Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Further on Shift Supervisordom
So, yesterday. Yesterday was bizarre and stressful and fun and tiring and bad and silly, not necessarily in that order. I suppose "unexpected" is the best word to describe it.
I woke up around 8.30 when Micki borrowed my car to go to a quick doctor's appointment; supposedly some maintenance men were supposed to perform a fire inspection at nine, and I had to be up anyway. My shift supervisor panel interview was at noon; my grand plan was to drop by Starbucks at 10.30 to pick up Jon's culinary masterpiece (a caramel cheesecake), coffee and supplies for the tasting, get some coffee for myself, then drive all the way up to the North Austin Starbucks location where my panel was being held. I planned to have thirty minutes there to set up my stuff and prepare myself for the interview.
The thing is, I was already worked up pretty badly about this. Rationally, I knew I had nothing to be concerned about: I'm good, I know my stuff; but frankly, my shift supervisor training has been rather rushed, and further, I don't do well in panel interrogations or any sort of oral exam, really. If there is one place where I have difficulty with words, it's in an oral exam or interview.
When the clock hit 10 and Micki still had not returned with my car, I called her and got her voicemail. As the clock hit 10.30 and Micki had not returned my call or my car, I began to freak out. And as the clock hit 11, I realised that I'd have to take alternate action.
I called Jon, who answered the phone with, "Where are you?" He had dropped off the cheesecake and was at the store, and everyone, apparently, was wondering the same thing. Trying not to burst into tears, I explained the situation and Jon offered to pick me up. I thanked him profusely.
Then I crumpled to the floor and had complete breakdown for a good ten minutes. This was actually a good thing; otherwise, I'd have had a sobbing heap moment in Jon's car.
Fifteen minutes after I called him, Jon showed up. Micki was still missing. At this point I was pondering how I could find out if there had been any accidents in the South Austin area involving a 1997 silver Saturn. We sped over to Starbucks to pick up my stuff. I was mostly silent the whole way, lest I hyperventilate.
Halfway there, Micki called with profuse apologies. I was just glad she's alive, so that I could have the opportunity to kill her when I got home. Turned out she thought I just had to go to work at twelve, although I had explained to her the panel and my plans to leave by 10.30. I told her she'd better be ready to pick me up in a couple of hours. I think yesterday is the only time I have been really and truly angry with her.
My wonderful co-workers had all the stuff ready for me when I arrived: coffee ground and measured, cheesecake on a platter and ready to go. They wished me good luck; I thanked them feebly, still trying not to freak out much more than I already had.
Jon took me to the Anderson and Rockwood store; I think my stressed-out display made him a bit nervous, as he'd never really seen me in Chicken Little mode ("The sky is falling! Aaah! Freaking ooooout!") and he kept repeating in his silly Scottish accent that I was ready for it, that I knew everything and would do just fine.
It turned out that I was still ten minutes early, which gave me enough time to set up. Jon was kind enough to stay with me till I had to go into the back room, which prevented any private stress time -- but I also suspect he stayed to bask in all the compliments he received for his culinary skills.
The panel itself wasn't as bad as I expected. There were things that I wish could have gone better (my coffee tasting, for example, left much to be desired, but I blame that on the fact that the managers were discussing e-mails and such while I was trying to talk about Guatemala Antigua, and this only served to fluster me further). I babbled, a lot. A whole lot. Far more than could have possibly been necessary (a miniscule explanation turned into a five-minute babblefest). Once or twice I think I bordered complete incoherent rambling, and a time or two I heard myself saying things that I really shouldn't have said (with regard to work relationships, I believe I used the phrase "dysfunctional family").
I had a (written!) coffee knowledge test afterwards (pff... what a joke... by far the easiest part of the ordeal) and called Micki to pick me up. By then I didn't care so much about the events of the morning: I was just glad to have it over with.
An hour later I was clocking in early for a full shift of work. All I really wanted to do was go home and take a nice long nap, but no. I was reeeeeally out of it all during my closing shift, even after my manager got the call that I had passed my panel (yay!). I kept knocking things over and getting distracted and tongue-tied. Jon was highly amused ("I've never seen you like this before... it's great!") and I couldn't help laughing at my ridiculous state.
Of course, the only thing to do when one is in the post-freak-out state is take advantage of the situation: karaoke, anyone? Though as I mentioned last night, they never got round to my song, since even as weird as I was acting, booze was still a requirement for putting my name on the request list.
So that was my day. Now, with the panel done, I can dedicate my frazzled nerves to worrying about my first closing shift next Monday. It'll be an experience, I'm sure. Needless to say, Jon will be keeping his cell phone on that night.
| 9:47 PM |
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