Facebook is really, really depressing.
Really, really, really depressing. I mean, yeah, it's great being able to see all my friends' status updates and share pictures and trade fun games and meet friends of friends and show off your favorite quotes and all this stuff. However, if you're twenty-five, still working on your BS (your first one), living at home, working as an assistant manager at Domino's, single with absolutely no prospects, overweight, and pretty pathetic overall, it can be depressing to see all your friends from high school doing graduate work and getting married.
Now, I pretty much got over the whole social yardstick thing. It's my life, I can't really compare it to everyone else - we each have our own path to travel through life, that kind of stuff. Whatever.
Of course, that doesn't make me feel that much better when I'm sitting in Discrete I and Alana is teaching the class across the hall.
Moving on.
I registered for summer classes. I think I'm taking ten hours over both summer sessions - six in two three hour classes, then four in a three hour course with one hour lab. Good stuff - Philosphy, Chem II, Chem II Lab, and Prob/Stat. Shouldn't be too hard.
Stopped by Wal-Mart and saw Rebecca earlier. That was really cool, we hadn't seen each other in over a week. She might have seemed happy to see me? I'm hesitant to actually saw that, self-esteem and our situation and all, but I think so?
I've been kinda depressed lately, but I think that might have snapped me out of it. Maybe, we'll see. Also, I keep staying awake for stupid long periods of time without any preparation or real reason. I'm not sure why.
I think Bill's probably leaving near the end of the summer, and Josh isn't going to be working very much after the spring semester ends. Sadness. Jaoquin is quitting, 'cause we're not really giving him any shifts. Of course, he had this annoying tendency to not be able to work the shifts he was given, so I don't feel too bad about it.
"Weird Al" Yankovic -- Dare to be Stupid
2008-03-16
Can't stop loving you
Talked to Rebecca last night. She mentioned that yes, she hearts her boyfriend (through an anecdote about something at work). However, she did give me what I feel is final, incontrovertible proof that she doesn't think I'm a creepy bastard that's stalking her. We were talking as I was about to leave, and she kind of mentioned that I was in one of her dreams. She couldn't remember what it was about or anything. However, I submit that under no circumstances would you tell someone that if you fear they are a creepy bastard that's stalking you.
Moving on.
Only two more shifts in my eleven shift marathon. Today's is going to be particularly interesting, since it's basically just me and Trey inside during a Sunday night, with all the kids coming back from Spring Break. Q said it's steady at best, trending towards slow, so that's a decent sign, though I think it'll get busier as the day goes on. Of course, we did manage to survive Saturday night doing about 25, so we'll see how it goes. Monday is going to be easy-peasy, with Sandra as my closing insider. The only negative part is that we're going to be doing the 3.99 medium 1 toppings again. Of course, we didn't really advertise it this time, so we'll see how that goes.
Vinylworxx -- Stop Loving You
Moving on.
Only two more shifts in my eleven shift marathon. Today's is going to be particularly interesting, since it's basically just me and Trey inside during a Sunday night, with all the kids coming back from Spring Break. Q said it's steady at best, trending towards slow, so that's a decent sign, though I think it'll get busier as the day goes on. Of course, we did manage to survive Saturday night doing about 25, so we'll see how it goes. Monday is going to be easy-peasy, with Sandra as my closing insider. The only negative part is that we're going to be doing the 3.99 medium 1 toppings again. Of course, we didn't really advertise it this time, so we'll see how that goes.
Vinylworxx -- Stop Loving You
2008-03-11
Finally got to get into it with a customer today about the whole "You Got 30 Minutes" thing. First, I do think it's really, really dumb for them to be using that. I mean, yeah, the vast majority of our orders do get to our customers within thirty minutes, and I don't think it's necessarily wrong to play up that; the problem, however, is that we did that 30 minute guarantee in the 80's, so *anything* with Domino's and the number 30 is automatically going to make that connection in people's minds. It's pretty unfortunate. Anyway. He also got pretty mad that our drivers don't carry parmesan or crushed red peppers on them. Seriously, though. I mean, if you can't eat something without a given condiment, that condiment has ceased to be a condiment, and is instead an integral part of the dish. Well, those aren't. Deal with it. We do charge for them. Think that's ridiculous? Shop somewhere else. Customer's choice, and all that.
So the guy placed his order, and I told him at the end of the order that it'd be 35-45 minutes. The guy calls back at thirty-one minutes, almost exactly. I know this because when someone calls back that's already placed an order, when you bring up that phone line, it says when they ordered. There's that, and there's the clock right next to that, so it's pretty easy to see how long ago they ordered. So yeah, he called back right at thirty-one, thirty-two minutes. He was calling about our 30-minute guarantee, which we don't have. He kept bringing up the commercial, which just says "You've got 30 minutes". It doesn't say "You've got 30 minutes, or it's free." It definitely doesn't say "You've got 30 minutes (or it's free)". It says "You've got 30 minutes (or keep waiting)". Again, I'm not defending the fact that they're almost definitely playing to the fact that we did have one, a long, LONG time ago, and people are definitely going to make that association whenever they see the 30. Whatever. But it's there, and we're doing the best we can.
So yeah, the guy calls at 32 minutes, and I explain about it being an estimate, not a guarantee. We go through this several times.
He then calls back another twenty-ish minutes later, to make another complaint. Basically, (a) his pizza took 40 minutes, and (b) the driver didn't have any peppers or cheese on him. I would have had a little more sympathy for this complaint if we hadn't already discussed (a) when he called back ONE MINUTE after thirty minutes, and I told him that it'd be 35-45 minutes for delivery. And (b), well, there's not a lot I can do about (b). It's how our franchise operates. I can't really defend it.
Moving on.
Four of
Hmm. I got caught up playing around on Facebook, and I'm really not sure where I was going with that "Four of" thing. I'll get back to that, if possible.
Oh! I remember. Maybe. I might have been going to say something about I've done four of my eleven consecutive shifts? Probably not. I can't see me saying "Four of" as the beginning of that sentence. Anyway.
So yeah, been dealing with a lot of ex's lately, primarily through Facebook. I let it do the 'automatic friend finder thing' with my gmail inbox, and that brought up Chelsea and Lilie, got to see them. Oh, and Terri. Saw Mindy while going through some photos to upload, and Carrie, and Nikki. Ashley ordered pizza last night.
So the guy placed his order, and I told him at the end of the order that it'd be 35-45 minutes. The guy calls back at thirty-one minutes, almost exactly. I know this because when someone calls back that's already placed an order, when you bring up that phone line, it says when they ordered. There's that, and there's the clock right next to that, so it's pretty easy to see how long ago they ordered. So yeah, he called back right at thirty-one, thirty-two minutes. He was calling about our 30-minute guarantee, which we don't have. He kept bringing up the commercial, which just says "You've got 30 minutes". It doesn't say "You've got 30 minutes, or it's free." It definitely doesn't say "You've got 30 minutes (or it's free)". It says "You've got 30 minutes (or keep waiting)". Again, I'm not defending the fact that they're almost definitely playing to the fact that we did have one, a long, LONG time ago, and people are definitely going to make that association whenever they see the 30. Whatever. But it's there, and we're doing the best we can.
So yeah, the guy calls at 32 minutes, and I explain about it being an estimate, not a guarantee. We go through this several times.
He then calls back another twenty-ish minutes later, to make another complaint. Basically, (a) his pizza took 40 minutes, and (b) the driver didn't have any peppers or cheese on him. I would have had a little more sympathy for this complaint if we hadn't already discussed (a) when he called back ONE MINUTE after thirty minutes, and I told him that it'd be 35-45 minutes for delivery. And (b), well, there's not a lot I can do about (b). It's how our franchise operates. I can't really defend it.
Moving on.
Four of
Hmm. I got caught up playing around on Facebook, and I'm really not sure where I was going with that "Four of" thing. I'll get back to that, if possible.
Oh! I remember. Maybe. I might have been going to say something about I've done four of my eleven consecutive shifts? Probably not. I can't see me saying "Four of" as the beginning of that sentence. Anyway.
So yeah, been dealing with a lot of ex's lately, primarily through Facebook. I let it do the 'automatic friend finder thing' with my gmail inbox, and that brought up Chelsea and Lilie, got to see them. Oh, and Terri. Saw Mindy while going through some photos to upload, and Carrie, and Nikki. Ashley ordered pizza last night.
2008-03-10
We journey over oceans, five fathoms deep
So. Good times.
I'm doing eleven 5-C shifts in a row (by choice, I'm not whining or anything, just recapping), and I just finished up #3. Eight to go.
Work's been kinda blah lately. Julianne quit, no big surprises there. She called in a *lot*. She was kinda worthless, but she could at least answer phones. Or something. I have to work with Trey a lot this week while Bill's on vacation. Good times. Oh, almost went into it with Dylan a few nights ago. So we have this dual-layer heat rack. They each have a switch to turn it off, but the one on the bottom has been redone as a master cut-off switch with an indicator light. That way, you only have to switch one switch to turn it on, and you can see the light to make sure it's on. Long story short, when you're closing, you turn off the main switch, and leave the other switch on. I keep having to tell him not to turn off the top switch. It's such a stupid little thing. Seriously. It should have just taken one "Hey, don't turn off this top switch" and that should have been the end of it. Of course, it wasn't. I've said something to him about it three times, Bill's brought it up at least once. Other than that, whatever.
Went to Wal-Mart the other night, talked to Rebecca. Turns out she's probably moving home this summer when her lease is up. Home is Rockport, a good distance away. It kind of puts an end to the whole thing. Sandra said something like "Well, you'd better make your move! Take her to lunch or something." I think she was just being nice. They do humor me. Anyway. Yeah, it's kind of depressing. Of course, I'm fully aware how pathetic it is for me to be depressed that some girl I've had a crush on for a while now is moving away. I mean, I refer to her as my 'pretend girlfriend' and everything, because it's not like there's ever a chance of something happening. I haven't lost all touch with reality. Whatever. So yeah, wa wa wa, I'm a big pathetic loser, whatever. Of course, it would be the next day that I go through facebook's friend-finder thing and end up with some slight contact with Lilie again. I mean, it's not like I'm still in love with her or anything, but she was the last person I had anything with, so when things seem kinda bad, and then to have that shoved in my face (or whatever), yeah. Good times.
Of course, it's fun to go into a negative emotion spiral, start taking things in the worst possible light. I'm twenty-five, living at home, working at a pizza place. Then start feeling as down as possible about various facets of life. I'll work on that later.
Vanessa Carlton -- Home
I'm doing eleven 5-C shifts in a row (by choice, I'm not whining or anything, just recapping), and I just finished up #3. Eight to go.
Work's been kinda blah lately. Julianne quit, no big surprises there. She called in a *lot*. She was kinda worthless, but she could at least answer phones. Or something. I have to work with Trey a lot this week while Bill's on vacation. Good times. Oh, almost went into it with Dylan a few nights ago. So we have this dual-layer heat rack. They each have a switch to turn it off, but the one on the bottom has been redone as a master cut-off switch with an indicator light. That way, you only have to switch one switch to turn it on, and you can see the light to make sure it's on. Long story short, when you're closing, you turn off the main switch, and leave the other switch on. I keep having to tell him not to turn off the top switch. It's such a stupid little thing. Seriously. It should have just taken one "Hey, don't turn off this top switch" and that should have been the end of it. Of course, it wasn't. I've said something to him about it three times, Bill's brought it up at least once. Other than that, whatever.
Went to Wal-Mart the other night, talked to Rebecca. Turns out she's probably moving home this summer when her lease is up. Home is Rockport, a good distance away. It kind of puts an end to the whole thing. Sandra said something like "Well, you'd better make your move! Take her to lunch or something." I think she was just being nice. They do humor me. Anyway. Yeah, it's kind of depressing. Of course, I'm fully aware how pathetic it is for me to be depressed that some girl I've had a crush on for a while now is moving away. I mean, I refer to her as my 'pretend girlfriend' and everything, because it's not like there's ever a chance of something happening. I haven't lost all touch with reality. Whatever. So yeah, wa wa wa, I'm a big pathetic loser, whatever. Of course, it would be the next day that I go through facebook's friend-finder thing and end up with some slight contact with Lilie again. I mean, it's not like I'm still in love with her or anything, but she was the last person I had anything with, so when things seem kinda bad, and then to have that shoved in my face (or whatever), yeah. Good times.
Of course, it's fun to go into a negative emotion spiral, start taking things in the worst possible light. I'm twenty-five, living at home, working at a pizza place. Then start feeling as down as possible about various facets of life. I'll work on that later.
Vanessa Carlton -- Home
2008-03-01
They don't love you like I love you
I'm in kind of a bad place right now.
I fully realize that everything I'm going to complain about in this post is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor. I'm completely aware that my life is pretty good - decent job, loving and supportive family, health, etc.
That being said, it's bitching time.
WORK
Work is the source of my current bad mood. Things are changing, and mostly, not for the better. First and foremost, Q. I mean, he's a great guy. But I'm starting to have some issues with him. Let's start with putting the truck up. I mean, we organize the walk-in a specific way. He just kind of throws all the shit in. I should clarify, I'm not dead-set on OUR specific way of organizing everything. If he wants to reorganize stuff and put things in different places, that's fine. But it definitely needs to have specific places, keep everything together. We're too busy, our walk-in is too small, we get three trucks a week, we can't do inventory until a little before close. Seriously, I'm not an organizational freak or anything, but I recognize that there's time when it's necessary. This is one of those times. I mean, seriously. Gina instilled it in me that we have to keep that walk-in organized, and it's true. I'm going to ask him about it tomorrow, see if there's a reason, maybe it was just the last two trucks with mitigating circumstances. Whatever.
It's kind of annoying. I came back to Domino's to work for Sergio, not for Domino's. Fuck Domino's. I mean, I'll grant that it's definitely a better gig for Sonic, but that's not saying too much amongst menial service jobs (especially when they restructure our MiT bonus plan, see below). Whatever.
Then, they're changing the MiT bonus plan structure. They're making it more of a 'pay-for-performance' thing, which I don't disagree with.
In principle.
However, there's a few things they need to point out that they're not really saying. They're presenting it as removing the current cap on the MiT bonus, and replacing it with 2% of the store's EBITDA. In principle, it's reasonable. The better the store is doing, both in sales and translating that sales to profit, the higher the bonus the assistant managers get. However, it's worth noting that we have the second highest EBITDA in the company, and it would make our new cap 180-something instead of 200. Everyone else's goes down substantially. They don't really mention that in the flyer that EVERYONE's bonus cap is going to go down. DRASTICALLY. It follows from the information presented, but you have to dig down a little to really look at it. The other caveats aren't really that big a deal - an 80 or above on your MiT eval, no criticals, and a minimum of a 4 on your WCMSC. That last one is basically just a grading of your store across a variety of metrics - labor, food, personnel, sales, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll be getting a 4 any time soon. Our last one was a 2, and we need something like 20 points to raise that to a 4. 21 points, I think. I mean, the reasoning underneath all of it is sound, I guess. The idea that we influence the WCMSC and profitability is understandable, and they're trying to reflect that. Whatever. It's just annoying.
What's next, what's next? Oh, they're making that 3.99 medium 1-topping carryout special a periodic thing. It's really, really annoying. The drivers hate it. The insiders hate it. The MiTs hate it. Basically, it's only really good for boosting sales in low-sales stores. It didn't really help ours.
Hmm.
What else?
Co-workers.
Some of them are kind of annoying. I mean, hell, it'd be too easy to pick on Adam or Kyle here, but that's too easy. I'm talking about inside people. I'm really trying not to dwell on this one, because I'll start going nuts. Trey kind of reminds me of Ben from Sonic. It's frustrating. Yes, our job is simplistic, menial, entry-level, unskilled, etc. But there are specific ways to do those jobs, ways they have to be done. I hate sounding as stupid as I know it does, but you have to do things the way they're supposed to be done.
Anyway.
And Bill, the rush is so, so much easier if you MAKE PRESLAPS and PREP BREAD.
I don't mean to sound all high and mighty. I'm just venting.
Moving on.
I'm going to dye my hair pink on Tuesday. Well, Rose is going to. Very, very, very pink. That should be fun.
What else, what else?
Rebecca, I s'pose. We talk every time I'm in there. I haven't lost touch with reality or anything, I'm not getting my hopes up or anything. It's weird, we are sort of slowly becoming friends. Maybe, I guess? I'm not going to overthink this one. I overthink every single one of our interactions and encounters as it is, I'm not going to ruin the whole thing.
Moving on.
Paid off one of my student loans, that was really exciting.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Maps
I fully realize that everything I'm going to complain about in this post is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor. I'm completely aware that my life is pretty good - decent job, loving and supportive family, health, etc.
That being said, it's bitching time.
WORK
Work is the source of my current bad mood. Things are changing, and mostly, not for the better. First and foremost, Q. I mean, he's a great guy. But I'm starting to have some issues with him. Let's start with putting the truck up. I mean, we organize the walk-in a specific way. He just kind of throws all the shit in. I should clarify, I'm not dead-set on OUR specific way of organizing everything. If he wants to reorganize stuff and put things in different places, that's fine. But it definitely needs to have specific places, keep everything together. We're too busy, our walk-in is too small, we get three trucks a week, we can't do inventory until a little before close. Seriously, I'm not an organizational freak or anything, but I recognize that there's time when it's necessary. This is one of those times. I mean, seriously. Gina instilled it in me that we have to keep that walk-in organized, and it's true. I'm going to ask him about it tomorrow, see if there's a reason, maybe it was just the last two trucks with mitigating circumstances. Whatever.
It's kind of annoying. I came back to Domino's to work for Sergio, not for Domino's. Fuck Domino's. I mean, I'll grant that it's definitely a better gig for Sonic, but that's not saying too much amongst menial service jobs (especially when they restructure our MiT bonus plan, see below). Whatever.
Then, they're changing the MiT bonus plan structure. They're making it more of a 'pay-for-performance' thing, which I don't disagree with.
In principle.
However, there's a few things they need to point out that they're not really saying. They're presenting it as removing the current cap on the MiT bonus, and replacing it with 2% of the store's EBITDA. In principle, it's reasonable. The better the store is doing, both in sales and translating that sales to profit, the higher the bonus the assistant managers get. However, it's worth noting that we have the second highest EBITDA in the company, and it would make our new cap 180-something instead of 200. Everyone else's goes down substantially. They don't really mention that in the flyer that EVERYONE's bonus cap is going to go down. DRASTICALLY. It follows from the information presented, but you have to dig down a little to really look at it. The other caveats aren't really that big a deal - an 80 or above on your MiT eval, no criticals, and a minimum of a 4 on your WCMSC. That last one is basically just a grading of your store across a variety of metrics - labor, food, personnel, sales, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll be getting a 4 any time soon. Our last one was a 2, and we need something like 20 points to raise that to a 4. 21 points, I think. I mean, the reasoning underneath all of it is sound, I guess. The idea that we influence the WCMSC and profitability is understandable, and they're trying to reflect that. Whatever. It's just annoying.
What's next, what's next? Oh, they're making that 3.99 medium 1-topping carryout special a periodic thing. It's really, really annoying. The drivers hate it. The insiders hate it. The MiTs hate it. Basically, it's only really good for boosting sales in low-sales stores. It didn't really help ours.
Hmm.
What else?
Co-workers.
Some of them are kind of annoying. I mean, hell, it'd be too easy to pick on Adam or Kyle here, but that's too easy. I'm talking about inside people. I'm really trying not to dwell on this one, because I'll start going nuts. Trey kind of reminds me of Ben from Sonic. It's frustrating. Yes, our job is simplistic, menial, entry-level, unskilled, etc. But there are specific ways to do those jobs, ways they have to be done. I hate sounding as stupid as I know it does, but you have to do things the way they're supposed to be done.
Anyway.
And Bill, the rush is so, so much easier if you MAKE PRESLAPS and PREP BREAD.
I don't mean to sound all high and mighty. I'm just venting.
Moving on.
I'm going to dye my hair pink on Tuesday. Well, Rose is going to. Very, very, very pink. That should be fun.
What else, what else?
Rebecca, I s'pose. We talk every time I'm in there. I haven't lost touch with reality or anything, I'm not getting my hopes up or anything. It's weird, we are sort of slowly becoming friends. Maybe, I guess? I'm not going to overthink this one. I overthink every single one of our interactions and encounters as it is, I'm not going to ruin the whole thing.
Moving on.
Paid off one of my student loans, that was really exciting.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Maps
