Back at the radio station for my two-week broadcasting injection. As soon as I'm done checking my favorite blogs and writing this I will be looking for a new radio job. I don't want anything spectacular, just something down in Cincinnati. I want to produce more than anything, but I would take any on-air position as well.
Good things are coming, I can feel it in my bones. Maybe not for a couple months, but it's coming. I feel like this is going to be a good year for me because I really have the rest of my life to decide what I want to do with it and my head is racing with opportunity. Of course there is the possibility that a little family may pop up in the next decade (mostly because if I have kids I don't want to be 40 raising infants).
My feelings are very torn about working for Skyline again, mostly just at this particular store. I really enjoy being a manager when I'm the only manager on duty because I have fun, the staff underneath me has fun, and we run the store the way it should be run: efficiently. I like all the employees for the most part, and I get along with everyone very well. I've been told by several people that they enjoy working with me as their manager because I help them and direct them, the way a manager should. Customers appreciate my courtesy and I do a pretty good job with keeping them satisfied. The problem is the upper management.
My GM couldn't give two shits less about his job, made apparent by the way he conducts himself as the on-duty manager. I will walk in the door at 3pm and he (with the rest of the staff) will be sitting down at the break table, all the while the steam table is a mess, nothing is stocked, and he doesn't make sure those staff members who are off after lunch do their own out-work. Also from a customers' stand-point, this makes the store look like it's poorly ran if everyone is sitting down when you walk in the door. I'm left with the mess and the responsibility to deal with it. So while his behavior sets the course, his assistant does the same thing and the rest of the staff follows. That makes it incredibly difficult for me to say "this needs to change" because I'm just an hourly shift supervisor having nothing to do with setting the standards for the rest of the store. This is not to say that everyone would be working like dogs without breaks to the end of their shift no questions asked if I set the rules, this is to say that my boss is making a large mistake in leading his store in this direction. It's just irresponsible and careless, and in my eyes incredibly demeaning to the name of Skyline Chili. I'm not all gung-ho about Skyline Chili, nor would I care if the place burned down and went bankrupt tomorrow, but when you come to work there are certain expectations of you. And if you can't muster enough work ethic to do the job, leave it to someone else who will. Skyline has the reputation of "Cincinnati Chili" and it gives me a little pride to be part of something that grew from the city I grew up in. I could run that store and generate so many more sales than this guy, and it almost breaks my heart to see someone give up like that. He's cheap, so he won't cough up the corporate dough to fix the things that are broken, which cuts into the efficiency and inevitably makes the product suffer. He doesn't make sure new-hires are properly trained, so the majority of the production staff doesn't know how to make food the way it's supposed to be made (every menu item has a specific ouncage of ingredients, the utensils are to be held a certain way, and when customers come to Skyline they expect continuity in the product). It's not hard to make food correctly, it's just hard to re-train someone how to do it right after they have been doing it wrong for so long. I would love to re-train everyone on food and have them read the manual and/or watch the videos. I know they're boring and awful, but they help a lot just by reiterating the proper procedures. When I was promoted to management at my last store I had to watch all the videos (serving, food production, and drive-thru), re-take all the tests, and I had to go through a whole 'nother interview process. I didn't mind it and it actually strengthened my food-making and customer service skills. It also didn't take long (maybe a day) and it prepared me to teach these skills to the other employees. If we could get everyone to watch those videos I think sales and the staff morale would noticeably increase. I also think that if my GM established these requirements and put more effort into his work he could regain some respect he has obviously lost from his staff.
But who am I to say anything? I'm afraid I wouldn't be taken seriously and would come off as condascending. I try not to think of myself as 'better' than any other human being by giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I feel this store is doomed for failure if some things don't change. Should I talk to him? Should I talk to anyone? Or should I just put up with it and stay on course with finding a new job?
I feel pretty good right now, thanks to my last dose of aderol. Can you believe they prescribe this stuff to kids with ADD and ADHD?! I hate the FDA. They will approve ANYTHING if they can get a buck out of it and get their name on it. There's a diet pill commercial hosted by that one chick who lost a bunch of weight a while back, and one of her lines kills me.. "I trust it because it's FDA approved." THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING! It just means they read the product description and gave it a thumbs-up because the recommended dose doesn't seem deadly. Sure! Give overweight Bob heart medicine for his palpitations! Don't encourage a healthy lifestyle and give Bob a real chance to live into his prime, the FDA won't make any money that way! They're not advocates of health, they're advocates of substance abuse and bad habits. Ugh.
SO about a little over a year ago Joey was driving my car. He accidentally hit a curb and lost the wheel cover for my right front tire. I got a little agitated with him because I entrusted him with my brand-new vehicle, but it was really just a cosmetic detail that could easily be looked over. Why else do I need a wheel cover than to match the other three? None whatsoever. So two weeks ago I came home from work and Joey says "You wouldn't believe what I found leaning against the front door when I got home." He pointed down and there leaning against the wall was a wheel cover to a VW! We went outside to see if it would, in fact, match the others and wouldn't you know... it matched! We sat in the living room scratching our heads for a good half hour wondering where it came from and we still don't know today. We have been making up stories about who could have left it and their motives behind it, but of course they are all pretty preposterous and we're OK with leavning it a complete mystery. I took my car in for its 30,000 mile check-up last Wednesday and I told the service lady my story. She too was completely taken aback, asking all the appropriate questions that Joey and I asked ourselves within that first half hour of our discovery. She and my dad like to believe it was my guardian angel. I like to believe it was the guy upstairs who I've never seen and drives a VW-GTi, which is basically the same car. Maybe he has a relative that owned or he owned another VW and just happened to have a spare part and saw that I needed it? Maybe it's the girl, who is friends with my neighbor Corey, who also drives a VW? Maybe my car has a radio transmitter that sends out a certain frequency to its parts, causing them to "come alive" if separated, and it just took this long for it to roll home? That last one is much cooler than the other possible scenarios... I think I'll stick with that one.
Rachelle has hired me to design the props for her winter color-guard performance this season. It's kind-of exciting because I've never designed anything on such a large scale for so many people to see. I've been getting crafty lately, so it's really pulling out my creativity. Even though I used the album art for a reference and basically copied most of the lettering, I still feel like I can call it my own because I'm putting the effort into piecing it together. I am my mother's daughter. I wouldn't even mind becoming a designer like she was. Maybe not graphics on a computer (to me, it almost takes away the personal touch of the artist), but rather on a physical canvas for home decor like framed paintings, furniture detailing and murals. I would even love being an interior designer. Why do I have to be good at so many things?! It gives me limitless opportunities but makes it difficult to focus on just one thing! Have you ever met someone who complained that they were good at too many things? I haven't... I usually encounter more of the exact opposite, people not able to pin-point anything they're good at. Maybe I'm just that open minded that I can see myself filling any position successfully? I don't want to seem full of myself, I'm just confident in my skills. It's weird how motivation perpetuates itself. You get good at doing something, which motivates you to do more, which increases your skills, which continues to motivate you to do more and so on. Maybe I should become a motivational speaker? hahaha... that would be the day.
This is becoming entirely too long, but I can't seem to stop getting good thoughts. It's my blog, I say what I want! But seriously, I'm out.
peace and opportunity loom
