Saturday, July 28, 2012
My last day shift.
So I finished my last day shift for the next year last night. It was kind of a bittersweet day. In preparing for the transition, I had to gather up all of my schedules and calendars and such to pass on to the manager who will be taking over my areas. As I was doing so I felt a little sad. I have really enjoyed working with the group of individuals in the areas for which I was responsible. I will miss them, and I believe that most of them will miss me as well. They even gave me a thank you card and two bottles of Mountain Dew, they know me well, before I left for the evening yesterday. They are a bunch of hard working people who take a lot of pride in doing a good job. It's not like I am moving away and won't see them anymore, but I will no longer be working with them very closely, and it sucks to move on when you have become close with a group of people. As a manager, I feel it is my duty to take care of my associates and make their jobs easier in order for them to be happy and productive. It upsets me when I see managers that think managing means that you can't be friendly and social with your workers, even worse is when they try to manage by fear or intimidation. I have always believed that happy workers are more productive and do a lot better work than ones that are just trying to avoid punishment. When morale is low among workers the end product, particularly customer service, suffers as well. I wish that all managers were as concerned about the morale and happiness of their associates as I am. I will genuinely miss this group of associates, they are one of the best bunch of people I have ever managed. That being said, I am looking forward to working with the overnight crew, and seeing what I can do to help them to grow and improve. On to new challenges.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Graveyard Shift
So, it has been official for a couple of weeks now, as of August 1st I will be starting my year long rotation on the graveyard shift. Everyone keeps asking me if I am looking forward to it, and I have to say that I don't really care either way. I like the graveyard shift, but it does come with some drawbacks.
1.) My sleep schedule will take a little getting used to. It was much easier to do back when I was single, not to mention younger, and had no children. I did it for four years in California and loved it.
2.) I will have to sleep in the basement, the bed is not that comfortable, but I can black out the windows and make it dark which makes it so much easier to sleep during the day.
3.) The kids will need to be quiet while I'm sleeping, because nobody wants to wake up the hibernating bear, he is very grouchy. However my kids were very good at respecting my sleep schedule during my last rotation on the night shift.
4.) I will miss the camaraderie I have with the day crew, especially all of the Department Managers I have worked with for so many years. However there are several people on the night shift who I have missed working with since my last rotation and it will be good to work with them again.
5.) 12 hours of running from one end of the store to the other all while trying to push out truck loads of freight to the sales floor.
Along with the drawbacks there are pluses to working graveyard.
1.) Considerably fewer people in the store. Most nights are relatively drama free and pretty quiet.
2.) Not having to enter schedules every week!
3.) 4 days on, 4 days off! I work 4 days, then have 4 days off, it's like a mini vacation every rotation.
4.) Cooler in the summer.
5.) Weight loss! When I started this job 12 1/2 years ago it was on the night shift, unloading trucks and stocking shelves. In the six months I did that job I lost 50 pounds. My last rotation on nights as a manager I lost 40 pounds. I tell people all the time, if they want a good weight loss program work graveyards.
Overall it will be good to have a change of pace from my daily routine. The best part of this rotation, as opposed to my last, is the schedule. The last rotation was a 3 week rotating schedule with 2 of the weeks being split days off, it sucked big time. I'm not really looking forward to working four 12 hour days in a row, but I'm going to love the 4 days off. It should be fun.
1.) My sleep schedule will take a little getting used to. It was much easier to do back when I was single, not to mention younger, and had no children. I did it for four years in California and loved it.
2.) I will have to sleep in the basement, the bed is not that comfortable, but I can black out the windows and make it dark which makes it so much easier to sleep during the day.
3.) The kids will need to be quiet while I'm sleeping, because nobody wants to wake up the hibernating bear, he is very grouchy. However my kids were very good at respecting my sleep schedule during my last rotation on the night shift.
4.) I will miss the camaraderie I have with the day crew, especially all of the Department Managers I have worked with for so many years. However there are several people on the night shift who I have missed working with since my last rotation and it will be good to work with them again.
5.) 12 hours of running from one end of the store to the other all while trying to push out truck loads of freight to the sales floor.
Along with the drawbacks there are pluses to working graveyard.
1.) Considerably fewer people in the store. Most nights are relatively drama free and pretty quiet.
2.) Not having to enter schedules every week!
3.) 4 days on, 4 days off! I work 4 days, then have 4 days off, it's like a mini vacation every rotation.
4.) Cooler in the summer.
5.) Weight loss! When I started this job 12 1/2 years ago it was on the night shift, unloading trucks and stocking shelves. In the six months I did that job I lost 50 pounds. My last rotation on nights as a manager I lost 40 pounds. I tell people all the time, if they want a good weight loss program work graveyards.
Overall it will be good to have a change of pace from my daily routine. The best part of this rotation, as opposed to my last, is the schedule. The last rotation was a 3 week rotating schedule with 2 of the weeks being split days off, it sucked big time. I'm not really looking forward to working four 12 hour days in a row, but I'm going to love the 4 days off. It should be fun.
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