I've seen this phrase thrown around a lot lately. Probably because my friends are all of the age where they are having babies or are basically entering the next phase of growing a child- toddlerhood, pre-teen, teen, whatever the new phase that causes pain. Regardless, people feel as if their kids are doing to them what they must have done to their parents.
I don't have kids, so that's not happening to me. But, I have had jobs. And now I have employees, so in essence, I'm paying for my work raising.
And frankly, it's not fun.
Not fun at all.
I remember when I worked at the Buckle, I used to take bets with the other employees about when our boss would show up. He had a terrible habit of being one, two sometimes even three hours late for his shift. The later he got there, the more likely he was brining something to bribe us with. 1-2 hours was coffee, three hours or more would be lunch.
It was our running joke. "I'm going two hours late and cookies." "Yeah, well I think three hours and some barbque."
A few weeks ago, I saw one of my employees write on another employees wall a simple "Chicken AND beans!"
And I immediately knew it was a joke about me. I am notorious for brining myself leftovers for lunch and then not eating them and then leaving bowls of LEFTOVER TIME BOMBS OF FURY! And apparently on this particular day, one of these bowls had been found. And while I don't mind letting my employees clean up after my business messes, I totally don't like/don't want them to clean up after my personal messes.
When I worked my second retail job, I eventually got fed up. I hated feeling over worked. I hated feeling under appreciated. And I hated having two degrees and still being questioned by the redneck about a ten dollar T-shirt.
So one day, I went on break and I didn't go back. I actually sat in the mall waiting for them to realize that I wasn't coming back. And eventually they got it and called me. I had already worked my 40 hours that week. I could have gone home, my boss could have sent me home and said to come back on Monday, she didn't. Instead, she said that if I left like this, I wouldn't be able to use them as a reference. Instead of convincing me to stay, I got up and left right then.
It wasn't what I needed to hear. And I gave up.
Last week, a friend had been helping me bake. And she decided that she couldn't do it anymore.
So she left. Which has left me wondering if it was something I said. If it was me. Or maybe she's just a jerk. I suppose I'll never know. And I have another perfect example of what not do do with friends and family (the first painful lesson I learned was the whole loaning money thing. Seriously don't do it.)
I have dealt with lateness (in my defense, I was never really late to work), with miscommunications and with employees who think they are smarter than me- Um, yeah, I was that employee ALL THE TIME.
I think it's been one of the more painful lessons to deal with as an employer.
Being in charge is not nearly as fun as I thought it might be, particularly if the only 'perk' I had was leaving the employee to wash the dishes and they quit to get out of doing them.
