And so it begins....

Yesterday was a fabulous day off.  Really.  Katie is going to her first semi-formal dance this coming weekend, so we were out and about, pulling together an outfit.  So, we actually had a fun weekend.  Found a dress & shoes on Saturday, however, the dress needs a "shrug", so we were off looking for one.  Didn't purchase one, as we didn't have the dress with us (It's still at the shop...Gram is going to help pay for it, I put the deposit down on it.  Not a ton of money, but more than I can shell out in one sitting...thank God for Gram!!)

And then, I had a Facebook message when I got home.  And Facebook was being temperamental, so it took me more than an hour before I could access the message.  My best friend, who works at Walmart, had messaged me to let me know that the salon didn't open on time.  And that it was considerably later when it did finally open.  So, I called the salon to find out what happened.

Rita answered the phone, and when I asked what the heck was going on, she passed the phone to Stephie as she was the one who opened and not Rita.  The excuse I got was "I was running late".  And when I tried to get into it with her a bit, she cut me off with "I've got a client in my chair".  So, I said "Fine.  We'll talk about this later".  Then, after hanging up, I got in the car and drove over to the store.

When I got there, I made sure to clock in, so I would get paid for being there.  I managed to find my best friend, who filled me in on what she knew.  A customer, expressly for the salon (as he didn't have a cart of goods to purchase from Walmart) was waiting in front of the salon, for it to open.  When the call came over the walkie-talkies (which all the supervisors at Walmart wear...looks like a blue-tooth thingy in their ears) for anyone to know what's going on at the salon, it attracted her attention, so she first tried calling me, but I didn't answer the phone (as I was out for the day), so she facebooked me with what was going on.  About 15 minutes after that, she FB'd me again, letting me know the salon was now open.

When I spoke to Stephie on the phone, she let me know she'd clocked in at 9:56 and opened the salon immediately.  This is where I started getting hot under the collar.  We're supposed to be there 15 minutes before our shift starts.  This isn't a Beth rule, it's a company policy.  And, this is a conversation we've had before, fairly recently.  When I got to the salon, Stephie did, indeed, have a client, so I waited patiently, for her to be done.  It's actually mildly entertaining to watch people delay the inevitable.  When she went to place her dirty towels in the laundry was when I asked her to step into the back room.

I shut the door, turned around and asked her exactly what happened this morning.  I got the running late excuse, I got the "what time is the time I'm supposed to follow, the time clock or " real time"" excuse.  She talked over the top of me, to which I started to raise my voice a bit, to be heard over her.  To which she got even more upset and told me not to raise my voice.  I informed her that 9:45 is 9:45.  The time clock is the clock you go by, period.  Cell phone time (which is considered "real time"), alarm clock at home, the clock on the wall, don't matter.  It's the time clock that is the clock to go by.  Did I mention this is a conversation we've had before??  I was angry enough that I also mentioned her not taking lunches when she's scheduled a long enough day to take one.  And we went round and round about that one, too.  I interrupted her (because I got tired of talking over the top of her and not being heard) to inform her that when you work 6 hours or more, you MUST take a half hour lunch break.  This is not only corporate policy, but NH state law.  And I wouldn't let her talk any further.  She got angrier and ended the conversation.  I did let her know Tammy was going to find out about this.

After I got home, I placed that very phone call.  And spoke into the voicemail for 10 minutes before it cut me off.  So, I'm hoping, between the message I left on Saturday morning about "Would you please call me on Monday around 8:45 so we can talk about the issues we're having...all attendance issues".  I'm also going to bring up the fact that I'm not going to do the manager job any longer without receiving the managers pay (which increases my commission to 50% instead of 40, but, I believe, doesn't increase my hourly rate).  If she doesn't want to pay me, that's fine.  Then I'm not doing the manager's job any longer.  Get someone else to do it or get an area supervisor in here to do the damn job.  (I'll leave out the damn, though)  It should be an interesting week.