Shorts

I’ve been going through my “library” of science fiction books, looking to reread old friends that I haven’t visited in too long a time. I’ve read Holdstock’s Mythago Wood, which was a more difficult and intricate read than I remembered. I’ve worked my way through LeGuin’s Earthsea books, and have just started in on the Hainish novels. And I’m rereading many of my books of SF short stories.

It’s the short stories I’m enjoying the most. A good short story requires so much more craftsmanship than a novel. LeGuin, Tiptree, Keyes, Bova: I’d forgotten they wrote more than novels. It makes me regret that I ever cancelled my subscription to Fantasy and Science fiction all those years ago.

Work has become … I find I actually lack an appropriate word. This past week I put in 40 hours of “part-time” work over the course of six days. I get today off and then dive into another 40-hour work week again tomorrow. There’s no consistency from one week to the next, making planning difficult. Until last Monday I was scheduled to have the following Wednesday off, so I made an appointment to get my hair cut (something I haven’t done since I started this job in July). I came in Tuesday, checked the schedule, and found the Head Pharmacist had added Wednesday to my hours. This isn’t the first time he’d done it without first consulting me, but I’ve never found it in me to complain because, in all honesty, I need the money.

The new tech they hired last month (yeah, the same one who made The Big Mistake of my last entry) had no such compunctions about making her displeasure known, however. She’s still in school taking a tech course, and only wanted a couple of day’s worth of work a week. The Head Pharmacist kept giving her twice what she felt she could handle, and it came to metaphorical blows. When I walked into my shift Thursday, the pharmacy was paging her to return to the pharmacy (her shift and mine overlapped by two hours). She never responded. Turns out that after having words with the Pharmacy Manager she left for lunch and didn’t return.

She did phone the Store Manager within the hour though, and told her what happened. Store Manager bawled her out for leaving, but took her side regarding the scheduling. As soon as the phone call ended the Manager came to the pharmacy department to give the Head Pharmacist an earful.

There is no private place in our pharmacy. It’s designed so that wherever you are in the pharmacy you can see if there is someone waiting at the register or at drive-up, which means that every part of the pharmacy can see every other part. This meant, in turn, that I had no choice but to hear the entire interplay between Manager and Pharmacist. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe. Of course, both Manager and Pharmacist eventually pulled me into the discussion to support their side of things.

I did the best I could. I agreed with the Manager that it was difficult for me to plan any other activities when I never knew from one day to the next what my schedule was, while managing to avoid the word “unfair” (which she used multiple times in describing our plight to the Pharmacist). And I agreed with the Pharmacist that I’d been told up-front before accepting the job that it was stressed that flexibility in scheduling was a requirement in the position (without pointing out that I was never told that at times I’d be given less than 24-hour notice of schedule changes, and that I’d get last-minute notice I’d have to work on days or times that I’d requested to have off).

So now we have new rules. All tech requests regarding the schedule must be made through the computer system. All schedules must be posted a minimum of three weeks in advance. All schedule changes must be run past the technician(s) involved before being finalized.

And here I thought that for a lousy $10/hour I’d at least be working in a lower-stress environment. On the bright side, the Store Manager took me aside quickly as she was leaving the pharmacy that none of this strife was at all related to me and that the store was really pleased with my work. If only I could cash that check at the bank.

I joined my state’s Pharmacist Association this summer. They hold continuing education symposiums every so often, and last week there was one within twenty minutes of where I live. It cost $45, but it was well worth it. I got 3 hrs of CE, was fed well, and ended up winning a raffle prize that was worth more than price what I paid to get in. Guess I still have a little luck attached to me.