Into it

I’ve decided to file September away as a ‘lost month’ and give myself a reboot, starting this morning. Since arriving at work, I have managed to rip through my outstanding e-mails, complete a Christmas thingy that was well over-due, and get myself ahead of the game with preparations for Hallowe’en. I have decided to allow the staff at all four of my garages to decorate – even allowing them extra paid hours to complete the job, rather than expecting them to add it to their already heavy workload – and go big on the ‘trick or treat’ theme. Normally at this time of year I’d be dreading the arrival of October and trying to dissuade my superiors from overdoing it, but now I’m kind of my own superior, so I can do fun things without feeling like they’ve been forced on me. The bottom line is that my new job is all about the bottom line. If they’re seeing profits go up because of my actions, they’ll let me get on with things and leave me alone. I’m taking advantage of the goodwill I’m receiving from Area Management and Head Office while it’s still early days in the new role and getting them to agree to things they’d normally shy away from. So at ten minutes past eleven this morning I convinced Someone Above Me to allocate us a budget to ‘darken the mood’ of our garages. We fill the place with decorations that are readily (and expensively) available at the attached supermarkets, and hopefully persuade our fuel-buying customers to pop along to the store for supplies. We invite people to take photos and post them on social media, in return for a donation to a charity pot, and we give away prizes for the best-dressed person who turns up in costume between now and the 31^st. Generating free advertising, extra revenue and a bit of good customer interaction in one fell swoop, and that’s why my bosses said Yes.

This is so much more fun than spending all day fretting and waiting to be found out.

I’m feeling confident, buoyant and frivolous, and I may have drunk too much coffee.

RC 1-10-18