It was frustrating in more ways than one because it made it infinitely harder to consider firing her.
It also made it more difficult to stay clear-headed when she went back to treating me with disdain.
When she noticed my observations from the side of the room, she left the two barbacks she’d been supervising and stalked over.“What the hell are you doing?”
And so it began.“Excuse me?”
“You’ve put Riley and Nathan on tonight.”
She stood with her hands on her hips.It had the unfortunate side effect of highlighting her sharp collarbones and the elegant line of her neck.
Neither of which I should be noticing.
I kept my eyes level to hers.“Is there a problem?”
“No.No problem.Just thought it might be weird since they can’t stand each other.”I wasn’t aware that much sarcasm could be expressed in one sentence.
“I’m sure they know better than to let that get in the way of their work.”
She snorted.“Oh, yeah, twenty-year-olds are known for their professionalism in the workplace.”
“I’ll have a word.”
“You do that.”
Finding Nathan first, I asked him to follow me into the office.No need to have this conversation within earshot of the others, though I knew it would likely make the rounds afterward anyway.
“What’s up, boss?”
“I wanted to check that everything is going well?”
“Yeah, of course.New system’s great.”
“Good.I’m glad to hear it.”
There was another moment when I wondered whether to push or leave it be.
“Was there anything else?”
“Hmm.I understand there might be an issue with the schedule tonight.”
“Uh, no.”
“There’s nothing I need to know?”
“Nah, boss.It’s all good.”
“Ok, thank you.”
I decided to trust his answer for the time being.It wouldn’t be the first interpersonal conflict I’d had to navigate, but he hadn’t given me any indication that it was going to be a problem, so I’d give them both the benefit of the doubt and wait to see how that night went.
It wasn’tthat I didn’t believe Tiffany’s assessment of the situation, but I was also aware that these types of disagreements could be resolved over time.I was also painfully aware that we were not flush with excess staff, so petty squabbles could not always be accommodated.
As opening crept closer, it appeared I’d made the right decision since nothing untoward occurred.
Unfortunately, as all best-laid plans did, it fell apart at the exact moment it was inconvenient.
The night had officially moved past after office hours to the evening crowd, and the bar was full.The sound of a glass breaking was not a welcome one but also not uncommon, especially in a crowd of this size.The second and third glass were, however.
