THIS WEEK, my restaurant gig had me scheduled for five eight-hour shifts. In this economy, at this particular location, there is not any single employee other than the floor management and probably the head chef who are scheduled for 40 hours in a week. But my schedule had me training today and Wednesday, and then off-to-the-races on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday! Woo Hoo!
Then I get a call from my background acting service - "we see you're available tomorrow but not Wednesday, and there's a request for YOU; it's one show that wants you for both days. Can you make it? Call us back IMMEDIATELY."
So I call the boss lady to see if I can (basically) skip my last day of training and just jump into the fray on Thursday. She's like, let me see if the floor manager thinks you're ready; I'll call you back. So I wait, and Stephen and I rearrange our bedroom in the hopes it will change the noise we hear from next door.*
Then the boss lady calls back to say, no dice on missing one last training, but if you can find someone to "cover" the shift you're scheduled for on Thursday, then you can TRAIN with that person. I'm like, okay, I think I have the person who'll do it. She's like, cool, if that person is cool with it, then have him text ME to let me know. I'm like, cool.
So I call the dude I want to train me (because I know he'd love another shift if he can get it, and frankly, he's been my most consistent trainer). Get his voicemail, probably because he doesn't yet have my digits in his phone. Leave an urgent message and send an urgent text. Call the acting service to leave a message saying "don't give up on me - I'm just trying to cover my shift!" Dude calls me back and just wants to clarify that this is kosher with boss lady? YES - send her a text - YES, I'll take the shift! Cool!
Call the acting service back; leave a message - it's covered, I'm good to go, please call me back to tell me I've got the gig!
... too late; they booked someone else! AARGH! So now I have the next two days off and have killed my "consecutive working days" streak, AND I may have left a bad taste in boss lady's and floor manager's mouths, since I've only been with the company just over a week. All of this happened in less than 30 minutes. Wow.
It's crazy how I wasn't working so much when I wasn't working... and now that I'm working, I'm working so much that I have to try to manipulate the laws of time. If you have a gig for me for the next two days, call or text me ASAP. I'm available.
*A post for another time
Well, crap.
ReplyDeletelol
Deletethank you for that.