Gotta Have Fun

Fun is fundamental.

There is no way around it.

You absolutely must

have fun. Without fun,

there is no enthusiasm.

Without enthusiasm,

there is no energy.

~Doug Hall

 

.... With no energy, nothing happens!

 

Well, I was dreading this day all week because I knew that they were sending me another supervisor from another store to train and I hate training people. I hate having to talk all day and usually the person coming to be trained hates it even more than I do. I went to bed before midnight for a change last night and woke up feeling every bit as tired, if not more so, than when I went to bed. I think I even worry in my sleep. But I was determined to get to work early and have at least half an hour to myself before my guest or guests arrived ( I had no clue who was coming). Of course, that didn’t happen because when I went out to my car this morning and went to start it, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. So, I naturally assumed the obvious, that I had left my lights on, and the car was dead even though Dayna told me that the lights turn out by themselves. After killing my battery in this manner far more times that I care to admit (and you’d never believe me if I told you how many) I was pretty sure this was the case. So, I started looking around for jumper cables, finding none ( I know I had them... with my history, how could I not!) I started looking for that little battery charger that I used to carry around in my old car). Found that, but it was dead and I couldn’t find the charger for that either (see a pattern developing here?) So I called work and told them I’d be late and told them to apologize to the person I was to be training and I would be there as soon as I could. I went back inside and was deciding if I should ask Dayna to drive me to work, or call AAA and wait for them to come, and I noticed a key on the kitchen counter. My key. My car wasn’t dead, I had the wrong key. Keyless ignition. *sigh* So happy I hadn’t called AAA. Probably should have gone back to bed right then and there. I was only 10 minutes late for work. The woman from the other store was waiting for me. She was very nice, knew her stuff, really didn’t need training at all, but we went through the motions. I was able to show her a few things and shared a few “tricks”. I was tremendously distracted for several reasons all day though. I took a few personal phone calls during the day, I started sentences, lost my train of thought and didn’t finish them.... basically, I was pretty much a disaster. She came from a store where one of my favorite managers now works, and I did explain and apologize to her for my distractions and at lunch time I asked her, “You’re not going to go back and tell George that I’m a nutcase, are you?” She assured me that she was not and told me, “He’d never believe me anyway. He sings your praises. He loves you.” Huge sigh of relief! Although, I argued with George all the time because he believes that animals don’t have souls and don’t go to heaven, I loved him anyway! During the course of the day, I reaffirmed what I had known all along, that I am successful in my job because of several circumstances... I have an amazing “team”, without them nothing would work (pretty much what all of the other stores are experiencing.... nothing works!), I love and respect them and vice versa, I have “trained” our management to give us more coverage in the shoe department than is deemed necessary by the idiots in corporate, and apparently I have a bigger stockroom than other stores... all of these factors allow us to make our manager look really really good (not that he isn’t really, really good anyway.... because he is!) and the downside is that they seem to think that I know more than other shoe supervisors and can fix other shoe departments (which I don’t and I can’t) and it rewards me with more work which I am not compensated for. (someone owes me lunch, at least!!)

So, I gave this woman my cell phone number, told her to call me if she needs anything, told her I would stop in and talk to George and that I would come and work with her for a day and get everything straightened out and she could take it from there if they would allow me to. She was on her way out when she stopped and said “My managers asked me to ask one more question. How do you make this FUN?” I couldn’t really answer that, but I have to say that I pleased to be asked the question....I was pleased because it means that my manager, other store managers and probably even the district manager knows that in our store...we have fun. I don’t think you can teach fun. How could I say.... we sing, we dance, we throw things (apologies to Jason Mraz...but we throw things, we don’t steal things... well, some of us do...but they get fired and led out in handcuffs by policemen), we laugh, we hug, some days we cry, we take pictures, we hand cell phones to customers and have them take pictures of us, we keep chocolate hidden in the stock room, we make games out of things, we have a competitive streak, we shoot rubber bands, we play tricks on people, we shop during working hours, we don’t call in sick...(we call Torrie and Torrie fixes it when possible), we bend rules, and most importantly.... we. are. family. So, all in all I guess it was worth going to work today. Oh...and before she left, I dug through my locker and pulled out a pad of post-it notes, shaped like a cat head. They had been in my locker since George left years ago. I bought them to annoy him. He HATED post-it notes. I LOVE post-it notes. I use them EVERYWHERE. Drove George out of his mind. So, I gave them to her... and told her that they were FUN. I told her to use them religiously. I told her to write “Meow, meow” on one and stick it on George’s door (story for another day). I hope she will. And then I hope she won’t call me and tell me that she is now unemployed. (sometimes my idea of fun can cause problems!)

Done