Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Negative Niall.

Basically I've been called this ever since the store at the back of Hughes and Hughes in the Pavilions opened up because we had a really happy-go-lucky manager and I'd always try to make her see the flaws in her buzz of bliss. I don't know why I did it really. I guess it just comes down to the simple fact that if something's not right, it needs to be corrected. So whatever. I don't think I'm that negative at all in work. Sure, I'll point out if a customer is a dick, and I'm not as braindead as some of the people who "are only making stupid mistakes because they're enjoying themselves", but fuck, I'm not a negative person. I do have the laugh with customers if they're nice, but I'm all about the mutual respect buzz, so if someone isn't lubing me up with the uplifting and gentle auro I deserve, they're not going to enter a world of white clouds and roses with me. Fair enough.

I remember one day in particular that I was in an extremely bad mood, and it was because I was working on my dad's 5th death anniversary. I didn't really want to tell my manager about it and ask for the day off because I thought I could weather it and it kind of pisses me off when people take a day off over stuff like that or go home sick when they're clearly not, so I didn't want to do that. I'm not saying that it's bad to take some time off for grievance, but at this stage in my life it's just another day. It just so happens that the date has some meaning behind it. Basically, on that day I kept quiet for my whole shift only talking when I needed to and nodding or shaking my head if that was feasible. I can't really explain, it was just as if I couldn't have been bothered being there and didn't want to give my full dedication or something. There were a good few idiots in that day and it really made my day a lot worse than it was already going and up until a couple of days ago I can safely say that it was the only "bad" day I've had.

Yesterday got on my tits a bit. Nobody's doing any of the simple things that take 2 seconds to do and generally make things 100 times easier, like rinsing the milk jugs after they're used, or changing the brewed coffee once the timer goes off, or bringing the shot glasses that are too hot to hold into the back so they can be cleaned and cooled so that when the replacement shot glasses get too hot, there's other ones there, or getting more take away cups when it's quiet and it looks like they might run out if there's another busy little burst of customers. Stuff like that. Stuff that annoys me anyway because I have to do it ALL THE TIME, but it's annoying me a shitload more because we're so fucking busy in the run up to Christmas. One of the lads who was looking like he was going to get the supervisor position ahead of me (before nobody got it because of labour cutbacks) is especially destroying my will to live, one tiny bit after another. He has this whole public humiliation buzz that's both failing hard and completely ridiculous. The lad's a bit of a flirt with ANY GIRL THAT HE TALKS TO. Anyone. You could be Rocky from "Mask" and as long as you have a gap between your legs he'll try it on. What he doesn't like is anyone else ever having the buzz with another customer when he isn't. I was chatting away to a couple of middle aged women just because they were pretty sound and bantering away and he just cuts in and goes "It's a shame he's a gayer ladies, isn't it?" and walks off. WTF. I kind of scanned the place to gather myself to see if I was in fact gay, realised I wasn't, and then I noticed one of the women looking at me with the "how the fuck does that guy work here?" eyes, and i met her with the "I hope his house burns down on Christmas day and all of his family is wiped out along with everybody else that shares his blood" eyes. He also does this to everybody, and that's only the tip of the iceberg but sure if I was to go into it I wouldn't have fingertips left. It really does blow that it's so hard to fire people from Starbucks because this moogy should have been out on his ear a long time ago.

So with all this, and the store being busy, I've been a whopper grump. Especially seeing as Christmas is a time for family and "reflecting on your life". My family has been shattered for the past 5 years with repressed grief from myself and my brother caused by way too much grief being put on the table from my mam, and my youngest brother not really being old enough at the time to have understood what was going on, so he's just there, getting caught up in the middle of all of us not getting along with each other. As for reflecting on my life, I'm working a really badly paid job and I've no idea what I want to do in college next year. My boss kind of noticed me being a bit shitty over the past few days, so he decided to give me a week off. That was really nice. Thumbs up. Merry Christmas.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Babyccino Update

I sold/made THREE BABYCCINOS the other day. All in the space of half an hour. It blew my fucking mind. High fives were had. I haven't sold or made one since.