storm in a compost bin

The week didn't enjoy a flying start, as one of my co-workers who doesn't get on with a second colleague let rip with yet another unpleasant remark this morning, and reduced the victim to tears. I intercepted the manager as he was getting out of his car, and told him what had happened, and that he had to sort it out.  I believe that he did.  Goodness knows what impels people to be gratuitously nasty to the other people they work with.  We are all in the same boat, trying to earn an honest living, when if the lottery millions magically came in we would all be able to think of other ways of spending our time, so we might as well be polite to each other to help the day pass more pleasantly.

(The worst case of corporate bullying I ever saw was at an investment company I worked for more than twenty-five years ago.  They employed a male secretary, which is a rarity even now.  He had the admittedly comical name of Henbest, and an extremely camp manner, and one of the senior fund managers was persistently vile to him.  I think he left, without bringing a case for constructive dismissal, which he'd have deserved to win if he had.  The culprit went on to become the enormously rich owner of an eponymous hedge fund business, and I laughed a lot when I saw how much money he lost in the Railtrack nationalisation, though he remains extremely rich.  If I am ever tempted to regret that I didn't do even a hundredth as well in financial terms as he has, I console myself with the thought that I am not an utter shit either).

Trade was rather quiet.  Someone called to collect a hundred box plants we'd bought in specially for them, and late in the day the van was loaded up with a huge order for delivery tomorrow, but the season for people having a mooch and buying the odd plant is pretty much over.  Somebody from a local landscape company we deal with a lot came in to collect plants that were reserved for two different jobs.  I knew he was from the landscape company because it was written on the back of his jacket.  I thought that to make the paperwork tidy, I should make a note of who took the plants, so we now have it on record that they were collected by Dumpy.  He said they'd know who that was.

The phone rang a lot with people wanting specific plants.  Some we had, and some we didn't.  The woman who was after Abelia x grandiflora 'Francis Mason' turned out to have tried to call in person last week, but misjudged when 'dusk' was, and found us already closed.  I wondered whether to mention to the owner that at least one customer had been foxed by the concept of 'dusk' as a closing time, but the manager said he'd mentioned it to her quite recently, and she'd said it was fine.

The turkeys hung around outside the shop for the first part of the day.  They believe that people are their friends, since I gather they are often to be found by the boss's front door.  Never feed poultry by your door.  You will only encourage them to stand there, and the droppings will be trodden into the house.