see, I knew something the whole time this manager was ranting that, amazingly, he is painfully unaware of, but I had right in the forefront of my mind.
I don’t work for him.
I would dearly love it if all managers were like mine. He gets it.
He shines when we shine.
He knows the people under him make or break him as a manager.
He has a personal interest in our success. And we have the same in him.
Managers that talk down to people under them are of very little worth. Respect goes a long way, and it is absolutely, without question, hard-earned from those who genuinely respect you.
My role in managing the few people under me is to facilitate their needs in accomplishing their everyday tasks as assigned to them by the company. If they don’t shine, I don’t shine.
This is the way of things. Always appreciate your people.
Praise in public and criticize in private.
The one thing that I will not tolerate is being talked down to by anyone. I don’t care if it’s a manager or a customer. It’s a line I don’t allow to be crossed without some form of blowback.
And, in some form, it always comes back to you.
After I got off the phone, I called my manager, and I was pretty mad. I probably should have waited to cool off, but he took it and calmed me after my initial outburst. He got the facts and was getting ready to call the other manager. We hung up.
And then the phone rings, and he tells me he’s going to cool off before he calls and gets in trouble, and we both laugh. I have his back, too. He can bounce things off me. He can trust me to be tight-lipped.
Retail is a bad day sometimes.
But it’s also funny.
Anyway, it’s good to receive backup from the boss.
I’ll go into work tomorrow and find out what the blowback is. Maybe I won’t have to return to that location.
And so it goes.
/rant
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Night Ranger
πΆFour in the morninβ…
That’s what the clock said when I rolled out of bed this morning. I couldn’t sleep anymore, too much going on in my head as it’s the beginning of the week. I always have my β50-60% completed by Wednesdayβ in the back of my head.
That makes for lousy sleep sometimes.
That said, I don’t mind being up early with my coffee, standing on the driveway, looking up at the stars. It’s a peaceful time of the morning with a few of the early rising birds doing their warmups before a hard day tweeting.
If I hurry along, I can get to the store I’m going to before the sun rises.
Not that I mind the sunrise, it’s the glare in my eyes driving to work. I wouldn’t say I like that.
I’ll be up early again tomorrow and headed to one of my outlier stores. Not my favorite ride, but at least I start getting paid in my garage due to the distance. Mileage and hourly wage rack up nicely for that ride.
Two stores and a long day coming. I suppose I’ll be at before dawn without the alarm. It’s become the norm that I dismiss the alarm before it goes off more often than not nowadays.
And that’s okayβthings to do, places to go.
πΆEverybody’s got a place to be…
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Things
First thing.
I’m a vendor. I don’t work for the store. There’s nothing on my person that would make you think I work for this company.
When you approach someone in a store and say, βDo you work here?β and then they say, βNo.β THATβS the end of the conversation.
I don’t mind helping you if I’m able, but when my hands are full (literally) and I’m trying to balance on one foot, and my tongue is hanging out, and you can see me doing something, ITβS NOT THE TIME.
Definition of no:
not so βused to express negation, dissent, denial, or refusal
It is the ultimate disambiguation, the word no. It removes all doubt. I used to have a shirt of ultimate disambiguation.
Please just let me do my job, and someone else’s my company has decided I do at that moment.
Second thing. Thank God for an incorrect weather forecast. A huge thunderstorm was brewing to the NW of us, and as I’ve said before, big storms scare me. It seems to have broken up and continued on its stormy way.
Third and last thing, today was a good day. We hit hard and fast on the resets today, and like I pray in the mornings, βLord make us swift and accurate.β It helps that we’ve been doing this job together for the past six years so that my part-timer knows what I think as we move through these mods. She’s a good partner.
Today was a great start to the week. It makes me feel more confident going forward with the other stores we have to set.
I’m going to have a cup of coffee and watch some TV. Then it’s time for bed. I got to hit it dark and early in the morning.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
There goes the weekend…
I accomplished nothing this weekend except to run errands, get a haircut, and pick up groceries.
I watched TV with the family and spent some time reading. Reading for enjoyment and not straight knowledge. It has been quite a while since I’ve had time for that and, I understand, I really should make the time.
I wrote a few days ago about watching the movie Infinite. What I didn’t know at the time was that movie is based on a book and so I have been reading The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz. His work is available on the link provided. I happened to go with Kindle. Because I can.
I love his writing style. He keeps me engaged and he’s descriptive enough that I get what’s going on but I have my movie going in my head while I’m reading. Not THE movie, my movie. Whenever I really enjoy something I can visualize it while I am reading and that’s when I know I’m enjoying myself.
I’m sure it’s quite a common thing.
Or maybe it’s time for the jacket and reserved room? Who knows? Who cares?
It’s time for our resets at the stores again this week, so Iβll most likely be pretty gruff in real life as well as here. I don’t distinguish between the two because that’s what I pretty much write, real life.
If I miss a step here or there, use the wrong word, spell something wrong, etc. I am trying to regain something I lost. This blog is a labor of love. It’s not a lot of work, but I do love coming on here and dropping my .02 every day. It’s my therapy, and I very much enjoy it.
I hope you do as well.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Man Up
Iβm having a morning where I feel lost and alone. But I never am.
Thatβs it. Thatβs the post.
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Public Interaction
Cashier: You look like youβre having a bad day.
Me: No. I always look like this.
Cashier: You look mad.
Me: And people who walk around grinning all the time look like idiots.
πΆπππππππ ππππππ. π½ππ ππ ππ πππππππ.
πππππππ
Iβm actually a very friendly person.
I stop to help a lot.
If the situation is right, Iβll stop to help folks on the side of the roadβmostly women. I know, thatβs sounds bad, but hear me out.
If a guy gets in a car, he needs to know how to change his tire; he needs to have changed the oil several times so that he knows where the dipstick is. He needs to know what’s happening when the temperature needle rises into the red. He needs to know what’s going on if any number of things happen. These things used to be expected of a guy driving a vehicle. Women, not so much.
Now I know there are tons of women who know all these things, but the majority of the population of women do not.
That sounds sexist; I don’t care. It’s true.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming true of men as well.
My wife can change her tire; she can troubleshoot electrical problems, she knows when the temperature gauge starts rising that something is up (pun intended).
All that to say this, unless it’s a wreck or I see blood, I will drive right on past young men. They should be able to handle themselves.
The older man, I will stop and help because they are elderly. And they may very well tell me to take a hike. But I will have at least tried.
When I’m working, I always ask if people need assistance. I try to at least put on a friendly face which does take effort. When I’m working I’m concentrating on what I’m doing, and that takes away from the concentrating on the act of looking approachable.
Basically, don’t read into appearances is what I’m trying to say. Be more considerate of the fact that people have a lot more going on than just your immediate concerns.
Except for the grinning idiots, probably not a lot going on up there.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Friday Night
Introducing my son and wife to the cinematic masterpiece that is…
This movie is closer to anything that might happen during a zombie apocalypse than anything else you’ve ever watched.
If you haven’t seen it, put it in your queue.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
Watching
The wife and I are watching Infinite tonight on Paramount+.
First off, Mark Wahlberg, I’m a fan. I have enjoyed him in everything I’ve ever seen him in except for Pain and Gain (just a bad movie all around) and the M. Night Shyamalan movie The Happening, which I couldn’t finish. Not a comment on Wahlberg; it’s just probably Shyamalanβs worst movie.
A sci-fi, action adaption that examines the concept of reincarnation through remarkable visuals and well-established characters who need to use their memories and past learnt skills to ensure the future is protected from Infinites that seek to end all life on the planet.
imran (from IMDB)
I’m about thirty minutes in, and I’m getting a heavy Matrix/Wanted feel with a dash of Highlander.
Wahlberg plays Evan McCauley (IMDB has the last name as Michaels), and he’s immortal-ish. This is more immortal by way of reincarnation, retaining all former knowledge and skills. But it seems he needs a jumpstart.
He’s in a war, caught between two factions of immortals, and heβs apparently on the losing side.
One side The Believers want to protect humanity. The other side wants to end the world.
A tale as old as, well, a lot of sci-fi movie plots.
This all takes me back to Highlander. Not just the movie (or movies, I’ll suffer through the bad ones), but the series.
I loved the first movie, but the series with Adrian Paul was an absolute favorite of mine.
The first season was slow for me, but then came Joe Dawson.
The addition of Dawson and The Watchers added so much to the mythos of Highlander. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and I believe they ended Highlander: The Series on a good note.
I would love to see it rebooted, but I’m going to need Jim Byrnes back; to keep an eye on things.
Infinite was good. I’ll probably watch it again. I would rather see the storyline fleshed out in a series rather than one film. All in all, 7 out of 10 stars.
It was a bit rushed but still a good time for action fans, I think.
No spoilers.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Seegars
