For many, it's already begun!

But I don't start back at my university until later this month so I still have a little time left. And it's about time I gave you all an update...

The three summer goals from my previous journal entry:
Meet my friend ~sk2k52 for the first time.........Check! I traveled to AnimeNext in NJ and met up with him there and again for otakon ^^
Road trip with ~OrlockM249-SAW..........Does Otakon count? And we did spend a LOT of time together this summer. It was wonderful!
Get a second job that pays more .....Not yet but i might be close.... .____. Let me explain...

Work has really frustrated me lately... I take a lot of pride in the work I do and I can honestly say I'm one of the best they've got for what I specialize in... The first problem was my latest work evaluation. I got overall high scores but low on two categories that I didn't believe were justified. This evaluation more or less determines my raise so it's important and my GM put off talking to me about it until I'd waited for days…. And raises had already been determined. He listened to my points after but never revised it as far as I know.
Then I received my lowest raise to date and when I confronted the GM again about that (I came in on an off day and waited to talk to him for over an hour to find out he'd forgotten I was waiting for at least some portion of that time) he said that there's nothing he can do because he was given less money to work with this time. Many of my long time co-workers including one who is a friend of mine for the three years quit because of the raises they did (or in many cases didn't) get this time.

The next thing that happened was that my wallet and blackberry were stolen while I was working. I have a few points to make here:
-My current manager personally had our employee lockers removed when he started here a year or so ago
-My stuff was hanging in the back hallway with everyone else's in the proper place
-We are forbidden to keep our phones in our pockets…

So basically I had my things exactly where they tell us to have them and apparently some customer wandered into the back hallway and helped himself to my purse.

I didn't lose much money (less than $50) but I lost my credit cards, insurance information, driver's license and a gift card worth $70. Also my blackberry… which was only a year or two old but cost over $75 to replace.

My point is that as the general manager he is responsible for employee safety. The manager on duty called my GM and relayed the message that my GM "would take care of this"… Only to be told by him that absolutely nothing was going to be done. He agreed to fill out an incident report but he wasn't going to change anything about the unlocked door or the unsupervised hallway. My stuff being stolen was something that he's not going to take responsibility for or do anything about.

I should also note that he KNEW this was a private conversation to be had and he chose the middle of the dining room to talk to me about it only to make me so angry I began crying and stormed out of the room.
Everyone… Everyone in the whole store was supportive of me and sympathetic. They sided with me and comforted me but that single GM has ruined my otherwise wonderful 5 years of employment… And I'm scared because I was disrespectful to him later that night because I had to work with him for another 3 hours after he made me cry in public.

Replacing everything was a hassle but not a big deal…. But I don't know how to face my GM again… I updated my resume and I think I need to start looking for another job despite the fact that I love my coworkers and what I do…

On the bright side, both my best friend and my boyfriend got hired in the same week! (Both to kosher restaurants coincidentally! My mother's response was "Thank God for Jews!" *shot*) I'm thrilled for both of them and hope I can see them both more often now. ^^

One more year of college is coming up and then who knows what will happen! Things will be hard this year for me and for everyone but I know that if we can get through it, it will all be worth it!