Contract For Tender: assassin wanted for hit on bookstore manager

as if it isn't bad enough working with Drusilla, and trust me it isn't easy being in the "command" of an extra from Rentaghost, i also have to put up with the Machiavellian machinations of the Poison Dwarf; now the Poison Dwarf took up her position as manager a while before i arrived, but in the first six months i was there, she managed to get rid of four perfectly good, intelligent members of the full time staff, and several others have gone since then. and anytime she takes on anyone with a brain and a spine intact they're are usually gotten rid of as soon as is expedient (i like expedient, its the sort of word she no doubt loves), not overtly but in the more subtle low-key way: be as inflexible, unhelpful and difficult with them til they leave of their own free will. thus the job has become more difficult as time has gone on: malleability and manipulability are her favoured qualities in staff. I'm unsure why I've lasted so long;maybe its cos she has generally been nice enough to me, or maybe its because I'm endearing (ha!). i suppose she may even see some actual value in my work, but the implausible should probably be left out of it.

anyway, what with the increasing staffing cuts (which i suspect she doesn't fight much, or represent the seriousness of our staffing situation to The Big Folks), she has become more of a pain; she's persistently Pollyanna-ish, and fails to take seriously the stress levels of staff, that are rocketing every time we don't get someone replaced. its a silly situation. i suppose when you're on three times the salary everyone else is, it's not worth caring.
she's a deceptive wee beastie, anyway; looks like a cheery sweet little ball of Next dresses and hippy jewellery, but there's some serious steel underneath.

today we had several weekend staff in to help out; with Drusilla in the stockroom, i was fortunate enough to get a weekender for company on the first floor; makes a change these days not to be on my own. was nice, until t'Poison Dwarf, says "i don't think you need ------- up here , Rabid, its not very busy; so i think we'll send her to help out on ground". i nearly blew, honestly wanted to walk out there and then. i pointed out there were five of them downstairs already, but it buttered no parsnips. (don't you just love that "you know if you have issues, you should talk to me"spiel, when they don't listen to a bloody word you say??). when i started at The Place, the staffing was 3 upstairs, and 4 downstairs, plus the manager and the assistant manager. these days, except for the M and the AM, there are only three full time staff, and the rest of us are part-timers on varying hours. The First Floor nominally has 1 full-timer, and three part-timers. but most of us don't coincide hours-wise, and it ends up being one or two of us manning the floor. while everyone else is pulled into ground. its farcical, really. our floor is treated as little better than an afterthought. doesn't help that certain members of the ground floor staff are less than diligent, and more prone to coordination and delegation than actual work.

i really need to think about whether i need the money and the discount enough to warrant all this crap. and it can only get worse in the run-up to Christmas. bastarding company. you know someone's making millions out of it, but it ain't the people that do the work. heigh ho.

like Gloria, i shall survive. with luck , and a following wind.