Climate Change

I've often said that one must pay close attention to which way the wind is blowing at my job. In fact, I've often asked coworkers what "The weather" is like, meaning that I need to know what kind of "mood" my boss is in.

On Tuesday, we had stormy weather. My boss berated me for taking Friday off last week.
Well, actually, it was more of a "You're taking all these Fridays off" and "Your coworker was stuck her all alone" problem.
Complete with "If you want two days off in a row, just ask for them in advance" and "You should go to the doctor and get all your health problems fixed" and assorted other bullsh*t.

I actually threatened to quit.

Then I looked at the schedule, because I couldn't remember the other Friday she's referring to. Last Friday: Sick. Called in. Technically scheduled off the floor to pack up machines, though there weren't any ready to pack. The Friday previous: Worked the whole shift, though I left a bit early. At 20 to 6 we were dead as a doornail. The Friday before that: The Embroidery FX event was going on, so I was totally there. Came in early and everything. The Friday before that: I was in Michigan. I called on Tuesday to let her know I was taking the rest of the week off to drive my mother back home because of my grandma's death, so theoretically she had time to find people to cover my shifts. I did see that the one coworker was there with another coworker who has to leave early to pick up her kids. The Friday before *that*, not only did I work the shift but there were like four of us there.

So I asked her to point to "All those Fridays" that I left her in a lurch.
I pointed out that the only other Friday where my coworker was left alone, I was taking bereavement leave. "Are you SERIOUSLY going to give me crap about taking time off for a FUNERAL, AGAIN!?"
"What do you mean, 'again'?"
"YOu gave me crap when my uncle died. In fact, it was this same speech about how if there's something wrong with me I need to see a doctor."

I was furious and I left the sales floor.



This is the crap I'm talking about.


So today we had calmer skies. She asked me, politely and kindly, if she could take a meeting with me.
Ok.

It seems that the new idea is to take me off the sales floor entirely. I'm good at my job. I'm a brilliant salesperson, a gifted teacher, and I give excellent phone support. I know tech stuff and so I'm a fantastic "triage nurse" for the poor machines that come in. Frankly, I do the work of three people every time I show up.

But being everything to everyone all the time is exhausting. I'm not being PAID to be three people, either.

So apparently my boss decided where she wanted to put me. I've been nudging her in this direction for a while. She wants to remove me from the pool of "Salesfloor" workers, and put me on classes as my priority. Secondary priority is special projects, like packing machines and inventory stuff, or event prep, or whatever.

My Sunday, Monday, and Thursday schedule won't change. (It never does.) I'll teach on Monday and Thursday nights, and be the primary "Sunday" person. For Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, I will take on private classes (multineedle, lesser machines, software) and be in charge of my own schedule.


I will be in charge of my own schedule.

I wonder what happened to give me what I wanted?

Part of me suspects this: My boss went to the owner and said something like, "Can I fire her now?" and the owner said, "Um, how are you going to replace her? Isn't she teaching all the things?"
At which point my boss got the clue (that I've been trying to give her all this time) that perhaps I'm more valuable being a teacher than being a sales associate.

Ding.

I am over the moon about this.
OMG I can do this. More to the point, I can rock this.
What's more, I can ADD the classes we've been needing desperately. I can add back in ALL of the advanced features stuff, like "Nothing but Borders" and the upgrade stuff for the Ellegante, neither of which have been done in over a year. I can do the "It's Alive" machine care seminar, and do it quarterly. I could run the Hooping seminar myself twice a year. I can devote more time to studying and writing notes for my software class, because no one will interrupt me while I'm working.

Hell, I could get some damn displays done for the department if I'm being *dedicated* to special projects. I mean, damn.

This solves so much of my stress levels that I can't even see straight. It takes me out of the orbit of the particular coworker who is climbing on my last nerve, and lets me GET SH*T DONE.


Oh, the new deal will suck for its own reasons, to be sure. However, I'm confident that I can knock this out of the park, and then walk into the office and ask for a title to go with it.
About three months from now.

And maybe a raise while they're at it.