My Week At Work

For the better part of the last month and a half, I've been feeling mixed towards my job. I fluctuated between enjoying my job then despising it as often as Adam Sandler makes crappy famedy movies these days. But no more. After all of that indecisiveness, I've made an executive decision; I've decided that I don't like my manager. In fact, I don't particularly like my job either. I bow to you all, as I join the rank of the millions of people who also dislike their jobs. Three cheers, hooray!

I've actually concluded my post-camping first week on a pretty high note, in spite of the series of unfortunate mess-ups that I've generated at work in just four work days:

Incident #1:
This particular incident happened directly as a result of camping. You see, I was scheduled for the morning shift starting at 11:00am, I did not expect to arrive home from Harrison lake until 1:00pm the earliest on that same day. Clearly, we have a bit of a problem on our hands.

The most sensible thing I could think to do in such a situation at the time was to call in sick around the time my shift started. So at 11:15, I call, waiting for Mia (whom I was suppose to share a shift with) to pick up. I get the answering machine. No worries, I try again. And again. And again. Each time I was greeted with the mechanical voice of the Studio's answering machine. With no alternative options in sight, I leave a message, explaining my unfortunate case of food poisoning which is inhibiting me from arriving at work. I try to put the problem out of my head, as there is nothing I could do to get to work.

I arrive back home to find a message for me from Jas through my sister; "Where the heck are you, you're suppose to be at work!" I decide not to call back because I'm supposed to be sick. I see Jas two days later, as anticipated, she inquired about my whereabouts on Monday. I recite to her my bad case of the food poisoning like I rehearsed.
She countered quickly, "But when I called your house, your sister told me you weren't home."
"Well that's because I spent the day at a friend's house. "
Jas looked at me with a raised eyebrow. She doesn't buy it. Mind you, I don't blame her, to an experienced manager like herself, my little bluff was probably as convincing as trying to tell her I'm related to a three-toed sloth.

I shrug it off, head home as usual and RPG my evening away.

Incident #2:
A woman from another branch was coming in Friday to evaluate me and two of my co-workers. I had stayed up late the previous night reading Snow Crash, so I get out of bed groggily and glare at my alarm clock, it was 8:45am. I had about half an hour before I leave for work, so I take my time and meander slowly around the house, in and out of the washroom then into the kitchen. I turn on an element to preheat for some scrambled eggs, before I threw a casual glance at the oven clock, the bright green digital numbers on the black screen reflected the time: 9:55. Holy crap. It happened again! My goddamned alarm clock malfunctioned again and messed up the time.

Needless to say, I was forced to call in work, and explain that I was going to be about twenty minutes late. On my evaluation day. I show up, then try my best to make up for it by taking initiative and being hyper attentive when my evaluator spoke. In the end though, I still did an average job.

I shrug it off, head to UBC and wander around for a couple of hours, then headed home and read some Snow Crash.

Incident #3:
So I'm sharing a shift with Mia, and we had an appointment coming up in about thirty minutes. The studio is empty save for the two of us, Mia's making phone calls, all the basic things that need to be done are done, and there doesn't seem to be a single customer within thirty square foot of the Studio. I figured I could probably read for ten minutes or so until the appointment time. I'm standing at the counter and reading about the Metaverse, when I heard foot steps coming from behind. I decide it's best that a customer doesn't see my reading at the counter, so I quickly put my book away as the person approached. I turn around and met the gaze of my manager.
"Oh hi Jas!" I greeted, astonished at her presence.
"What's this?" she asked , as she grabbed my book out of my hand, she took one look, her face went from stern to angry.
"You're reading a book!" she screeched, rather stating the obvious.
She then proceeded to spend the next ten, fifteen minutes lecturing me about how we don't get paid to stand around and read. I apologize, promise not to let it happen again with a finger crossed behind my back.


I guess I'm just pretty laid back about my work, while my manager's strung up so tight that I wouldn't be surprised if she had a wedgie half the time. I'm considering starting the hunt again. I'll probably want to keep this job around, however, for both the income and the experience/credentials. Also, I feel that one of the major reasons I don't enjoy work is because of how much my attitude differs from my manager's. Maybe my job could be more enjoyable if I worked at the Brentwood branch. Though it would make for an awkward conversation explaining to my boss that I want to transfer to a farther branch because I don't like her.