Has The Time Come?

Some days you feel like you are being forced backwards on to the edge of the cliff. Even if its ultimately for your own good you rarely appreciate it.

I’m a snap decision kind of girl so this backing gently towards the summit doesn’t make me comfortable.

I’ll start by saying I love my job.

Being the concierge, chef’s assistant, occasional activities assistant and sometime night security Jill of all trades suits me just fine. As do my hours. Hospitality without working any weekends.

That being said there have been monumental changes over the past few months that have made me re-evaluate how I feel about my job.

I am a massive forward projectionist and this isn’t always a good thing.

My Manager, Mr has it altogether has left the company leaving in his wake as yet no new manager to take over. This worries me going in to the long haul shifts of summer. It means that we may get stuck with more visits from the company owner than are good for anyone.

Mr Company owner is a born meddler. He can’t help but stick his nose in stuff that he has no idea about. Whenever he appears all of our planning goes out the window. It’s hard to keep a leash on him because he is one of those people who must stick his fingers in everyone’s pie.

In terms of food production, we have a count. All prep work comes with a number. The number of clients + the number of instructors on site + the type of food being prepped + 20% overs on the just in case scenario. And that’s the mass produced. Add to this the number of adult visitors in camp who get specialized meals five times a day and add two extra again on the just in case scenario.  

When the Company owner appears all of it goes out the window as he lavishly hands out three of four of an item when the portion size is one of that item and pretty soon it adds up to not enough items to feed the group. This of course leads to screaming, tantrums and recriminations about us not being prepared.

Were we to over prep then we’d be left with so many overs the wastage would be off the charts again leading to screaming and recrimination.

In fact, the Company Owner usually does this meddling at head office, which is why I work on the southern campus. With no manager the likely hood of his turning up on a daily basis like a ragged superhero could well be the new reality.

So one step closer to the edge.

Step two, our amazing beyond brilliant night security lady has left the company and is off overseas for four months. Which means having to train yet another person to do the job or what most likely will happen, I’ll get called on to do nights and days. We finally found a great night person who does her job well and is always on time. In the past our night staff have been less than punctual, sometimes just outright not present and after a thirteen hour shift I have been called to do another ten hours straight up. And I must say “I’m getting too old for that shit.”

Shuffling closer now…. And another step.

Our staff turnover is quite high. Given that we’ve been in a client drought this year I can’t blame them. Not having any work and therefore no pay for months on end, well, people get jack of that and leave in droves. Which leads to a bunch of barely trained people coming in each term.

New staff shit us to tears. Because they are trained at head office where there is always a glut of extra staff on hand they come down to us expecting to have an easy day. We run skeleton staff most of the time so its everyone in for the long haul. It’s just the way we have always had to do things. Getting people up to speed whilst handling large quantities of children can be stressful enough when everything goes to plan. But insert the first two steps and you’ll see why this step is a double leap.

And with my heels almost to the drop off I find that at my time of life I really have trouble being gracious and enthusiastic when I see my friends all jetting off on exotic holidays and here I am stuck in a job that doesn’t pay me well to start with and is reliant on the whims of the flim flam man in charge.

 By rights it all should add up to me wanting to get out of this job and into something that pays the bills every week, that allows me to earn the money I am actually entitled to and has a roster that isn’t a state secret.

So why the hesitation you may ask?

Why don’t I turn around and take that solid leap off the edge and free fall?

Because as I said I love my job. I love working at what I do, I loathe the idea of being on some split shifted nightmare roster that sees me free on Tuesdays. Who the fuck else is free on Tuesdays?

The next few weeks will decide me one way or another.