ch-ch-ch-changes
Not a lot for me to tell about the past 24 hours. I did make dinner last night, just as I did the night before, although last night I went for winging it a bit more than usual—I kind of had no idea how it would turn out. We had one last can of Jyoti brand Delhi Saag, and I heated that up in a pan; added half a can of milk both to add volume and thin it out a bit, just because I know Shobhit likes to do that; and also added half a chopped onion and about a third of the block of paneer we had, also chopped relatively fine. I also cooked up a small pot of rice with coconut flakes, and fried up one packet of four frozen aloo parathas we had recently gotten at Mayuri Foods, the Indian grocery store in Redmond.
A lot of that was pre-made foods already, but I improvised a bit with it. After I dished myself my dinner I found the vegetable dish mixed with rice to be pretty bland even for me, so I did something I almost never do: I added salt to my bowl. Maybe a little too much; it was almost too salty after that. I then doubled the salt I added to what I had left for Shobhit, to which I had also added four finely chopped small green hot peppers. He was actually fairly happy with it when he got home from work and ate, which was kind of a relief.
Then we watched the last three episodes of the 8-episode first season of The Boys on Amazon Prime, which I honestly think is kind of an underrated show. We both enjoyed it a lot, and are looking forward to the season two release on Friday.
Now I have work news. Steven, the HBC ["Health and Body Care"] Associate Merchandiser hired to replace Kibby when Kibby moved to Category Management a couple of years ago, is as of this morning officially the new HBC Merchandiser, replacing Terry who retired and had her last day last Friday.
This was largely expected. I got a little self-conscious about my age when Steven was hired at the age of 28, essentially the HBC equivalent to Noah, who kind of occupies a position that exists between myself and Grocery Merchandiser (Scott's position). Noah has been in his position for several years now, and effectively mirrors what Elin used to do. To give Scott the great deal of credit he deserves here, when Associate Grocery Merchandiser opened up, he specifically asked me if I would be interested in it, and I have a feeling he would have advocated for me strongly had I been gunning for it. But, as always, my first question was, "Will I need a car?" And when Scott said, "Probably," I was basically like, "I appreciate it, but no thanks!"
That said, when Eric's position opened up, Shobhit legit nagged me to apply, and I wouldn't. I still don't believe I ever would have gotten it, and I also think that if I had, I would have felt I was in way over my head. I think Eric is very competent in the job of Pricing Manager, but it also appears to me that he is overwhelmed and tasked with more than he has time for. And I say: no thank you to that as well. Even though I don't think Eric's position has a particularly huge need for personal transportation.
Also, I enjoy not having any other workers to manage.
All that said, I also had a Zoom meeting with Justine (Director of Merchandising), Eric and Steven on Monday, about "HBC support," and the gist of it was what tasks I could take off Steven's plate since Terry is gone. There was not a lot. Then, I had another Zoom meeting yesterday with Beth (Senior Category Manager), Kevin, Scott and Noah, and at one point Beth noted that it's pretty clear there is no intention to hire anyone to replace Kibby, who had been let go (in a thoroughly shocking turn of events) in February. Noah shared that he had spoken to Steven about the comparative lack of profitability in HBC, which sells expensive items at low volume, and it seems PCC's kind of unstated position is that it's not cost effective hiring a replacement—which moves a lot of what had been her work onto Kevin.
But what about the fact that now there's no one in Category Management specific to HBC and no Associate HBC Merchandiser? I have a feeling a fair amount of that void is going to fall to me over time, if no one new ever gets hired. That's a lot to heap onto Steven as it is, and we'll see what gets discussed in this afternoon's all-Merchandising Zoom meeting happening at 1:00. (On the agenda there is a discussion about "racism, diversity and inclusion as part of our work," so that should be interesting, particularly among a group that's about 95% white.) In any case, if I wind up with a lot more responsibilities by default, it may become time to ask for a raise that's not just cost-of-living. That would cost them less than hiring an entirely new person, after all. On the other hand, no matter what, I won't work more than 40 hours a week, so if something doesn't get done as a result, so be it. I'll just gauge it as it goes and see how things shake out.
[posted 12:33 pm]