Monday 19 March 2007

Today was a Monday from Hell, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad to me… a lot of things went wrong right from the beginning like price types going missing that I had to put in. The really hard thing was what happened when we told who did and did not get the Deputy Manager position. The loser didn’t take it well and eventually walked out halfway through her briefing, then went home without telling anyone. I don’t know if she’ll be in tomorrow, but the general thought is that we’ll pay her her 4-week notice period and ask her to not come back, I think. It wasn’t good- more on it later.

She was supposed to close, so the remaining supervisor (Supervisor #2) and I had to cover. It was madness because Supervisor #2 was also helping Deputy Manager (who used to be just interim until i gave her the permanent spot) with a group booking demonstration (Swan Lake on Ice- some of the skaters came in to talk and demonstrate lifts and things). And then one of the two shows on that night got cancelled, again, because the turntable broke (again). So I hopped on the computer out front with Deputy Manager and Supervisor #2 (all the sales advisors were gone for the night, and we would’ve been gone in two minutes ourselves), and refunded/exchanged people. It was the first time I was really interacting with the patrons- it was nice. And since it was opening night for the other show, there were free drink vouchers floating around that Deputy Manager got ahold of after we were done with the refunding. So Deputy Manager, Supervisor and I went to the café and had a glass of wine. While we were sitting there, The Chief Executive came up to us and we talked about her trip to China for quite a long time and she congratulated Deputy Manager on her permanent appointment to the post (I still can’t get over how accessible The Chief Executive is, and how I’m not intimidated by her!). After we finished off our free glass of wine, Deputy Manager, Supervisor and I headed off to the pub, and I bought the first round to celebrate Deputy Manager's permanent appointment. It was really nice- a good end to a crazy day.


Tuesday 20 March 2007

Today seemed to be a continuation of the nuts-ness of yesterday. I felt like I was constantly behind, but that I knew what I had to do to catch up.
Word on the street is that the Supervisor who walked out on me won’t be in for two weeks due to “stress,” which is taken very seriously in England. As soon as someone says that, we can’t contact them for two weeks. This development makes me mad, because now I feel like she’s playing the system. But we’re all picking up the slack, doing what needs to be done. I’m learning how to close out, we’re all pulling extra/less desirable shifts,… it’s hard, but I feel like us remaining ones can get it done. It actually makes me appreciate what it must’ve been like before I got there and there was so much unstableness.

Last night we went out for drinks, and tonight Supervisor and I had a talk as we were closing out. She explained some of her life story, and who a particular male friend of hers, was, and I talked a bit about what I’d been doing for the past few years… I think we’ll be doing quite a bit of hanging out after work, and once things settle down. It’s a nice feeling…
On another front- it looks like I’ve found a choir to join. A lot of people at the theatre are in it. It only meets once a week for an hour and a half, but… it’s better than nothing! Now I just have to make sure I haven’t scheduled myself to work Monday nights :-P


Wednesday 21 March 2007

Is it only Wednesday?! I think it feels like that because I’ve wound up working 12-14 hour days the past few days without a real lunch, and before that I was kept to a pretty strict 8 hours a day, with an hour lunch. I feel like I just manage to get caught up and more stuff falls in my lap- but it’s the end of the fiscal year for us, so I can understand some of it. And honestly, it’s not like it was at Purchase. I know things will calm down, and everyone likes everyone here (and those that don’t really like each other stay out of the other’s way), and it’s not uncomfortable, and there’s no screaming or phone slamming or anything like that.

More on the Supervisor disaster- I’ve found out now that there’s been wilful intent behind some of the things that’ve been going on. She’s been checking and deleting emails from home, and before she walked out of the office without telling anyone on Monday, she completely screwed up the sales advisor rota (schedule), so that it looked like nobody was supposed to be at work on Sunday, when in fact there IS a show… oy. So we (the theatre) changed the password for her email account and everything incoming is being routed to me. I’m wondering how nasty this is going to get, but luckily it shouldn’t involve me too much because I haven’t been there long enough to get hit by whatever might come out of this. And My Boss keeps apologizing to me- like it’s his fault this woman is a nut job? We probably won’t hear from her for a while, but I’ll let you know when the two weeks is up and things happen again.

I opened the box office by myself today, and I get to close it by myself tomorrow night. I was thinking about it tonight, and I realized “it’s not so different, after all.” the general process is the same no matter where you go- I know how to run reports, and fill out deposit slips and things like that- it’s just remembering *which* reports to print, and who needs what circled in what color.

That’s it, really, just a normal day… although I found out that supposedly there aren’t any Twinkies in England (I’m sure there are if one looks hard enough!), and most of my sales team has never had one. So I emailed my mom and asked her to ship a box to the theatre :-P And we (the Sales office) have come up with a fun thing to do in the mornings during Morning Briefing: word/phrase/thing of the day. If I’m working the early shift, I write an American word and definition on the dry-erase board, and if I’m working the late shift, the morning people will write a Northampton/British thing for me. It was so funny yesterday- I called My Boss a goober, and everyone was like “what’s a goober?” I explained that it was a term for someone that was silly/goofy/funny. And then we had to work on pronunciation. At first they would say it with their British accents, then I would say “no, no, it’s ‘goo - ber,” and they’d come up with “geew- ber” and it was just really funny and everyone was laughing really hard.

I just noticed that I have a journal on my hard drive of some of the things I was thinking about just before I left Purchase, and then what it was like to be at my parents’ house while waiting for paperwork to get done. I will have to figure out the best way to post it- some of you might find it really interesting to see the contrast between then and now. Will let you know when I figure it out (and do some minor editing).


Sunday 25 March 2007

It feels good to have had two days off in a row. I started by going to see the show, Joseph, on Friday night with one of the House Managers. I wasn’t pleased about paying £ 25, but… it was a fun night. I didn’t go to the wrap party for the other show, because I was a little tired, and wasn’t sure I knew who’d be going, and besides, I was getting up early the next morning to go to Birmingham. Birmingham was fantastic, by the way. I went to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery first. It was free, which surprised me a bit (still used to having to pay for art and culture, I guess). But it was a great museum- hey, any museum that’s free that also has a real mummy in it is pretty sweet. Then I spent more of the afternoon wandering around looking at the shops and clubs and things. It’s a fantastic little city, and I’m sure I’ll make a lot more trips back. It’s smaller than London, but I didn’t get the feeling of stuffiness I got from London, either.

This week is also going to be a bit stressful. There’s so much to get done at work, and not enough people to do it… and it’s only the Deputy and me for the week, because the remaining supervisor is on holiday… there’s just not enough time for me to get shows cleared off, build new ones, check all the old ones that have been done incorrectly and worry about Tessitura at the same time… I think I’m working a 6-day week, but I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m going to London on Saturday night (hmm, will have to confirm that, now that I think about it!). But things are still going well.