My Morning

A cashier paged me to the front where a uniformed man was waiting impatiently. He pulled me to the side and quietly informed me that the store's power would be turned off if the bill wasn't paid by the time he got back from his (early) lunch. Uh…….thanks for the warning? By the way, how much is the bill? (Maybe I can pay it out of store funds?) HOW MUCH??? I don't have access to that much money!

I called the office…..no answer. They never answer their phones. Voicemail…no good, I need action now! OK, try again, so when the power gets shut off I can at least point to the fact that I left a message and tried to do something. Called the office again, same extension number…..and someone answered. I quickly explained the problem and was told that they would "look into it." What part of "OUR POWER WILL BE TURNED OFF IN LESS THAN AN HOUR IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND PAY THE BILL" did you not understand?????

So that was a lot of help. Hmmm……Boss is away….again….what do you know. Better let regional manager know what's going on.

Voicemail. Lovely. "Big Boss! Help!"

Wait. Wait. Wait some more.

Thirty minutes left. Office calls. "We called the utility company but they haven't called us back yet. We're still working on it."

I am SO not impressed with the people who work in the office.

Twenty minutes left until we have no cash registers. No credit card machines. No phones. No air conditioning. No LIGHTS. Twenty minutes until we close our doors and stop making money.

Is there anyone else that I can call? No, not really. Looking back, I guess I could have gotten the VP involved, but that would mean some angry office personnel and make my life more difficult in the long run.

Fifteen minutes left and Big Boss calls, seeming unsurprised at both the size of the bill and the situation (and the response from the office staff. After all, it wasn't THEIR power that was about to be cut). Speaking with her made me feel a lot better about things getting taken care of. However, I wasn't so sure about her being able to take care of things in only fifteen minutes.

Five minutes left and I was positive that we were about to be in darkness and SEVERE HEAT. Then the office called….."Big Boss is paying the bill. If the utility employee comes back, tell him that the bill's being paid and he shouldn't turn off the power." Yeah. Right. He gives us an hour's warning (which wasn't required) and then he's going to come back into the store to warn us, AGAIN, and listen to pleas and lame excuses? I don't think so.

The deadline arrives…..hold your breath, cross your fingers…….the lights are still on. Five minutes later…..still have power. Ten minutes….cash registers continue to work. Big Boss calls, "Is your power still on?" Yes, thanks for checking. She gave me the payment confirmation number in case we had problems later on and we agreed that the office staff SUCK (not in so many words, but in those things that you can't say but you understand what the other person means anyway).

Another day. Another crisis averted. Can I go home yet?