This post is really not about the death, tho. It's about the people still alive.

One of my employees died today. He'd been very sick for a while, and it wasn't unexpected, but it was still quite a blow. He's only three years older than me, and I'm young. He died of heart failure, altho he was also experiencing liver failure, kidney failure, and lung failure, all resulting from drug and alcohol abuse in earlier years. It was very removed from me, as I had only been transferred to this store in mid-March, and had never met the young man, but it's evident that he had left an impact on his co-workers and even on our customers. He was very loved, and will be very missed.

My struggle is not finding the emotional strength to survive the shifts, nor is it to deal with the loss. My struggle is maintaining the objective balance which takes my employees firmly by the shoulders and looks them straight in the eye and tells them, "Look, we're all in this together, and everyone else NEEDS you, just like you need them. We can all do this, and we will all make it thru, but we need you to be here and do your job, just for now. Let's just get thru the next six hours."

How do you show compassion and sympathy and understanding and still be firm and run a business? This will be a busy weekend, and we are open every day. This is also Easter weekend, and now there will be a viewing and funeral, and I will have only a handful of very new employees incapable of holding a shift together on their own for the day of the funeral. Closing our store is not an option, as we're part of a (small) corporation. We've called other stores to try to find employees that would be willing to fill in, but we're over an hour away from most of them (several hours for some), and it's a holiday weekend. Whoever isn't working has plans, and no-one is keen to drive and drive just to fill in for us. Hell, I hate the drive myself.

I'm not really looking for people to solve this problem, I want to say. It's not really going to be solved as much as it is going to be endured. Eventually, life will return to some form of normalcy, and everyone will grieve after their own fashion, but until then, each shift is a mess of crying employees hiding in the break room, chain-smoking and insisting they can't do their job, they just can't. I ache for them, but I have to run the business. It's advice or words of wisdom (or even encouragement!) from anyone who's been there, on one side of the fence or the other, that I'm looking for.

And thanks, folks.
~Erica




Morik The Thief: something that might amuse you... I think I pissed off a customer
Morik The Thief: as there was a package at work delivered to a Miss G Edwards
Morik The Thief: for bladder control underwear

~Jarlaxle