Let me explain ......
Upon my return from Kansas, things were a wreck at work. And I am being nice when I write a wreck. We have a daily tracker for the reps. It tracks their run rate for quota. It had not been updated properly, and when it was, they over wrote the formulas. It took me a week to get it fixed. I had to run reports for every single day of the month, for every rep in the store, for each activation (S-p-r-i-n-t & N-e-x-t-e-l), every accessory, every prepaid, everything. It was a joy. The tracker was really the least of my problems.
The store was in complete meltdown mode. I thought about it for a long time, trying to determine if it was we just were not used to a new manager, or was it really bad? It was really bad. I heard some pretty amazing stories. My reps were coming to me, telling me things that were done and/or authorized. That were not right. That were not ethical. I was giving the new mngr. the benefit of the doubt.
Until I saw it with my own two.
On my first day back, I saw him authorize an upgrade on a corporate liable account (a national account) when the person in front of us was not an authorized user. I then saw him allow a rep to activate a new Nxtl number and cancel their existing Spnt number. (a HUGE no no, it's called voluntary churn) I saw quite a few other things as well.
We were all in touch with Todd, letting him know what was going on. On Monday a couple of weeks back, I spoke with him and we decided to wait until after the meeting Monday night to see how things would go. Now, you all that Monday night, right? Actually, very early Tuesday morning, when we were made to leave the store?
As I was racing home that night, screaming my frustration on the phone with James, I saw flashing lights behind me. Wonderful. A perfect ending.
I pulled over, the officer came to my door and I'm looking for insurance. He asks for my driver’s license. Funny thing, I don't have it. I don't even have my purse as I surely wasn't supposed to be working until one a.m. He says "do you know you have a headlight out?" I was shocked; I pointed to my inspection sticker and said it must have JUST happened as I JUST got it inspected. He asked if I knew my number, I said yes, he wrote it down and said "while you look for your insurance, I'll be right back".
I found it, and he returned. He said, "do you know you have a warrant for your arrest?" You MUST be joking. I thought, wait, it must be that ticket. I began searching for the receipt. No, it's not the ticket; it was from a returned check. I racked my brain. A check? From like when? He doesn't know. He then said "and do you know your license is expired?" Yes, I know. I tried renewing online; they said no, they needed a new picture. I was planning on going the next day.
He must really not like paperwork. I had no headlight, I was speeding, I didn't have my expired license, and I had a warrant. I somehow made it home and didn't get arrested. Whew.
So, Tuesday comes around, I sleep until noon and am emotionally spent. I decide I will be very Scarlet like and think about all of that tomorrow.
Wednesday, I call Larry. "Do you remember a check that was returned?" yeah, like three years ago he thinks. Did you ever pay it? I think I did was his reply. I explain the events of Monday night (at this point, we are talking, civil, even almost friendly), when I say it out loud, my voice begins to crack. I absolutely hate not being able to take care of these things. Especially since the things I am trying to take of should have been handled a long time ago, yet somehow managed not to be.
He said call, find out what it is about and let him know. So I call. I find out. That little twenty nine dollar check is now fifty nine dollars .... and a hundred dollar court fee, plus a fifty dollar warrant fee. I call him back and let him know.
I am frustrated, emotionally wrecked and crying. He tells me, I hate to see you going through this. Then DO SOMETHING my mind is screaming. Now I am pissed. And we begin arguing. Why didn't I take care of it? With what money? The check was very clearly returned on a closed account, remember when that happened? You had your own, I didn't, my money going into your account? Now it's his fault and he had the nerve to get indignant.
I couldn't get over it, yet I really couldn't be surprised. I told him he was fucking ridiculous. He is arguing with me over twenty nine dollars from three years ago, yet wants to take me on a six, seven hundred dollar trip to Vegas.
In what world of crazy does that make sense? I hang up on him. A few angry emails are shared, and once again, I hate him. He sends the money order off for the check, and gives me the other for the court. I keep both copies in my car, just in case.
All the while my work environment is crumbling. Our numbers suck, we are short handed, Dan is leaving, Kristen on maternity leave, a manager who is ethically bad and down right freaking lazy. Todd was supposed to be out last Friday to conduct employee interviews, but then we found out we are switching district managers!
This past week I have been preparing madly for vacation. No, I'm not going anywhere, just preparing the store. Making every possible list for James & Monica. Making sure they are aware of what needs to be done. I trust them more than my manager.
Meanwhile, there are mad trainings going on. HR trainings, audit trainings, technician audit training, everything. I am not in the store nearly as much as I needed to be.
I left the HR training confident. Until I walked out of my office while the cleaning lady was mopping and slipped, skating across the linoleum onto my knees. Mother trucker, both freaking knees hurt so bad, it made me want to throw up. I got up, and got it together.
The next day was audit training. It was being given by our finance manager and our business manager, I decided it was time I had a little chat with them. I told Liz everything that had been going on. I have transaction numbers, names and dates. I told her how Todd was going to handle it, and then the switch came. I handed her jaw back to her off the floor. She said write it down, send me everything, and we will handle it.
Dan went with me. He needed the training for his new store. He sat outside while I talked to the girls. While I was hobbling down the stairs he said, "I don't know what you were saying, but you should have seen the look on her face". I went back to the store for my last night before vacation to finish up.
In between the training and work, I waited for an hour and a half at the courthouse to clear up my warrant. The line was, well interesting. A long freaking line down a very long hallway, almost out the door. The people at a county courthouse can be very interesting to watch as you wait in line. But, I got it done.
I head back to work; the week is dragging into eternity. Everyone is scared. Hard not to be when your HR managers are in town, interviewing people. You are having audits, your managers and district managers are being moved around. Everyone is a little nervous. Too nervous.
James had prevented our new girl JC from doing a transaction, and then allowed a somewhat grey transaction to happen, then, I allowed JC to do the same thing James had told her not too. She didn't like this much and started to get an attitude. A hard one. I understood to a point, until cabinets started slamming and she was on the phone bitching about it to her husband, then to my tech, to which I told her, "enough."
I finished closing the store, let the other employees go, and then had a talk with JC. After a very long and sometimes heated discussion, I think we finally came to somewhat of an agreement. That or she was tired, wanted to go home and decided to stop arguing. I still shake my head; she actually had the nerve to question my morality when she was gladly doing some of the shady transactions. I finished up the day and the week and took myself home.
So, today, my first day of vacation, I took my sore knees to the DPS and got my license renewed. No ticket, no warrants, a new headlight & wiper blades (thank you James) and yes, a new license. I took my street legal self way out to Jeff's store and saw my two favorite men. It was SO good to see them. I miss them SOOOOOOOO much! Jeff said when I told him I was on vacation; he wondered how long it would take before I came down there. I love that. I love that he misses us too. I miss how well we all worked together. I miss that my even though I griped about it, I loved my serendipitous little team.
So, here I sit, on vacation really not knowing what or even who I will go back to work with. I don't really care at this point. Corie has managed to keep that baby from coming, so now, I get to officially be in the delivery room when she has her. Can you believe it has been nine months?
I'm happy; I'm street legal, even if I am humpty dumpty. BTW -- This picture on the online site to renew your license is almost a dead ringer from my old DL picture. What can I say, I had big hair, and I'm from Texas LOL
