Pixie's Chronicle: Weirdos and Psychos

Woohoo, I actually managed to get another Pixie's Chronicle out when there is supposed to be one! I know, I can't quite believe it either. But I'm super tired after a weird day at work, my boyfriend fell asleep on me, and I'm bored, have the urge to write, but don't possess enough concentration to actually work on my stories. Rambling blog entry it is then.

It's definitely been a weird week. However, for once, some positive things seem to be happening in my life. I received the good news yesterday that my job is no longer at risk! Thank goodness for that! As much as I complain about it, I do really like my job, and was super worried about having to go job hunting in the current climate. It's such a relief and a huge weight off my back. One less thing for me to worry about on top of the other hundreds of things that have me stressed out. So thank you, universe, for actually deciding to throw me a bone for one. It's much appreciated!

That doesn't necessarily mean that things have been smooth sailing at work though. Sunday was a hellish day since my... ummm... let's just say arch enemy in the company (no, it's not actually my regional manager) decided to come to our store and help out with packing. Now, I've never really liked this person. They always came across as too bossy, aggressive and manipulative. She tried to turn me and my former supervisor against each other and start drama between us. Luckily it totally didn't work because we're both super close friends and we're not those types of people. But it did make us dislike this individual more than we already did. Especially after she made another one of our colleagues cry because of how horrible she was being to her. How she hasn't been fired yet for her bullying behaviour, I have no idea. 

Despite all of this, she'd never really done anything particularly awful to me personally. That was until I sassed my regional manager in front of the entire company when I'd gotten tired of her constantly criticising us and blaming us for something she had done herself. She went really weird with me after that, and then she became particularly grumpy towards me when I had an anxiety attack while on the phone with her when she was trying to make me work at a different location. That was an awkward moment, especially when it then led to me getting into even more trouble because I had hidden the fact that I had anxiety disorder from them. 

So yeah, let's just say that I'm not her most favourite person in the world.

Dealing with her on Sunday was certainly not fun at all. She kept trying to catch me out and get me into trouble for the most random things. She humiliated me in front of my manager, spied on me (not even joking there) and got all annoyed when I said I was going on my lunch break. She said to me "who said you could go on a lunch break?" Sick of her shit at that point, I just turned to her and deadpan said, "the law," before storming off. When I came back, she was bragging about how she didn't have time for a break because she worked so hard. She then started bragging about how much she harasses her own staff. I think I'm starting to see why so many of her staff go on the sick now. She probably drives them all to mental breakdowns. 

Unfortunately, this wasn't the last time I had to deal with her this week. My manager's grandmother died suddenly, so she had to leave to be with her family and take some time to grieve. This meant that I had a twelve hour shift on the Tuesday, followed by an eight hour shift on the Wednesday. It wasn't exactly pleased, but I was doing my manager a favour and wanted to help as much as I could. The main problem was nobody seemed to deem it important to tell me that there was a very important transfer occurring on Tuesday. So I rock up at 6am, thinking it's going to be a normal delivery when the driver arrives and asks me about the transfer stock. The what now?

 Panicking, I called my supervisor and they had no idea what was going on either. So I ended up having to call my favourite person in the entire world at seven in the morning because both me and the driver had no clue what we were doing and what was supposed to happen. She wasn't best pleased with me, acting as if I was expected to read her mind, and got annoyed that I had never dealt with this kind of thing before. Like, well maybe if you had trained me properly, I wouldn't be in this mess! She had even ordered us a bunch of stuff that she knew wasn't going to fit in our store, and again, got annoyed when I said there was no room for it, thus confusing the delivery driver even more and wasting more of his time. I swear to motherfu - gaaaaah! She is so stupid and horrible! A total psycho!

Needless to say, Tuesday was a long day. I was so tired that I barely even remember the rest of it. I remember hiding in the stockroom at one point to have a panic attack, but that's about it. Wednesday was another not so fun day. I was already super tired from my shift the day before, and I would be working on my own for the majority of the day, meaning I had to focus on my job, customers, health and safety stuff, and so much more, all on my own. My colleague didn't make it in until twelve, and by then, I was ready to wave the white flag. The pressure was on for me to boost sales and all that jazz (yeah, good luck with that when it's raining). Then, by the end of the day, I hadn't managed to reach sales targets, the tills were messed up, and I was a stressed mess on the office floor. I didn't leave work until late, and I was beyond exhausted. 

Thursday - mercifully - was a much quieter day spent playing Animal Crossing, hanging out with my boyfriend, and relaxing. I hadn't heard anything from work, so I thought that all was good. But then Friday came and as soon as I entered, my manager started on me. Apparently I had messed up the safe (though I found out today that I hadn't, she had miscounted and automatically blamed me without double checking), and I just all around was doing a bad job. I apologised for some of the stuff, because yeah, in my stressed state, I had missed certain things. But at the same time, it wasn't as if I was purposefully being lazy. I especially emphasised that I had not been trained to babysit the place yet I was constantly relied on to do so. The reason I make so many mistakes is because I was hired to do one job, but now I was doing another on top of that which I had never received the proper training for. 

I also explained to her that I have brain issues, so it meant I was going to make tiny mistakes every now and then and miss something. That's just something that I can't do anything about. If it's not my brain not working properly, then it'll be a side effect of my medication. She calmed down and seemed to be pretty understanding. She's now promised me that she's going to be taking the time to train me properly and that she'll try to be more understanding of my issues. I'm super grateful, and I just hope that she keeps her word on that. 

My shift today though was just plain weird. It was me and my supervisor today, and let's just say that we both have the tendancy to attract the local weirdos. One guy came into the store and he was obviously high on drugs of some sort. He smelt like he hadn't washed in months, his eyes were all droopy and glazed over, and he kept stumbling and almost looking like he was about to pass out. I asked if he needed me to call someone for him, but he insisted that he was fine. He stayed for ages, not doing anything in particular, and he was actually quite intimidating. Especially when he thought I was convinced he was a shop lifter and tried to force me to search his bag. 

My supervisor called the police, and although the officer didn't seem too interested in the situation, he did thankfully stay with us until the guy left. That didn't stop him from coming back about an hour later though, demanding to know why we had called the police on him. He then revealed that he had lost his bag and that he was convinced that we had stolen it off him and he was going to report us to the police. At least now my supervisor knows I wasn't kidding when I told her that this town was full of weirdos.

Later on, we then had another crazy guy come into the store, wanting to use some coupon that was for an entirely different store. Of course we couldn't do anything with it because it was for a different store, and this resulted in him having a full-on meltdown before he stormed off. Then I had another woman asking me for vegetarian fish oil again. Seriously?! There's no such thing, people! I double checked to make sure she wasn't wanting something that was halal or cosher or something, but noooooo, she insisted she was a vegetarian. She then couldn't understand when I broke the news to her that fish oil was not suitable for vegetarians because it contained *drum roll* FISH! Then her ten-year-old son started shouting at me because another product that she wanted was out of stock. I was beginning to think that someone had slipped something into my drink this morning or that I'd banged my head and woken up in this weird alternate reality. It's just been such a strange day. 

I... I give up. Is there any sanity left out there in the world? Mind you, I'm a fine one to talk. 

In terms of writing, I haven't technically gotten much done because it's been so hectic. I've managed to publish Twelve Days of Chatmas onto AO3 which you can read by clicking here. I've also been managing to update Madness Within on that site a lot more regularly. Apart from that, I haven't done much. I am hoping to get back to work writing very soon now that things at my job seem to be looking on the calm side for next week. Famous last words.

Speaking of next week, I can't believe that it's nearly Christmas! Where has this year gone? It's been both slow and fast at the same time! I already know that Christmas is going to be particularly tough on me this year. Not only have I lost my dog, but my grandma will be unable to visit because of the pandemic and the fact that she's still in hospital. She's made a huge improvement today, so here's hoping that she can be released soon. We're pretty convinced now that it was an infection that was causing all of the problems and was thankfully not a stroke, because ever since she started taking antibiotics, she perked up and returned to her normal self and can now walk again. 

In other news, marichatness has been busy creating multiple pieces of fan art for Madness Within! Please please please check it out on her Tumblr page and show her some love and support. She is super talented! You can also see some of her work on my blog in my fan art section, and I'll be uploading some more work of hers very soon! 

Anyway, I think I've babbled on for long enough. I hope that you guys are okay and are taking care of yourselves. I'll see you all very soon!