My Day

It all started when I first woke up to the sound of my pager going off. It went off five times in the space of an hour. Apparently this was the morning for everyone to freak about 'swine' flue and rather than drive themselves to the doctor, they called me in to do it for them. Paramedics are not taxi drivers...please don't treat us as such. And by the way....I wear gloves, masks and safety glasses for my protection, not yours. So if it makes you nervous and you ask me to take them off....please don't get offended when I refuse- and no, crying will not help- perhaps consider if you're sick enough to require Emergency Medical Services...as those who sincerely need us....don't give a crap what we look like.

Then when I finally got to the office (YB) all craziness was happening. I hate days like this when the weather is all screwed up...because it takes these guys FOREVER to get themselves sorted out. Some people show up for work, some don't and then get mad and I'm the one left to pick up the pieces of a shattered schedule. So we finally got everyone, well, most everyone, going in the right direction.

Enter Chaos: I ended up having some rather serious employee issues to handle. Two of which were team leaders who weren't, well, leading. Acting like 2 year olds is more like it. So in the course of dealing with them, one quit...not a surprise but still trying. I hate it when grown men act like small, spoiled children.

Business has been really tense recently anyway. The reason? Money and People...the two things it always seems to come down to. For starters we are busier than we have ever been. We have tons of invoices out there needing paid, lots of new ones coming in...in short we have no shortage of work. Our cash flow though sucks. One reason for this is that while job volume has increased, not all of our prices have. Which makes it tough since we've jumped from employing 15 to 30 in one season. So we've adjusted some of our prices and we are making cut backs to try and make it easier on us. Still, things are super tight. And the fact that some of these guys have this sense of entitlement ....they demand things rather than give us a chance to recognize their effort...something that doesn't go over well at all. We love to give our employees perks...but demanding it? Not so much.

And since when is it the employee's job to tell the Employer (that would be me) how to run the business? I'm the one who doesn't get paid, I'm the one paying them and all the bills, It's my freaking name on the door. I think that means I get to call the shots folks.... and if and when I want or need you to tell me how to do my job, I'll let you know. Thanks.

And it's only Wednesday.

On a brighter note, I had a really nice conversation with someone in the midst of all this craziness. It was great timing.




All Graphics Courtesy of Ennokni - "Daily Life"