The Past Three Weeks at Work

The past three weeks at work have been pretty crazy. Our boss, Sid, was away on vacation in China. He hired a new fellow, Peter, from our church to take over his everyday duties. Unfortunately he didn't get very much training beforehand.

There are a lot of things to do when you have a small business. You're in charge of everything from finances, to supplies, to making sure all the equipment is working properly.

One of the first problems Peter had to deal with was one of the machines that wraps the hot towels wasn't working well. Again. This machine has been acting up for a long time. Sid gave Peter a quick go through on how to fix it, but he couldn't seem to figure it out on his own.

Another problem we had was the late delivery of materials to make the wet towels. I believe we got the shipment before Sid left, but we were still playing catch up while he was away.

To make matters worse, the machine that makes the rolled wet towels stopped working. I guess something broke and it needed a new part. Peter called someone to make it and the machine sat idle for four days putting us even further behind.

Then there was the problem with the hot towels not being cleaned well enough. I'm not sure why that was. Whatever the case there was a mountainous pile of towels deemed unclean enough to use by Mrs. Li sitting in the middle of the floor.

Peter went to buy some replacements, but even they weren't enough. Near the end of Sid's vacation I was having to skip customers because I didn't have enough towels to deliver. If I could, I would go back the following day but, of course, that totally screwed up my schedule.

With all these extra distractions Peter was having a tough time keeping on top of things in the office. We were late with deliveries so people were constantly calling and complaining. He was getting really stressed out.

To top things off Peter was supposed to pay the company's GST at month end (end of November). But he couldn't get the numbers to come out correctly and there was no one to call for help. Sid was out of the country and Joseph (Sid's son), who had come in to lend a hand a few times, had gone away somewhere at the end of the month too. So they might have to pay a penalty for submitting it late.

Anyway, Sid is back now. I don't know if things are completely under control yet. But I think they're slowly returning to normal. Hopefully.