Worst Day

Today was easily the worst day I've ever had to  work at the bike shop. The new boss and his operations manager were on site all day. They're normally 2+ hours away running 3 other bike shops. The boss has meticulous and high standards, but is tactful and forgiving. His operations manager, however, spares no feelings and pounces like a hawk as soon as the customer leaves the building. That made for a very tense and high stress work environment. 

All of us employees were on edge and hurriedly doing our assigned tasks. It didn't help that the operations manager went through all the store's stats with us first thing. He talked about hourly revenue and the importance of add-ons and showed us where they literally calculate how much money each employee generates for the shop that day. We all looked terrible. We haven't had much business yet, so everything looks terrible. 

It was also pretty demoralizing to have the operations manager publicly dismiss part-time employees as lazy, ignorant, and unreliable. Um. Thanks.

I snarled inside when I was described as having "great potential" but "still pretty green." Even though it's true, it was spoken in a way that dismissed my questions and subtly nudged me out of the conversation at hand. It was spoken from my service manager to the operations manager as if I weren’t standing right there. I'm pretty sure my service manager was trying to stick up for me or save me from something he thought was coming if I persisted in asking my quotations, but it still stung. I'm feeling really insecure right now, so it's easy to get under my skin. We're all feeling insecure.

One more thing that I found unsettling today was how quickly the operations manager could switch from 'excellent customer service' mode to 'hard-nosed, judgemental manager' mode. With a customer, he was all helpful and conversational and smooth. When the customer left, his pleasant expression and friendly voice just disappeared. Was he lying to the customer?

And all of that together meant work today was painfully competitive, rushed, impersonal, and no fun at all. I assembled 2 bikes in 4 hours. I could hear the operations manager breathing down my neck. 

I kept thinking to myself, "I am what I am. This is how I mechanic and how fast I can go right now. If he doesn't like it, he can fire me." I don't need the income or the harassment. He won't fire me, though. They're really hurting to staff the place as it is. And, as my service manager pointed out (probably to help me feel more secure in my job, but actually making me feel pretty angry), I'm 'good for diversity.' (So much more internal snarling!). 

What will actually happen is I'll get assigned the low level tasks until I'm really good at them, then I'll keep getting them because I'm really good at them. There isn't much room for personal development in this model. 

Who wants to work in a place like that?!

Come to think of it, I've been awfully lucky this far in my life not to have experienced this before. My 72yo service manager has never had benefits or vacation days or a salary. This is how a lot of people make their way through life. I can't complain too loudly, right?

We need more people to work at the shop, but I honestly can't recommend the current working environment/culture to anyone I know :( 

Here's hoping we survive this transition intact. 

Hello again

Hi there! It's been a little busy for me lately. I'm kinda running from one thing to the next with very little processing time. I'm working on an awful lot of goals! It's awesome, I love it, and it makes me tired. 

Work has been different lately. There was all the extra work getting everything cleaned out and sold before the owner retired, and now there's all the extra work getting everything set up and ready to go with the new owner. We're all kinda weary. There's a lot to learn still since the new owner is a rip roaring business guy with 3 other successful bike shops. I'm still learning how to assemble and repair bikes, but now I also need to learn how to SELL bikes to customers and meet sales goals. 

Maybe they'll hire some awesome sales people so we wrench monkeys can just work on bikes without interruption...maybe??

*sigh*

I'm super insecure about it all right now. I have this deep down fear that my manager will want me more on the retail side of things than on the mechanic side of things. The previous owner assigned mechanic work first-come-first-serve. Each mechanic got to pick and choose their work for the day. I could crank out easy things or take all day learning/practicing a new skill. This boss, however, prefers a more efficient method where specific jobs are assigned to specific mechanics based on their time and expertise. It makes sense. I can't blame the guy for wanting an efficient and productive business, but those priorities don't leave much room for learning, y'know? I'm not the fastest mechanic, and clearly I'm the least experienced one, so, when peak season hits...will they give all the mechanic work to faster folks? Ugh. Super insecure about this.

In related news, my goal to refurbish 45 bikes by mid-August is going well! I got in contact with a local charity-owned thrift store and they're letting me refurbish any bike donations they get in. I just fix them up, make them safe to ride, and give them back. I'm using my wages from the bike shop to pay for the parts. James and Matthew love working with me on this stuff. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's James who likes this stuff and Matthew just comes along for the company. I've refurbished 9 bikes so far! James and Matthew test ride all the kids bikes for me, any size. I can tell that I'm getting better and more confident with the basic stuff. That feels good. 

Sometimes the donated bikes are in rough shape. This is Bobby cutting off a lock so I can work on the drive train.

James was really, really, really excited to get this donation to work on. He's wanted an adult trike since he saw one in the bike shop. I've got it up and running for the most part, but I'm waiting on a new rear brake. Luckily, the front brake is AWESOME, and it's safe to ride. James has gleefully ridden it to school already. He'll be sad to see this one go. Yes, Matthew made that face on purpose.

My test riding team. They really put the bikes through a lot, which I appreciate. 

Another goal I've got going is for physical activity. I joined an event at my gym called "Survivor". You sign up to do a certain amount of exercise each week for 7 weeks, each week getting more and more demanding. It's taking effort and planning to fit it all in. I'm counting anything I do at the gym and anything I do at home that replaces a more sedentary activity. For example, riding my bike to work instead of driving or going for a leisurely stroll instead of napping on a Sunday afternoon. 

I've got seeds planted indoors now, too. Gardening has begun! The community garden folks I work with want to scale things back this summer. I'm okay with that. 

I'm taking guitar lessons with Erin again. That's been great! I love it! I just wish I loved practicing. 

Rachel and I rode 50 miles in 2 more states this month: Texas and Louisiana. I got to spend time with my parents and sisters in Houston, too. That trip helped me decide that I want to travel to see my parents at least every 6 months now. 

It's too bad it's a mirror image :( This sign was a really fun one in Louisiana.

Pedestrian overpass on our Texas ride.

I didn't write this in Texas, but I like the sentiment :)  And if you look really closely at the top, someone wrote my name. Not me. No one ever has my name, so I thought it was extra cool.

We've had a couple sunny days and a 5-day weekend for the little boys. I took Alex, James, and Matthew to the Gilmore Car Museum near Kalamazoo, MI. It was fancy schmancy! No one got sick or threw up on this trip. Huzzah!

Matthew learning to drive a Model A. Wow, that was a complicated task.

A brick replica. The museum had loads of pristine vehicles of all sorts of upscale makes and models. Cool to look at. I really liked this sculpture, though, and liked it even more after reading its story. A small family had a real version of this car that they used and loved through many significant milestones in their lives. It finally gave out and the parents bought another car, but the mother always said this first car was the absolute best and nothing could truly replace it. The daughter had this sculpted for her mother's 80th birthday or something like that. The car was probably dependable and everything that the family needed at the time, but I suspect that this mother's love for the car had more to do with the life they lived in and around it than the mechanics themselves. I can relate.

This is Matthew photo-bombing a picture I was trying to take of James giving wheelbarrow rides during a play date with a young friend. That's a complicated sentence. 

The kids were drawing portraits of each other on the Etch-A-Sketch. Yes, I have better pictures of the kids and their artistic end-products, but this photo captures Alex in an all-out laugh. It makes me happy.

Our stake has decided to emphasize service this year. The whole stake was invited to volunteer at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank last Saturday. Bobby, Alex, and I went to the morning shift where we got to divvy up potatoes into smaller portions. 

Is my hair actually THAT grey? Wow.

Photo op at the end. During our labors, we discovered potatoes that looked like several vital organs. Alex found a kidney and a heart. I found a stomach and something that vaguely resembled a brain. I was hoping to find a liver, but we ran out of time. 

Alex and several of his youth leaders from church. He has a really good time with them.