Six miles today on a very hot and humid afternoon, but it was good to be out there. The bomb in my in box today is that one of our homeless vouchers funding is being cut by about 60k, which means in a month I will have to send about 20 families back on the street. I love my job, but there are parts of it, this being one of them, that breaks my heart and my team's heart. This specific grant is from year to year depending on funding available, so there really is nothing I can do, but work harder to build more affordable housing so we can depend less and less on voucher programs.

Nancy, I'm sorry to hear about your uncle's passing.

I'm simply a guy who unloads trucks. I title anyway. One of our suppliers invited me to a customer appreciation banquet. I wasn't able to go. Later, I was told that I was missed. That's nice. There's a company that manufactures steel connectors for construction projects. They tie flooring and rafter systems to the frame in houses and support beam to columns. We get them from four different suppliers. Sometimes we have to order odd ball stuff for specific projects and they're sold to us in full case quantities. We have to order 25 if a customer needs 16. Every 6 months or so, we've accumulated shopping carts full of extras.(I don't know if the customer gets credit for the unused pieces or not). a few times a year, we haul them up to a recycler as scrap metal because we're sick of the clutter. During a slow week, I emailed the manufacturer with a list. They said they'd buy it back. Not only did we get a nice check to apply to shortages that may happen in my department, they sent a nice letter thanking me for the way in which I packaged and labeled their product.

<rant> Has it been two months since our general manager left? I'm astounded in what the new norm has become. Some good people have tried to maintain their status quo. At least three are attempting to step up can cover what they are able. A number of commissioned sales people "work from home" and our sales reflect apathy.  Salaried employees are "working from home" as well. I came into work last Tuesday at 8:00 AM. We open at 7:00 and the main doors were still locked. Employees went in the rear entrance but never unlocked the front doors. Sometimes I'll come in and start waiting of customers because no one else will. About 1/2 the crew has quit wearing the required logo gear. A few that still do have defaced the product. Some crew members are smoking where ever they feel like it. They are acting nice while daring someone to call them on their nonsense.