Blogger 365 Day 97 - Not enough

     I had hoped that with the closing of Gus Millers some things would have gotten better, and I guess in some ways they have.  I do not have to worry about two stores nearly as much, I still have issues with Gus that need finalized, such as getting the lottery account transferred out of our name and into their control and removing a few more items of ours that are still at that location, but for the most part we are all but done with that location.  The new owners have some ideas about what they want to do with the space and I am more than willing to give them names and numbers of people that I have worked with in the past that may help them on that journey, mostly vendors and what not.

     That leaves me to turning my attention to Smithfield News, and all I can say about that place is that it is a rat's nest of problems.  It was just two weeks ago that Brian handed out memos and met with employees individually about what will and will not be tolerated, and after about a day of actually listening a good chunk of the staff is right back doing what they always did.  Ed is coming back on Tuesday and last year when he came back at this time is when I had my Festivus moment with hm, where I spent a good hour and a half of his time just airing my grievances.  Whether it was that meeting and me filling him on just what was taking place in his absence or larger plans he had in the works that I had no prior knowledge of, that is when things started shifting around and I was first given more responsibility and ultimately my promotion a couple of months later.  I have a feeling that at this rate Festivus is going to be a yearly tradition for me, because to say that I have a certain amount of job dissatisfaction right now would be an incredible understatement. 

     I am just sick of people not listening, thinking that the job is there to service them for some unknown reason, and I am more than content at this point to make massive changes if need be, and he is either going to give me the authority to do that or I am seriously contemplating turning in my keys and just walking away.  I don't need the headaches and aggravation anymore, knowing that I have no support behind me.  We need to start doing things that are best for the business and not really giving a damn if we are liked or not, or we can get about the business of locking the doors, because the business model we are putting out there right now is not one that is due for long term success.  Every move we have made the last year has all been about applying band aids on bullet holes as far as the business goes.  In the vein of "people, product, process" our overwhelming problem is our people, who are more worried about playing on Facebook and chatting on their phones then they are about giving a damn about the customers.  Of course that is when they aren't busy drinking on duty, as I caught another one today doing that.  Ideally we need a house cleaning, we could fire probably 60-70% of our staff right now and I would call it little more than addition by subtraction.

     I am not looking to make enemies at work, but I am not looking to make friends either, the only thing I want to make is money.  If we are good at it, the rest of the stuff just works itself out, it is easier to do things for the employees when business is doing well as opposed to now, when we are bleeding money and everyone is just goofing off like it doesn't matter.  Enough already, we either need to do something about this, or I really need to get off of this ship before it sinks.