The manager has gone on holiday for a fortnight. It is the first time he has ever taken a whole consecutive two weeks off, and he left behind a folder containing instructions on what we should do in his absence, starting with an introductory page about correct watering techniques, and then with an A4 sheet for each of us listing our jobs for the duration. Mine include keeping the display tables looking good, as far as possible given the plant material available, with the comment that he knew he did not need to tell me, but that plants on the display tables should be weed free. I thought that since he didn't need to tell me, and knew it, telling me anyway was mildly irritating. Later on when I went up to the office to leave a message for the boss I saw that the manager had left a photocopy of the folder contents on the boss's desk, so he is obviously trying to cover his back, in case while he is away we don't bother to water properly and let the place become a tip.
Back-covering is a popular managerial activity, and without it there would be many fewer corporate e-mails sent, but leaving people notes telling them how to do their jobs properly seems to me entirely futile. In a plant centre, being able to water effectively is what you would term a key competence. After their first week in the job, let alone several years, everyone should know that it is important to soak the compost, not just splash the foliage, and make sure the plants at the back get done as well as the ones at the front. If I thought anyone I was supervising wasn't fulfilling one of their most basic tasks I'd speak to them, with eye contact, and some searching questions to find out why not. Happily I don't have to supervise anyone nowadays.
A couple of largish trolleys went through, which must have boosted the day's takings. Somebody bought a compost bin shaped like a traditional beehive (i.e. WBC, for the beekeepers among you) for £209.99, and someone else bought a Photinia trained as a standard and a large box ball which together came to three hundred quid. That's the sort of thing that gets the average spend up. We do our best, trotting around to find an extra plant that a customer is looking for, or steering them towards larger packets of chemicals, but you need an awful lot of those to add up to three hundred pounds. The compost bin lady even ordered another one. Ours at home are made out of recycled softwood from the old decking, and on Gardeners' World last night Monty's were made out of corrugated iron, but if people want £209.99 compost bins we are happy to meet the need.
I never discovered what the day's total was, as I spent the last bit of the afternoon loading a large shrub and three bags of multipurpose compost into my car. A customer wanted them delivered to the next village, which we don't even charge for as it is so close, and as my colleague explained that because of staff holidays nobody would be available to drive the van before next Wednesday at the earliest, I thought that since I drove home past her door I might as well just drop them off. She accepted this offer with alacrity, and I realised that my boot was half full of bits of firewood I'd collected last Tuesday and forgotten to take out. I'll look on that as my random act of kindness for the weekend.
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