Losing Battle

I announced perhaps too soon that I was adjusting well in the new store. Things are not going as smoothly as I had thought, or even hoped.

There is some kind of disconnect between the expectations of the managers above me, and what I think those expectations are. In any case, they are not being met, and I am worried about what this is going to do to my career.

The stigma of being a manager who is not very good is a tough stigma to shake, and I don’t want to be stuck with it so early in my tenure as an assistant manager.

As a shift supervisor, I was thought to be very capable and was handed extra responsibility that I gladly took on successfully. I was good at my job. There was room for improvement, and there was a lot of frustration, but at the end of the day, I went home feeling good about what I do.

I care about my job. It matters to me that the food that is served in my restraunt is, most importantly, safe, and that it is high quality. No one wants to go to a burger place and get bad food. I know that it pisses me off, even with the professional courtesy factored in.

I do not run the fastest drive thru times; I know it is going to take time for that to start happening. I think the most important thing is to focus on safety, quality, and making sure the guest leaves happy. I tend to think that if all those things are taken care of, the service times will take care of themselves.

But of course, they don’t. I have a lot of factors working against me. Improperly trained people who don’t really know what is expected of them, and how they can help. Lazy people who just don’t give a damn also hold us back. And my personal favorite is the people who are properly trained, aren’t lazy, but bless their hearts, they just don’t get it.

It’s my job to manage these problems. It’s why I have a paycheck, and a pretty damn good one. That I can handle. I work on getting better at it everyday.

What I can’t handle is that other managers in my store are less than honest about their service times. Oh, the tricks that they pull are tried and true. “Everybody” does them.

Except I just can’t bring myself to do it. I can’t cheat. I don’t have it in me. I can deal with being thought incompetent, but I can’t be thought of as dishonest.

So, I am playing a fixed game, and the only solution is to be better, even with the deck stacked against me.

But I am not sure that I can be.

I Still Have This Blog?

I’m adjusting fairly well to the new position in the new store, and perhaps becoming a little too comfortable. I’m already letting people get away with things that normally take months of wearing down. I think it stems from wanting people to like me. I am aquiscending in an effort to gain trust and then once trust is gained, try to goad them into doing the right thing. I’m not really comfortable with the manipulation aspect of it all, but the do what I say because I say so approach just doesn’t work.

My professional development has been at a standstill since the promotion, which is counterintuative, but understandable given the amount of moving around I have been doing.

The personal life also feels a bit stilted. I don’t really do much of any worth outside of work. I think I’m going to go in and take another shot at all those goals I started to make and never did anything about.

I’m going to take a serious look at my writing goals and actually get some words on paper, and make an attempt at getting published somewhere. No idea where or what or how. I’m thinking of writing a bunch of short stories and going from there. The slice o’ life blogging niche just doesn’t seem to be my thing. Just not where my talent lies.

I had great fun at the Beck ‘08 tour stop last night. Say what you want about him (Pris, I am talking to you!), but the man is funny, insightful and sincere. Oh, and inspiring.

Not that I actually believe I can do anything about the myriad of troubles facing us as a people, but I can sit back and provide commentary at a moment’s notice.

Hey, we all need a purpose!

Sinner!