Well it seems that my team members won’t be the only ones getting their hours cut this winter. Today was a rotten day at work. We had another storm front go thorough last night that made being out on the roads today extremely dangerous. People in ditches, icy roads, strong wind…the whole nine yards. Bad weather means no shoppers. One of the big problems in my department is that it is made up of experienced team members and that means 2 things. First they are quite expensive, second, they are too comfortable with their jobs. Those are both advantages when the economy is good but when it’s bad (as it is now), it creates a lot of tension when I have to make ends meet for my department. My job is to make money and I have to balance profit with expenses. When there is no money coming in, I have to make cuts and those cuts are always made first to payroll by trimming hours which tends to piss people off. Our general managers must operate in the same way so today it cost less to keep a full time team member there and send me home. I lost 6 hours today and I’m only scheduled for 40 hours this week (normally it’s between 46 and 52 hours). I’ll be able to make up some of the time I lost today but thank God, I have a small reserve of cash right now to help make ends meet. Perhaps it’s time to start looking at my own budget since I’ve not really had to worry about it this year. It’s amazing how being single keeps you financially fluid. It just costs less to live when there isn’t someone else around.
Tomorrow I head out to the cottage after work for a turkey dinner with the folks and Sarah and Brian. Should be a good time and then a day off on Tuesday. There’s a pretty good chance that the Christmas decor will come down on Tuesday. I just don’t see where I will have the extra time to fuss with it on the weekend. The house needs to be cleaned anyhow. Well enough for tonight. Bye.
