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Having another case of the Mondays

3 min read

I have a lot of days at work where I just can’t seem to get things pulled together. Days where I can’t find a pen that writes on credit card paper, or I answer the phone “Good morning” even at three in the afternoon. Just a million little things that don’t really matter, but can add up to a big annoyance.

Most of the time, I just tell my customers that “it’s my Monday,” and we laugh at me. They’re always willing to laugh at me. We have kind customers in that way.

Last week, I had a real “Monday” start to my Friday.

I rolled into the parking lot with five minutes to spare and was surprised to see the doors were still locked and the lights were still out. I was also surprised to not see my co-worker’s car in the lot. He is as reliable as the sun when it comes to work, and we were the only two scheduled to start the day.

Regardless, I walked around to the back door where the dock crew was busy loading a truck, and borrowed a key from the head guy to open up.

I was nearly overwhelmed the second I got inside. The phone was ringing off the hook, the answering machine was blinking, and cars were pulling into the lot. I answered the phone and took an order. I looked around for my co-worker. No one had seen him, but I was sure he’d be there.

I have never had to log the computers on, so I wasn’t sure I knew how. That was quickly an issue, as I almost immediately had a customer at the counter with two items. I checked the shelf price, did the math and manually rang up his purchase, writing the total down and setting his money aside to remind me to put the sale into the computer when I had a computer to use.

I was getting increasingly worried about my colleague, who had still not arrived.

I called our secretary, both because she lives nearby and because she is incredibly kind, and she came down to open up the drawers and answer phones for me until someone else appeared.

Finally, I remembered the answering machine. I pressed play, and heard the sound of my associate’s voice – sounding terrible, but alive – coming through the speaker. He had the flu and was calling off. I can’t remember another time in my six years at the store that he has ever called off, so he must have really been dying.

I made a couple of calls to other employees. Another co-worker offered to come in for the day, but our manager was reached instead. He arrived, we survived, and things settled back to a semblance of normalcy.

I was glad to be off for the weekend, however. But you know what that means? My next scheduled shift is ACTUALLY a Monday. Watch out, world. It could be a doozy for me.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.

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