When the Boss is Gone...

When the Boss is gone, everything goes wrong. Without fail. She left yesterday and I worked by myself today. Some of these things are just annoyances, but on top of the main drama today, it made today quite draining.

My first task of the day was to fax the previous day's report to HQ. Fax machine proceeded to blink all 7 lights at me and insist on being turned off and then on. Then it had to reconfigure itself for a few minutes. The second try, the fax went through without a hitch! *phew*

First customer of the day runs in and in a rush grabs some sauce jars and rushes to the till. Wants bubble wrap but I declined it. I'm glad I did. She was in too much of a hurry. I put a stack of packing paper on the counter to wrap her jars in but she insisted on doing it herself and proceeded to run out the door as soon as I handed her the receipt. Bizarre.

10 minutes later, my coworker came in and announced she was taking the only daily report paper away. She had noticed the night before that it was the last blank one available. Boss had not copied anymore for us and the copier...is temperamental. Coworker takes the paper to the college to get it copied to make it through the weekend and returns with them, then goes home.

Then the weird customers started trickling in. Usually one person in each group was strange or eager to chat with me. I usually don't mind that, but each one today was just odd. An overweight girl in hot pink leggings came in wanting a job application. Unfortunately, Boss did not print off anymore of those either.

Shipping company driver showed up. I was distressed, because that meant I would need to move my car. Turns out he parked in the middle of the parking lot and did not have a pallet for me. Unfortunately, our local drivers have a history of being...stupid...when it comes to being careful at my work. Youngish driver unloads three boxes onto a dolly and rolls them to the porch. Instead of using the ramp, he proceeds to try to pull the dolly up the lone step. I started getting concerned, but then, he gave another yank and a board from the step breaks off. He apparently took the hint and went around to the ramp. I open the door for him and he starts making chit chat with me, but not a word about the board. As soon as he was out the door I raced to the phone and called my boss, quite rattled that our porch step was no longer safe to step on.

More weirdos come in. Two creepy guys came in right after the porch incident. They did not help me calm down. I did not have a sample tray out and they wanted samples. I told them that I could get them one. "Well...I just wanted a sample. It wouldn't be ethical for me to ask you to get me one specifically when I'm not going to buy anything." After asking me some strange questions and making strange comments, they walked out the door.

A lady came in with a long spiel about wanting a donation. We hate donation requests.

Soon, Boss's husband's employee comes to fix the poor step. 2 minutes flat, it was done. *phew!*

The last customer of the day kept talking to me about random things (tropical fish and snorkeling) and I scooted him and his wife out the door right at 5pm.

I sighed a huge sigh of relief once the door was locked. Surely tomorrow will be better!