MLAARE -Flooded Again

I had to dash home during my lunch break today.
Which is something I usually don't do...
Because its a stressful thing to try and get home and back to work in like a 30 minute period.
I usually end up being late getting back due to slow traffic. XP bleh.

But this time...it was kinda necessary.
Why?
Well, one of my coworkers had been gravel vacuuming....
And had neglected to take some sponges out of the sink.
So the sponge...had drifted over the drain and plugged it.

Yah...
We ended up flooding the back room.
Again.
Happens every two or three months recently it seems like. lol.
My coworker was like "Umm....the sink somehow got clogged and the department's flooding.'
()_()!
I made sure she'd turned off the water, and headed back to see that we did indeed have a flood on our hands.
Uhoh.

It hadn't yet reached the point of being visible on the floor, but it was going to be soon if it had its way.
So I dashed to the furthest reaches and placed a towel in the way,
but the water was thick enough, that as I swept frantically at the water to get the main flow back towards the drain on the opposite side of the room, the water would flow over my shoes.
Soaking them and the socks within.

Normally, not a big deal. Wet shoes dry.
But I still had 3 hours on my shift.
And it wasn't just plain water.
We had two sinks next to each other, and the other sink had had a strong cleaning chemical in it.
So a rather diluted water flood was happening.

And this cleaning chemical, can cause irritation to the skin, even burns if strong enough.
And my feet were soaked in diluted cleaning solution.
It may have been my paranoia, but I felt like my feet were beginning to burn...
So I quickly swept the water back with the help of my coworker and finished the task I'd been interrupted in, before I took a lunch.
So I could go home.
And rinse out my shoes and socks in the tub, wash off my feet and get a different pair of shoes and socks before grabbing some food and heading back to work.

I was three minutes late.
But at least my feet were dry and I wouldn't have to worry about possible chemical reactions. ^^ Yay!

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Snail Infestation

Ah.
The joys of truck being late.
Especially on the days when I needed it to be on time.
On the days when I actually managed to get my department open on time.

Because, I was expecting to have to be working on our newly arrived shipment of fish.
But, the truck was late.
The fish were on the truck.
So therefore....we got done early...
And were left twiddling our thumbs, searching for other tasks to do while we waited another couple of hours for the delayed truck to show up.

Me.
I was productive.
And decided to work on our infestation of snails that are colonizing our fish tanks.
>.< Silly parasitic creatures. They spread like crazy.
And often we don't have time to fish them out. As its....well time consuming.

But today, I had a good long period of no customers and no fish to do just that.
Pick out the snails from the tanks.

And my accomplishment?
like 500 snails in a little cup. About halfway full.
So many snails....
And that was just one section of tanks.
*groans*
So. Many. Snails!
Hopefully we can get on top of them again soon.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

MLAARE -System Failure

Our system went down for an hour or so the other day.
Our Cashiering System.
Apparently it was nationwide.
Where we couldn't get debit or credit cards to work.
So for a few hours right after we opened.
We could only accept cash.

And we had the 'fun' duty, of stopping every customer that came into the store,
To inform them, that we could only accept cash for the moment because our systems were down.

Surprisingly, it didn't seem to effect many people this news. O.o
Apparently everyone that walked into the store that day was carrying cash. *shakes head*
But it was also good, in that it was a typical slow morning,
So that only a couple handfuls of people came in.

And it didn't start to pick up,
Until after our credit card system got back online.
So thankfully, we didn't end up with angry customers.
Because there isn't much we can do....when the problem isn't on our side....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -NitPicky

I hate nitpicky customers.
Especially when they nitpick little tiny details that most normal customers would not notice.
That really, isn't that major of an issue.

>.<
Today, a customer (possibly the same customer of a while back that did the same thing.) Nitpicked the quality of the water that our Betta Fish resided in. She called it "Disgusting."
Because the water was 'Filthy' and that there was 'food at the bottom' if I remember correctly.

So.
Annoying.
And Irritating!

Why?
Because for one.
I CHANGED THE BETTA WATER YESTERDAY!!
And Betta water does not get "Disgusting" and "Filthy" in less than 24 hours!

If it had been like the day before we changed Betta water, then I would have been more understanding. The water would look worse just before, instead of just after.
BUT IT WAS JUST AFTER!

She was NITPICKING!
The water was still clear!

Really. You'd have to stare really close to notice that there was a piece of food on the bottom here, a slightly fogginess to the a clear cups there.

But nothing.
Nothing whatsoever that would warrant the words "disgusting" and "filthy" to be used!!
The water was clear!
Gah!

>.<
I definitely did not like it.
I do not like being critiqued.
And she wanted us to change the Betta Water right then!!
HA!
LIKE WE HAVE TIME TO DO THAT!
PLUS I JUST DID THAT YESTERDAY! I DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE THE BETTA WATER EVERYDAY AND DON'T HAVE TIME TO DO SO.
Really, if she's SO CONCERNED about the water quality then she should get off her CUSTOMER HIGH HORSE and GET A JOB WORKING HERE and then she would SEE that we're doing the Best we Can. and that we have a lot more WORK to do to keep the store running. We don't just STAND there waiting for Customers to come and take no effort to make sure the animals are in clean healthy environments. WE DON'T DO THAT!
>.<
Ugh.
So.
Very.
Irritated.

I don't like her. This nitpicky customer.

But I did my best to satisfy her nitpickiness and assured her I would go check the Betta water again to make sure it wasn't 'disgustingly filthy' >.<
Yah....did that slightly then figured I didn't have time to be OCD and went back to trying to finish my other opening tasks before the lunch time rush would hit.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Reward

Awwww

Hard work does pay off!!

My manager came into the store today on his day off.
For two reasons.
One to give us some brand new cat litter scoops

-as each cat cage is to have its own litter scoop and ours have....been disappearing to who knows where.
And he'd found some nice big ones for only $1 at another store. (ours are like $3 for a tiny thing.)

But also, he brought me a box of starbursts! ^^

Why?
As a reward.
For being able to open the department by myself after my coworker didn't show up, and managed to get it all the tasks done before I left yesterday. :)

Starbursts!
The favorite candy of our department. ^^ Yum.

It totally was a highlight of my day. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Assumptions

Assumptions get one into trouble.

It gets me into trouble all the time.

Like when I automatically assume that my coworker is going to show up on time.

Or at all.

Like 9 times out of 10. If I assume a coworker is going to show up at a particular time...and plan accordingly to finish particular tasks or take breaks then....that it doesn't happen as planned?
Who knows.

But today.
I was the first person in.
Which gave me the choice of cleaning out the cat cages,
Or cleaning out the bird cages,
As those were the major tasks of the day.
I chose to do Bird Cages
Even after my manager was like "You're going to start on Cats right?"
But I was like "No, I'm doing Birds."
Why? Because my coworker was scheduled to come in one hour before the store opened.
And Bird cages take like two hours at the minimum to do.

So logically, since Cats technically take a shorter amount of time (less than an hour.) It would be better for her to do that task, and I would have more time to do the birds.

Which I did.
I finished in time to take a rest break before the store opened!

Only.
I was left with a problem.
You see...
My coworker didn't show up.
I tried to call them. Telling them that they were now a half hour late to work.
With no response. No call backs.

Which left me in a horrible position.
I had only completed one task. The Bird Cleaning.
And the store was opening right as I got off break.
I still had to clean the cats, I still had to feed/water all the other animals, I had other duties also expected for the Monday work day.
And now...the store was open.
Which meant customers would be interrupting me.
Which meant things wouldn't be getting done.
Which meant we were WWWWWAAAAAAYYYY Behind schedule.

I mean, I'm used to opening by myself.
But I would have done things much differently if I had known I was going to be by myself in the beginning.
While I don't like cleaning bird cages while the store is open, its definitely easier to be more accessible to customers there instead of locked up in the cat room cleaning out those cages.

Somehow.
I managed.
I went straight to cleaning cats, as that would be the most time consuming of the tasks before I opened the rest of the department, and managed to finish most everything by the time I took my lunch a couple hours later. Leaving me to just complete the Monday tasks before my shift ended (which I did.)
I got hit with a customer rush about an hour into the store being opened, but other than that...
It was blessedly quiet in my department.
Hardly anyone needing help until after all my major tasks were completed! YES!

I did it!
All by myself!

Why? Because my coworker, didn't show up....technically.

Back in the morning, when I was nearly done cleaning the cat cages.
I saw my coworker walk in. (2 hours late)
But. Not in a good way.
My coworker walked in.....in their street clothes.
Not in uniform.

Which confirmed one of our suspicions. My coworker hadn't been aware that they worked today.
(And apparently they hadn't got my message....)

So I briefly left my task to find out what was up....

And found out that this coworker too had gotten in trouble for Assuming.

You see, our schedule came out only a couple of days before, for what we'd be working this week.
And my coworker, hadn't worked that day...and so didn't check the schedule then.
And they figured, they ASSUMED that they WOULD NOT be working today.
So they just planned to come in today to get their schedule.

O.o
Seriously?
Never. Ever. Ever. Do that!
Never ASSUME especially with schedules.
Especially because our schedules change, or shifts change every week!

I don't understand this coworker's logic.
Everyone else would have called, or come into the store.
Chatting with other coworkers that's what they did.
They came in to check their schedule. I actually called to get mine.
You don't just assume!

*sighs*
Hopefully this is a lesson learned...
Because they came in their street clothes....they couldn't work the rest of their shift.
So...they just lost out on some of their pay.
Because they didn't come in.
Because they assumed.

*sighs*
Yes.
Assumptions can get you into trouble very quickly if you don't triple extra check beforehand.

MLAARE -Bent Fish

I had a customer come into the store, carrying a fish in a bag.
Usually that means dead fish.
But there was water in the bag with the fish.

Turns out it was still alive.
But barely.
Its body had been bent in half.
Something you see in fish on occasion. The muscles contracting to one side forcefully. Bending the body to the side.

Not much you can do about that.
And I had no idea what medications would help, or if they would help at all....
The customers weren't happy, to hear that really....the best solution, sad as it is...would be to flush it.
The customers were rather devastated about that.

Tears welling up, sad that their fish was basically consigned to death.

Y_Y I felt so awful about that. Giving them bad news. It isn't the easy.

So I offered to take care of the fish for them.
Because we have other options available at work for when our fish suffer similarly.

Save them from having to do it themselves.

Its easy enough to do, only....a manager has to do it.
No big deal, I would just as the manager to do it when they had a spare moment.

>.<
But then my manager got stuck with a customer for like two hours.
And then they had to leave....

So, I went for the next option.
Placing the fish in our ISO tank. Where it could hang out until we could get to him.

Except.....
In that sick tank.
There was this cichlid....

Cichlids are aggressive....
They're known to eat other fish...

But this one was smaller.
I thought it would be alright.

But basically as soon as I put the guppy into the tank....
The Cichlid zeroed in on it.
And
SLUUURRRP

Ate him.

Kinda.
You could still see the head sticking out of the mouth.

Horrified, as this wasn't how I wanted the fish to end up.
I managed to get the Cichlid to spit the fish out.

Oh, it wasn't too pretty.
The bent fish had been bent further. :( bleeding.

I separated it.
To keep it from becoming food.
But it died only a little bit later.

Y_Y
I felt horrible about it.
That was not what I meant when I said we had other methods.
that was not a method.

Thankfully.
The customers will never know what really happened.
(Unless...you know they stumble across this blog which would be crazy. Sorry customers!)

-Sarnic Dirchi