TLDR: I used to enjoy my job, but being understaffed and overworked has me ready to quit, the only thing keeping me there is the people I work with
I absolutely adore most of the people I work with (boss isn’t alone on my DWTS list, there’s a couple coworkers on it). I get along with everyone, even the ones I’m not a fan of (that’s a story for another day). Today, though, I was ready to flip the table and duck when I took my lunch. We had 2 new guys join the crew, Monday, and we were insanely busy all day, but we had the manpower to handle training the new kids, running the registers and taking care of a crowd, today we didn’t. Today was just as insane as yesterday (we’re talking close to $1M in sales, each day), but we did not have the needed manpower to handle today. There was 3 of us veterans plus the 2 new kids. By the time lunches rolled around, we had a veteran on the register, a veteran at lunch, me and the 2 new kids behind the counter, the guys in the back working on a big order and a line 20 people deep that wasn’t moving because I had to: answer questions from the new kids, answer questions from their customers, help my customers and answer their questions, fill an order that was due 20 minutes after I was given the sheet for it, climb up the ladders to get shit off shelves in the freezer and coolers and manage people who were trying to cut the line because they thought they were too important to wait with the rest of the customers. I managed this for about 45 minutes until the shop owner decided that he was going to run the registers (having to come out of the office in general seems to piss him off). After he hopped on the register, he was able to see how empty the case had gotten, so as soon as it died down he pulled the other veteran to the register and started micromanaging the guys in the back, jumping around to all the different work stations and taking over because the case had “been empty long enough”. The guys in the back had been working nonstop since they got in at 7:30 this morning, boss man didn’t start to help out until around 2:30 this afternoon. I can sort of understand wanting to step back and supervise more than actively participate in the day to days, but when it’s insane like it has been the last couple of days, and there’s 2 new people who don’t know where everything is at and occasionally need their hands held (which I absolutely do NOT begrudge), you’ve either got to get over yourself and help your people out, figure out scheduling to make sure that there’s enough people who can help out if needed (the big order is a monthly thing, so it’s not like there was no way to plan for it), or schedule extra people for times when you anticipate that it may get busy (like when SNAP benefits are paid and you’ve got a huge order to fill on top of it). I stay at this job because I like the people, but this is not the job I’m going to retire at. Once I start my externship for school, I’m gone, but I was seriously debating on flipping the table and not coming back from lunch, today. Thanks for the vent.