There is something to be said for a customer base that has seen you every morning for the last three and a half years which have enough compassion or understanding of a person to not ask them "what happened??" when met with the face I greeted my customers with this morning. As the curse would have it, I have for the second time this year, gotten shingles on my eye. Quite the anomaly, as I have been told by the doctors. Trust me, there is something noticeably wrong with my eye and if you saw me every day you wouldn't miss this. As some of my co-workers had no trouble pointing out, "what is wrong with your eye?", "you look terrible", "your eye looks like it is going to explode." - but we have a different relationship.
Not a single customer ventured to ask me what was wrong with my eye. Maybe because they were nervous of what my answer would be. As one friend described last time this happened, "if I didn't know you, I would think you are in an abusive relationship." However, I like to think I know my customers better than that and in turn they have come to know me and the reputation our kiosk holds for being a little bit of a medical struggle. Therefore, as long as someone is there to serve them coffee, we have an unspoken understanding: there will be no questions asked.
Back to the curse: April 2011-January 2012.
Our little family has gone through some changes in the last nine months. We had six of the original nine team members leave, mostly for new jobs or school, everyone was moving on in their lives. Leaving only three amigos behind. Since April, it seems for every person we hire there is at least one that leaves:
Kelsey: quit with short notice, left me hanging
Karen: resigned for another job
Danielle: still with us
Jasmine: quit short notice
Jeremy: still with us
Valerie: moved away
Trisha: no show for training, let her go
Gail: not able to work
Pamela: newest hire, doing great
There was a flittering moment somewhere between November and December when I think we had a full roster for all of one week. But the quest to rebuild our family continues. We currently sit at 7 team members but the lucky number is 8 and until the final spot can be filled we only have one rule: NO GINGERS ALLOWED. (Okay, we don't truly hold anything against gingers, just the people that have left us hanging in the past have all coincidentally been that of the red-haired variety).
Paired with the staffing issue we have also seen our share of medical ailments: shingles of the eye - twice (myself), sprained ankle (Danielle), getting hit by a truck - as a pedestrian (Janelle), and just the normal challenges that come with running a kiosk.
So as we will soon transition from January to February, we can only hope the each passing day brings us a little bit closer to the end of this curse.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved in the stories. I will never disclose personal information on any of my customers or employees*
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