Exotic Donation?

They always come together.
The same sort of needs.

This time towards the end of my shift.
I ended up receiving three calls in a row.
Where people were wanting to know if we could take animals that people no longer wanted.

Which we can't.
We don't accept animal donations,  nor do we take animals in unless they're through our certified breeders or through the adoption groups we partner with.

One of the callers was a woman who knew that we didn't take in fish, but also knew that we had display tanks. 

-Ones she thought we filled with our fish. Like our personal fish....like she made it sound like us, coworkers, would take turns bringing our fish from home to put in the tank to show off. 

O.o Hah....no. The fish in display tanks are fish from our fish wall.
More recently I've been putting in the fish with 'defects' in those tanks. Ones missing eyes or with mishapened bodies/fins/tails etc. 
To try and discourage people from wanting fish from those tanks. 
>.< *exhales* It doesn't work.
People still want the fish. Don't know why. They're DISPLAY for a reason. *shakes head*

In any case.

She knew we had these larger display tanks and wanted to know if we would take in two donations of 'exotic fish' to put in the display tanks.

Whelp....
It would depend on the type of 'exotic fish'
Because if they're like salt water fish exotic then I definitely can't take them. Because we only do freshwater tanks. 
But if it was something freshwater....
There could be the possibility, though I would have gone and double checked with my manager first to see if it was okay.
Because basically if anything goes into the tank....there's the possibility it would get sold, so we'd need to be able to potentially sell it. 
Plus we had three different display tanks.
Goldfish. Semi-Aggressive. and Tropical Community. 
So I would need to know the type to know if we could put the fish in.

Her exotic fish?

*shakes head*
Were two Tiger Oscars. One White. One Black. Both a little over a foot long.
Which meant.
Basically full grown. 

*shakes head* Exotic? Ha. If I sell it in the store it's hardly 'exotic.'

Nope. Nope.
Can't take those.

I don't have a Cichlid tank set up.
And Tiger Oscars are Cichlids.
Huge. Freaking. Cichlids.

That would EAT any other fish in that tank. 
*shakes head*

I had to decline.
Besides our semi-aggressive tank is a 60 gallon.... Is like...only a foot wide.
So it would be too narrow for the Tiger Oscars anyway. 

Sorry customer.
Couldn't help you there, though hopefully you find a home for your fishies. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Glass Sized

I had a customer come into the store today looking for a specific type of lid for his tank. A glass one that needed to completely seal the tank. I'm not sure why, or for what creature, I just knew he needed it to keep up the humidity.
But he was super particular.
And the glass lids I had weren't quite the size he needed, as most glass lids are for aquariums and they end up leaving a small gap on the top of the tank -that they provide a plastic piece to use if necessary. But the gap is left there so that customers can place filters and heaters and such in the back part of the tank. 

The customer wasn't quite happy about that. Asked if there was a spot where he could get a glass lid that covered the entire tank.
….not here in the store no.
We have grated lids for reptiles that do.
But they're grated, so they won't seal off the tank. 

After a bit of debate.
The dude decided to buy the glass lid to try it out. 
Hopefully it works for him. 

*fingers crossed* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Warranties

I had a customer call the store today with a question about her fishtank. 
As she'd bought a 75 gallon from us a year ago. 
And at some point after that... "soon after that" one of the lids had broken. 
Like the lid had become unhinged making it unusable.
And she'd apparently been looking for a way to replace it with no success....

But then she remembered that there was a 2 year warranty with the tank.
So she was wanting to know if replacing the glass lid was under that warranty. And if she would just get a new lid, or if she would need to bring the tank back and exchange it out for a new tank, and if we'd be taking the old tank back to the manufactor to like recycle or refurbish and replace the lid etc...

O.o 
It was rather crazy. As she was talking like she thought we had this giant factory where we send broken things to to fix. 
Ummm No?

We just sell the items lady.
We don't have anything to do with the making of the tanks or the replacement of parts.
We sell what we sell.

Plus...the 2 year warranty she mentioned?
Was with the company that made the tank. 
It's not a Starsmet thing. We only have a 60 day return policy here in the store. 
So anything longer than that? It's through the maker of the product. Not us. 

Therefore she would need to contact the maker of the product to find out if her problem was covered under the warranty.

She wasn't too happy about that as she'd thought it was from the store originally. 
*shakes head*
Nope.
We just sell the things. 

Hopefully she figures it out though. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Mice

Had a customer come into the store today with a...semi unique problem.

She was looking for a spray to get rid of odors.
Specifically for mice.

Which we do carry odor eliminators for small animals like hamsters, guinea pigs and mice. 

The reason her problem was unique though?

She was looking to get rid of the smell of mice....wild mice....that were living behind her dishwasher. 

O.o how she got mice behind the dishwasher and why they're still living there is beyond there.

But apparently she can't get rid of them...so is just looking to contain the smell. 

:S Not sure how well the spray I suggested will help with that issue....
But hopefully it helps.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scratch Scratch

Had a customer come into the store today with a little puppy.
And they were wanting some shampoo but specifically they were looking for one to prevent their puppy from scratching. Like a flea and tick shampoo.

Which. O.o looking at the puppy it looked healthy enough to not be plagued with the little creatures and they aren't as common in our part of the state...so I was asking more questions. Like...where is it scratching, is it all the time etc.

The customer -who is a new pet owner- is like "No, the puppy only scratches like crazy when we put the collar on him." 

…..

"Does he scratch any other time?" 
"When we take the collar off he'll scratch his neck for a little bit after as well. 

*shakes head*

I basically was like "Dude, I think the puppy just doesn't like the collar. If he's only scratching when the collar is on then it's the collar that is the issue not any bugs." 
Which seemed like news to him. 

O.o
Like....it seemed like an obvious answer to me....

Puppies aren't used to wearing things around their necks. 
So it would make sense it would irritate them and they'd want to try and get it off.

Especially if the collar wasn't a good fit. *shakes head*

Hopefully they got a better collar for the puppy...and that the scratching will stop. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Number of Transactions

A customer came into the store today.
Just before we officially opened.
Meaning she was the first customer in line at the register to pay.

She was buying a bunch of hamster related things.
A wheel, chews, food, hiding places, etc. 

But when she went to pay...

Her card was declined.

"Huh...well I have been shopping a lot today. Let's remove the wheel and see if my card will work then." 

She tried three more times to pay with the card, decreasing the cost of the transaction each time by removing one of the items...

Only to have it declined again and again.
She finally ended up just buying the food and paying for it with cash and left.

But I'm still....confused.

I mean, I can see how spending a ton of money all at once could get a bank suspicious enough to freeze the card. I know other people it's happened to. So it makes sense.

Except.
It was NINE AM.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN SHOPPING and HOW LONG have you been shopping FOR this Early in the Morning?! 

I mean, few places open earlier than 9am...yet the customer made it sound like she'd been shopping since like five that morning. 

Online shopping? 
*shrugs* 
Who knows.
It's weird.

Though I hope she got card working again. That's always stressful when it doesn't. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Boy or Girl?

I had a couple come into the store today. 
I didn't think much of them really, because they had a puppy dog with them.
Which I automatically assume they won't need any help in my department because I usually handle mostly fish and crickets.

Go figure.
They needed my help.

The man came up to me asking if I had any goopies.
Which I first heard as puppies. 

But he meant guppies.
The fish.

So I showed him where the tank was. 
And indicated that out of the six tanks of guppies. Only one tank held females. All the rest of the tanks held males.

So the customer looked at the females for a bit.
Looked at the males in the tank to the left of them.
And asked me, pointing to the males. "Are these females?" 

…. "No. Just the ONE tank here" I pointed to the tank "has females. All the rest are boys."

"Ah." 

Like I get that you could misunderstand the first time.
But then with two other tanks.
He was like "are these females?"

"No. We only have ONE tank of females. These ones here are girls." I gesture to the other tanks. "These are all boys."

...I don't know if he ever fully comprehended it in the end.....

But the odd thing was....he seemed so focused on the girls....but ended up buying to males instead. 

*shakes head*
I don't know if that's what the customer wanted....but I was expecting him to grab a couple of females at least, so it was definitely surprising when he didn't. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Build For Me

I was in the middle of helping a customer with fish when my head manager called me to the office over the radio. Stating only "I have a message for you." 

Like. O.o
A message? Is this a good message or a bad message? Am I in trouble?
:S :S :S

Turns out.
A customer had called while I was busy helping with the fish.
Who wanted to see if we could do him a huge favor.

Where he wanted to buy a Leopard Gecko for his son for his birthday. 
Only he wanted us to set up the cage for him and have the leopard gecko in there so he could basically walk into the store, grab the cage, pay for it all and walk out straight to the birthday party.

O.o
Normally we don't do that sort of thing. 
But the manager was all for it.
So I called the customer back to find out what sort of cage he wanted and what type of leopard geckos and such....

Only the cage he wanted...we didn't currently have in stock. *exhales* It could have shown up on our truck that came in an hour before I was off....but at the point of the phone conversation, the truck hadn't shown up.

Still. I went through options.
And the customer thought he might go to a different Starsmet and pick up a tank there cus he knew it was in stock, then come down here to grab the leopard gecko.

Which at that point we had three in stock.

Only when I hung up there was a customer wanting one of them.

Meaning I had only two in stock.

And I didn't want the customer to come in to find out we had none because they sold. 
-Because once a customer wants something suddenly everyone else wants it too. 
*exhales*
So to prevent that possibility. 
I put a reserved sign in the cage to keep the other two 'on hold' so the customer could come grab the cage.

He'd made it sound like he was going to be in before I got off.....
But I never saw him.

...So I have no idea if he came in after my shift or if he ended up finding a leopard gecko and cage elsewhere that he was more happy with....I'll guess we'll see when I come in tomorrow if I'm down to one leopard gecko or still have two. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

They're Called Display for a Reason

So in the store we have these three display tanks of fish.
Set up so customers can see what a working fish tank looks like really.
There's one tank with goldfish in it.
Another with semi -aggressive.
And the last with tropical community fish -mostly glo fish at this point.

The fish in those tanks are supposed to not be for sale.
But for whatever reason.
Customers are constantly wanting the fish within the tank.

Mostly it's because they want the 'bigger fish' I figure.
Because we only sell baby fish.
And if the fish we put in our display tanks stay there long enough, they get full grown.

*exhales*

But it's a pain to fish out the fish.
It messes up our tanks. 
And it takes forever because those tanks are much larger than our 10-20gallon sizes we have on our fish wall. 

So I automatically don't like the customers that insist they want fish from the display tanks.
Like seriously?
They're DISPLAY fish.
I wish I could make signs that say "Fish within tank are NOT for sale. NO EXCEPTIONS." 
*exhales* I don't think managers and/or corporate would approve.

No because we have this stupid mind set of "Make the customers happy!" *rolls eyes* How about focus on "Make your employees happy!" and then focus on the customers?

In any case.
Today I had a mother and son duo come into the store.
And the son wanted fish.
From our semi-aggressive display tank.
Specifically a silver dollar that I'd placed in there that was missing an eye.
-As in an attempt to discourage people from buying those fish I've started putting in fish with 'deformities." so they're not "perfect."

Apparently there are a lot of bleeding hearts in our area.
Because people see the deformed fish and go "I WANT THAT ONE!" 
But like...they only want it when the fish is in the display tank...not when it's left in the tanks on the fish wall. *shakes head* 

In any case.
The kid wanted a silver dollar that was missing the eye.
As well as the one remaining red tiger barb we had in the tank. 

The silver dollar was rather specific.
But I was like "...I have more reds over on the wall."
But the boy was like "NO. I want the red one in this tank!" 

*glares*
Fine.
Whatever.

But I warned them. "We don't usually fish from these tanks, so it may take a while because they're much harder to catch."

Plus in my own petty way, I purposely make it take longer to catch the fish in hopes that the customer will get impatient and change their mind.

….Hasn't really worked yet. *exhales*
They just stand there watching me swing my net back and forth as the fish darts all over and around the tank.
Like it can take 20 to 30 minutes to catch the freaking fish in those tanks.

*rolls eyes*
So yah.
I don't like those customers.
Like. Go get fish from the wall.
GO to the local pet stores that sell larger fish.
Stop taking from the display tanks.
It's annoying.
Super. Duper. Annoying. 

But in the end I did get those two fish for the boy.
I hope he doesn't come back any time soon.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Too Long

There was a woman who came into the store today.
Who'd bought a 20 gallon tank. A 20 long specifically. Meaning it was 30 inches long.
She'd bought a light with the tank a 30 inch long light because that's what one of my coworkers had recommended to her.
But when she got home.
The light was too long for the tank.
So she'd come back into the store to exchange out the light for one that would fit her tank. 

She showed me the paper she'd taken off the tank.
And I focused on the "20 long" bolded on front.
Obviously then. She would need a 20 inch light. Since the tank was 20 inches long. 
So I was showing her a couple of different lights.
And she'd settled on the cheapest one.

But then she needed a glass lid.
And again, to double check, I asked her the size of tank.
She showed me the paper again.
Saying it was a long tank.
But I had still focused on the 20.
So I was going for the 19 inch glass lids. 

….But then I was like. Wait. A long tank?
Long tanks?
I looked again, and down below the giant 20 were the dimensions of the tank.
Stating that the tank was 30 inches long. 

Which meant she'd need a 30 inch glass lid.

….And therefore would need a 30 inch long lightbulb to fit it because the 20inch one would be far too short. 

So I was like "Oh you need a 30 inch one!" 
To which she again repeated to me that the 30 inch one was too long for her tank. By like 4 inches.

Which was weird. O.o
Because uhm….it should fit. 

But she said it didn't.
She said it was too long.

So I grabbed one of our 30inch lights -still in the box.
and set it on top of the glass lid box.
And was like ()_() You're right! It is too long!
But then.
I realized.
It was in the box.

So I asked her if she'd taken the light out of the box.
She hadn't.
She wanted to be able to return it and so hadn't taken it out of the box yet.

...Which is why she thought it was too long.
Because the box has thick packaging on either side of the light fixture to make sure it doesn't get damaged. 
Which meant the light fixture wasn't the same size of the box.

The customer was like O.o Huh?

So I pulled open the packaging and showed her that there was a thick carboard spacer keeping the light safe.

lol.
So she ended up not buying a replacement light, nor returning her original one. She took it home to test it out....outside of the box lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Locked?

A woman came up to me wearing scrubs.
I was thinking she needed crickets or fish or something.

But no what she said was "Do you know why your breakroom is locked? Because I tried the door and it won't open." 

O.o
I wasn't aware that our breakroom had a lock actually. 
I could see it being blocked from the inside, but like...there was no reason for it to be locked.

So I took the woman with me to the back -figuring that she was one of the new employees for the Vet that's located within the store. 

It came to me as I was talking to her.
That....she probably tried to go in the wrong door.
As we have two doors near our breakroom that are constantly locked so customers won't be able to enter them.

So I asked her "Did you try the door straight down the hallway or the one to the left at the end of the hallway?"

"The one straight down." Was her response.

That explained it.
Straight down was one of our locked doors. 

She'd tried to go in the wrong room.

"But I swear I went straight down this hallway last time!" She said after I explained the mixup to her.

Nope. And we haven't moved the room either lol. The breakroom is a lot bigger than the locked rooms. ^^;; 

And when we reached the breakroom?
Yep.
Opened without issue. 

^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

One Cricket

So there was a customer who came into the store today.
Who spent a good fifteen to twenty minutes wandering around my department while talking to someone on the phone.

I don't usually make it a habit to bother people while they're on the phone.
It feels weird when I do do it.
Like, I don't want to interrupt them, especially if they're just looking and such.

So I kept an eye out on the dude as he walked around.
But didn't think much on it.

Until he came up to me a bit later, no longer on the phone and was like "Can I get a cricket?" 

He wanted just one large cricket.

Which...I could have grabbed him ages ago.

Though I have no idea if he was on the phone because he was waiting for help, or if he was finishing his conversation with the other person before getting help....

*shakes head*
No idea.

But really....it would be easier to tell if someone needed help if they weren't on the phone...

-Sarnic Dirchi

What Are They?

I had one of our regular customers come into the store.
And focus on me for conversation instead of my coworker who was closer.

Because they wanted to tell me more about their turtles they have.
As they've discovered that one is a girl and the other is a boy.

When they thought both were boys.

And he wanted to know how to tell the genders for sure and when he should expect eggs and when the turtles reached maturity....

….*exhales*
Like dude....I have no idea.
I just sell the pets.
It's not like we breed them in the store.

I can tell the gender.
Though the customer was arguing with me on whether or not he actually had one boy and one girl or two boys. Cus he wasn't sure as the internet told him he had one of each but was thinking the one with the shorter tail might still grow it out. 

*exhales*
Nope. 
If the tail is short and stubby it's a girl. If the tail is longer and curves to the right it's a boy.
But he was like "the tail is short but it curves slightly"

….still a girl. If it's short it's a girl. 

But beyond that.
I wasn't much help.
I rarely deal with breeding of animals.
And I haven't googled that particular information.
Sooo helping him find the right environment for the turtle to potentially lay eggs....it was difficult. I tried. But idk if actually helped. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

4/5

So we've been sending out surveys to customers. 

And when I say we I mean corporate.

Where people have the opportunity after buying something from us to receive an email survey asking how we did.

Which is cool because we can learn what works and what doesn't and how we can improve and such.

But sometimes people complain about the weirdest things.

Things we have no control over.

Like Prices. 

But this review?

It went something like "I gave you 4 stars. It would have been 5 but it was too cold in your store." 

O.o

Too cold?

How can our store be too cold?

Most of the time my coworkers complain it's too hot. *shakes head*

Most people prefer the cold anyways. They'd rather walk into a cold store than a warm one.

….but the most annoying part is....that's not something we have control over.

We can't change the temperatures in our store.

It's a system.

They have people come in to adjust it for summer and winter.

But like....we can't decide "It's going to be 72 today." 

*exhales*

Of course the customer probably doesn't know that.

But still.

Such an odd thing to complain about when most people don't spend longer than like maybe 15 minutes inside the building.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Gesture

There was a little boy at the fishwall today.
Looking at the fish.
And he saw the open tops to the tanks and was like "I want to put my hand in the water!"
His mother was quick to dissuade him. "No. We don't do that." 
"I want to put my hand in the water!"
"You can't. We don't put hands in water."
"But you and Daddy do it all the time!" 
To which the mom was quick to correct him. "No, we don't put our hands in the water. We hold our hands above the water like this." 
She put her hand out and wiggled her fingers above the tank.

I could only assume that she meant it as a feeding gesture.

Which the boy took to lol.
He proceeded to hold his hand out over the tanks he could reach and wiggle his fingers just like his mother. 

^^;; It was rather cute lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Echoing Bark

There's this Border Collie that comes into work every now and then. 
Which I'm glad it's not frequent or I would go mad.

But these people come into the store with their Border Collie.

And the entire time they're within the building.
They let the dog bark it's head off.

Which, yah sure, dogs bark.

But when you're in the building for over 20 minutes.
And the dog is barking nonstop?

It starts getting on your nerves. 

But to add to it.
The dog has this bark.
Where it has it pitched in such a way that the barking echoes throughout the store.
So you literally can't get away from it.
It echoes.
And echoes.
And is so loud that you have to yell over the barking to try and be heard.

Which is a trial in of itself for me because I can't talk loud most of the time. *exhales*

But like seriously.
Why let your dog bark it's head off?
Are you totally oblivious to how much its bugging all the other customers?
Like. 
Why?
Why?

*exhales*

I was so glad when they finally took the dog out of the store.
Because it was seriously getting on my nerves.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Blink?

So I was in the middle of helping a customer looking for a little ring to put on his dog tags.
Which unfortunately, I didn't sell those.
But while I was trying to help him find a solution. 

Another customer came up to the cashier, stating that she needed help with the birds.
But at that point of time I was the only one in my department, so the cashier said that it would be just a minute.

To which the customer stated that she would go run to the bathroom first and then come back.

Well like thirty seconds after she disappeared....I finished with the customer I was helping.

But I knew that I needed to help a customer by the birds...so I didn't want to wander too far away from the birds as I knew I'd be called there soon anyways. 

And I saw a customer down the bird aisle.
So I approached the woman and asked if she needed help. 

And she just fixed me with this unblinking stare.
And took too long to answer. 
While she was staring at me.

But in a quiet whisper that you almost couldn't hear, she said that her daughter was here. 
-Which I assumed was the customer who needed help.

And the woman started wandering down the aisle looking for her daughter....

….I don't know how present the woman was to where she was.
She acted like she was looking through a fog really.

And I'm not sure if she ever blinked.....

But when the daughter showed up, I helped the two of them get a parakeet and all the supplies needed.
Hopefully it's a good fit for them. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Headed Home

I went to work on a migraine today.
Not unusual.
I've done it many many many times before.
But I definitely wasn't feeling the work thing.
I was moving pretty slowly. Doing things slowly. Pausing to take breaks. Trying to massage the headache out of my brain.

And my manager noticed.
Asked if I had a headache.
Which I confirmed I did.
He was like maybe you should go home.
And I was like. Yah I was thinking about it.
To which he said "Go ask your coworker if she can stay later, and if she can't we'll look to calling someone in." 

Thankfully my coworker was able to stay late.

So I was able to clock out early lol. 

My manager was like "Thanks for being a trooper, but now go Sleep! Go put in a movie to listen to and relax!" 

^^;; Ah. I love my managers. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Early Pick Up

I had a guy come into the store today at 7:42 am with a labradoodle puppy in his arms.
Originally, I thought he was there for grooming, but then he asked if we were open yet.
To which I replied in the negative that we didn't open for another hour.

And his response was "Could I still grab a bag of dog food?" 

Like. O.o
Dude.
I just told you we are CLOSED.
What does that mean to you?
It means that stores don't sell things when the sign doesn't say open.

*rolls eyes* 

However, there's been an emphasis on 'customer service' which means helping the customer even if there there outside of store hours. 
So I said "let me see if the registers are open"
-I knew they would be because Grooming was open. 
-They were.

So I told him "Go grab it." May have said something more like "If you're quick you can grab some" Because I didn't want him dillydallying around the store leaving me hanging at the register waiting for him.

In any case. He went to the back of the store and grabbed some food and came back up.

Apparently he'd just gotten the dog that morning? Which like....who picks up a brand new dog at 7am in the morning?? That's crazy. 
And who picks up a dog without buying supplies for it first? Like I'd think you'd want to have food in the house and everything all prepared for the puppy once it got home. 

*shakes head*
But from the way he spoke...it almost seemed like a spontaneous thing. Or an unexpected thing that just happened and he took advantage of it.

….He was also taking the puppy to work with him....which okay weird. 
So he bought the bag of food -to give the dog something to eat at work I suppose---and left.

But like....*shakes head* It was just weird. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Mast Ahoy

So we have this huge fish decoration in the store.

It's a sunken ship.
Split into two separate pieces.
With large masts with sales that are like two feet long.

And I have to say.
It's super cool!
All fancy with the yarn rigging and such.

I probably would have bought one myself....if I hadn't switched my fishtank from sunken ship to island castaway lol. 

But it's....rather sad.
How delicate this ship is.
Because it's a $100 product.

And we got in two today on our truck....

And both were broken.
Masts snapped in half.
Even with the largest boxes ever and a thick padding of Styrofoam...

They still were broken when we opened them up.

And unluckily it was the same half of the ship that was broken in boxes.
So it wasn't like we could pull one half from one box and the other half from the other box and combine it to form one complete set.

Nope.
Same side broken = both useless.

*shakes head*
They either need to rethink the design of that ship....or package it different.
Because how they're doing it currently....obviously isn't working.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Snake

There was a mother who came into the store with three of her children.

I saw them over in the reptile section and approached them to see if they needed help.

They didn't.

They were doing rather well on their own getting snake related items. 

But a little later on the mom came up to me and said that she wanted to look at the snakes.

Specifically the cornsnakes.

So I grabbed out both of them (one at a time) to show her and the kids.

The first snake was rather strikey.

But the second snake the son was like: Oooh I like that one.

The Mom then said: Great! We'll take that one.

lol it took the boy a little bit to process the statement.

What???

-Because apparently they were planning to wait to buy the snake and were just gathering supplies today.

But nope!

Mom surprised her son by buying the snake too.

And awww he was so happy and grateful and it was just fun to see the excitement in his eyes as he realized he was getting the snake today. ^^;; He gave his mom a huge hug lol. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Opening

It's always been a struggle for me.
On deciding what to have my fellow coworkers do when they're scheduled to open with me.
Because like...our goal is to get things done quickly.
Which, since I have the most experience with things, usually means that I end up doing the bedding change.
But at the same time...I want to give my coworkers practice with the bedding change so that they can do it whenever I'm gone on vacation or something and which will allow them to practice so they can get faster at it.

Mostly though....it comes down to playing it by ear. 
Because some coworkers can't do certain tasks --like if they're allergic to certain things.
So I basically see who is coming in, what time they're showing up, what bedding change is supposed to be done, and go from there on figuring out the day.

But then...
Today, work scheduled me to have a coworker open with me....who has never opened before.
Because even though they're certified to work in my department....they're basically never assigned to work in my department.
They've been in it before for like midday/closing shifts and such, which is a lot easier.
But never opening.

Which left me stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Because having never opened before, no matter what I had them do...I would have to take the time to teach them how to do the things I wanted them to do. 

But like....should I have them do the easy things or the hard things?
Because the chances of them opening again would be low. 
So it's like...why have them do the bedding change because they most likely won't need to do it again, but at the same time, the coworker was only there for four hours so like...why not have them do the bedding change? It would keep them occupied and out of my hair and I could get the rest of the department opened. 

And my coworker was willing to do the bedding change.
So I gave them a brief verbal rundown on what to do. And left them to it.....
*exhales*

Note to self: I can't just tell people how to do things. Even if I want to try and do things faster...it would probably help my coworkers a lot more if I showed them how to do things that way they have both verbal and visual reference to work from. 

Because like every two minutes or so it felt like the coworker was talking to me over the radio asking how to do this and how to do that and if things needed to be cleaned and....yah. It was quickly getting on my nerves.

And they were getting frustrated too. Because things were taking too long and they weren't sure they were even doing it right.

So. I ended up switching them out. Taking over the bedding change for them and having them do the easier tasks I hadn't yet gotten to. 

So yah...It's always a work in progress, figuring out how to use the help needed in ways that are most beneficial to opening the department but also helping them to learn how to do things as well. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Because I get that this is their first time and