So Much

Last week was a crazily full week. Working in a consumable area in wal-mart, I have been conditioned to hate the first of the month! It's insane! And low and behold we had both a revisit from the market team and the 1st of the month happen at the same time! Thursday I worked 7am-2pm, then went BACK to work at 10pm and worked until 10:30 am on Friday! THEN went BACK to work and worked 4am-1pm on Saturday! UGH! I'm very much looking forward to the new position and schedule, as it's supposed to run so structured that there is no room for switching hours around. Michelle and I share an assistant and co, and they have both about run Michelle and I into the ground when push comes to shove.... Sunday evening all 7 of us new Zone Manager Supervisors (ZMS) met at the store to car pool (in 2 cars) to Danville, VA for our training classes. The training classes were for the most part a scaled down assistant manager training course. We were there M-W. Michelle and I were supposed to go to "Food School" (procedures etc of the fresh areas) Th-F in Lynchburg, VA- but our co screwed that all up by having us work 4-1 on Saturday. Market said NO, NO, NO overtime.... So now Michelle and I get to drive to Lynchburg Weds of this week. The others will have one day of training for either the backroom, front end, or GM school.

I feel a little better about new position, but getting the bent-out-of-shape people on track in my areas will still be my biggest challenge. I have pretty strong people/management skills, but the training gave me some more ideas and insight on how to correctly talk to associates. I have a HUGE area, so I will have a lot of people to keep productive. I have pharmacy, HBA, cosmetics, candy, paper, chemicals, pets, and dry grocery. The best thing about the ZMS position is that it is only a baby step to becoming an assistant- who are salary and make enough money to live on... Becoming an assistant off from a dept manager is a pretty big leap. I was told yesterday by one of our assistants who just became a co (now called shift managers) that I need to make sure I put in for the assistant manager training... And I've already been told by both the store manager and a different shift manager that I will be able to do whatever I want to do. So I guess I just need to have confidence in myself. The ZMS position will be a great way to get some real hands on experience before taking the training courses. The assistant manager training class is 8 weeks. They do 4 weeks of class, then go back to their home store for 2 weeks, then back to the class for 2 weeks.

So that's that. Because too many good things can't happen to one person, I have next Fri-Sun off, and the Breezy Hill trial is the next weekend. I'm sure I'll be working the weekend of the trial... :-( I'll have to take my trial dates in to work and put in for some weekends for the fall trials. I'm just going to have to be patient with my life right now and remember I can't do it all. Right now if I don't have a decent job we will not be able to do much more than pay bills and buy food. And I'm fortunate that I stumbled upon a line of work that not only I enjoy, but I'm apparently very good at. Hence the bent of shape department managers.... 15 months is not a very long time to go from back room grunt to the 2nd level of management (especially when I had a zero 5 year work history and no management type experience anywhere in my job history). I need to run with this and not let the occasional missed trial interfere. It's funny where life leads you... I'm still going to train and work dogs, trial when I can, and not let go of having a small scale cattle/sheep farm as my ultimate goal. My biggest challenge will be not letting myself get wrapped up in thinking that it all has to happen NOW.... That's something that is very hard for me! I have a real hard time with waiting for "eventually".... I also have to remember to take the time to enjoy my boys while they are young and still in great need of our guidance. Of all of my responsibilities, they can never come in 2nd place! They're approaching some really important years, and I need to make sure I have my head screwed on straight and my attention correctly prioritized!! I do feel like the new schedule of 8am-5pm and 11am-8pm is going to help me get more done here at home. I have a hard time doing a whole lot of stuff when I get home somewhere between 5-6pm after busting my ass (mentally AND physically). Typically all I have in me are the things that have to be done- feeding the animals, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, getting kids to ball practice, going to ball games, helping with homework etc... I have a hard time pushing myself beyond much more than that. Now my "extra" time will be before work, and there should be no reason I go to bed any later on the 8pm days than I normally do, which is between 10-11pm. I'll just be missing our tv time- but instead have a few hours to do some things like working dogs or getting some house work done that's above and beyond what typically gets done. Even simple things like running errands will be easier since so many times where I need to go is closed by the time I'm off work. And as I mentioned this whole new system is supposed to be run very structured, so there should be no more of this "can you come in" crap. Structure is good....