Endings

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

^{_{April “Pink Moon” Waning Crescent @18.6%; Next Full Moon, May 15.}}

In the feed store where I work part-time, I requested a reduction of weekly working days, from an average of five to three only. The store’s manager said I must become a cashier again, because the store needs someone for four days to sell chickens, which has been my job. I agreed to return to the registers.

I decided for several reasons. First, I didn’t feel comfortable with the team I was assigned to work with because communications were nonexistent. The difficulty was offset by hours of working independently, which made my position feel okay.

Other problems are physical. The organization is particular about signage and won’t allow the placement of a sign to “open slowly” on a door separating the warehouse from the store. The door hasn’t a window nor a turning handle to open; it just needs a push. I’ve nearly been crushed several times by someone rushing from the opposite direction.

Last week, something totally unexpected happened. On one of my frequent walks through the warehouse, a bag of pelleted feed spontaneously slipped from a high shelf, landing and exploding exactly where my foot had left. I had been a hairline from becoming smashed. I looked up at the shelves of stored bags and saw disarrays. Bags turned in the stacks appeared dangerously not neat.

I went immediately to the managers and relayed all the discomforts. My team’s lack of cohesion, a door frightening to approach, and worst, that bag, unsafely stored and fallen.

I learned that company policies prevented doing anything about the door, not a sign or a window. They decided they’d bring up the door and falling bag in an upcoming safety meeting. They acknowledged that my team needed leadership training.

Those responses were too little.

I deeply understand management’s responsibilities and that an organization needs practical training and dedicated supervision. That falling bag was evidence of a dangerous environment, convincing me to reduce my schedule there.

Shifting to the cash registers will have me less approaching the blind door, and less walking in the warehouse area.

Dear Friends: Next will be experiencing where events may go from here. Diana