Lodge Locuras

I’m finding that I don’t have near enough time to give a full enough account of my adventures down here. The last few days I’ve been using my breaks to get ready for next my week in the woods - laundry, prepping my food, repacking, cleaning my car - all things that I have to be done before I leave again. I figure it’s smart to do those first and get them out of the way and then go down the list of other things that I should be doing. Sleep is on top of the list of things that I should do more. Writing letters, taking pictures, just relaxing… I’m wondering more and more if working two jobs is the right thing to do.

It was while I was dusting the gift shop (again) that I debated the importance of Jacob Lake in my life. My eyes were glazing over and an all too familiar feeling came over me. It was the same feeling that I get when I spend too much time with my mother wandering isles grocery shopping - I was bored. And not only was I bored, poor lodge management was starting to wear on me. As I rearranged thousand dollar pottery pieces, I weighed the pros and cons like my mother taught me so well. I didn’t have any paper close by me or else I probably would have drawn out a T-Chart to help organize my thoughts. In my moment of frustration the ‘Cons’ were taking a large advantage over the ‘Pros.’ I was not feeling it that day. I was not enjoying how things were going, and felt like my time was extremely limited. It’s almost like returning to my mission days – all day every day. Next came the ‘Pro’ side, which ending up winning the battle – as by my still being here. Working at the lodge gave me a place to stay while not in the woods. Almost like living at home, my room and board was free. I didn’t have to pay rent nor worry about buying food. My only expense has been gas and the occasional oil change. I calculated a $1000 swing to my advantage by staying at the lodge. 1: I earn about $500 a month. 2: I don’t pay rent. (others are paying anywhere from $200 - $500) And 3: I eat for free. With that $500 a month I have been able to pay for all my tithing, gas, and other adventures – enabling me to pocket all my wilderness earnings.

My conclusion was this: I stay at the lodge because of money. 1000 bucks for 10 days work is too good to pass up.


I tell you all of this because it wasn’t a day later that I found myself brought into the manager’s home and sat down on their couch where I was almost fired for misconduct.

We were closing up the kitchen when one of the others yelled for me. “Hey David, La wants to see you.” Slightly confused, I walked out front to see Laura waiting for me. She had me follow her around to the store and into her apartment off to the side. “Come on in, David.” Salesi, her husband, was picking up a few of the scattered toys in the living room and welcomed me in as well. I was directed to the couch where I sat down and wondered what was going on. They seated themselves on a second couch directly across from me. Though I now can’t remember exactly how it started, I know that I saw the schedule notebook in Sale’s hands and thought it might be possible that they wanted to go over my work schedule with me. I was partially correct. La brought it to my attention that the schedule notebook had been tampered with, some rewritten and changed, and now a page was missing. That page was important because they refer to the notebook to see who worked what days when the end of the month comes around and payroll is due. At this point I knew where it was going next. The rewritten part was in my handwriting, and my name was down for the next day’s schedule that they had not yet made.

I sat back in my seat a bit, and pulled a pillow on top of my lap. They knew as well as I did that it had been me. They each took their turn in lecturing me. And, like good missionaries do, they repeated what their companion had said and then further explained it. La sometimes thought it necessary to repeat what Sale had said completely - fearing that I didn’t understand his broken English. Sale sometimes thought that La didn’t explain things well enough and thus repeated all that she had just said. So I got doubly lectured on each point that they wanted to cover.

They felt that I was trying to take over management - which they had ever right to infer. I had no right to touch the schedule notebook, cause for which Sale said that I could be fired. And what’s worse is that several weeks earlier I had taken the initiative to make a schedule sheet on an excel spread sheet. I noticed that La rewrote the same thing every day on a spiral bound notebook, and thought it easier to just print off a premade sheet and fill it out instead. I stapled a handful of sheets together and put them next to the schedule notebook. What I felt was a nice gesture in the moment was being counted as evidence against me.

Part way through the lecture there was an obvious shift. I broke off eye contact, and started fiddling with the pillow on my lap. I bent over and rolled down the legs of my jeans that I had rolled up in the kitchen to keep from getting wet. Sale and La noticed the change as well, and asked me if I was alright. My response was yes, but I was now starting to get a bit irritated. What I thought ‘just lecturing’ turned into half truths and ridicules hearsays. When they had completed their circles around each other, I asked for a moment to say a few things. I pulled out a small composition notebook that I had tucked away in my pocket and scooted to the edge of the couch. My voice cracked when I first started to speak – it had been a good twenty minutes since I had last spoken. I cleared my throat and offered a preface to my pulling out the notebook, “The last couple days I’ve been making a list of things that I wanted to talk to you guys about.” I of course didn’t tell them that I had titled my list, ‘Lodge Locuras.’

I started out by explaining the schedule situation. The night before after closing we were sitting around the dinner counter waiting for whatever was next (maybe it was Mission Prep, maybe Sunday school, I can’t remember…) The schedule notebook was sitting on the corner next to me so I pulled it close and looked it over. In a moment of OCD/ACD, I started copying the schedule over to a new page. La wasn’t very organized and tended to clump everything together. I rewrote the same information on the next page in what I felt a more organized manner. I then took the initiative to write out the next few days as well. I didn’t fill out who was to be working where or when, but set it up similar to my spreadsheet so that La would only have to write in names, nothing else. Once that was done, I put my name down where I thought would work best right before leaving for the woods once again. Having explained that, I concurred that I had no right to touch the schedule, and that it would never happen again. However, I wasn’t going to take blame for the missing page.

I then referred to my list of Lodge Locuras and explained several issues that had occurred that bugged me. My biggest problem was miscommunication. Everyone in the lodge complained about it, but I especially felt it because of the disconnect I had.

Issue #1 - Several weeks ago a backorder bracelet was misplaced. I had talked to the lady the week before, but knew nothing of the bracelet and referred her to another employee. Never associating further with the lady or laying eyes on the bracelet, I left for the woods and thought no more of it. When I returned, the lady had come by to pick it up and to pay the final amount. However the bracelet was nowhere to be found. In Laura’s frustration she pointed fingers at everyone trying to locate the lost bracelet. I had not yet been blamed for misplacing the bracelet so La turned her whirlwinds on me. I told her that I didn’t really know anything – to which she spit out that I was the one who talked with the lady first, and that ‘no one seems to have ever seen the bracelet.’ I felt mistrusted and irritated that she was blaming all of us for losing a bracelet that she should have held on to herself.

Issue #2 – A few weeks ago I was in my room getting ready for the day. I was scheduled to work Rover (the dude who does everything… kind of rotates between gift shop/kitchen/waiter, etc). I assumed that I was to start at 11 instead of 9 because I was going to be helping Sale tile the diner floor again. The last few days we have been starting late morning because Sale usually sleeps in after prepping the floors the night before. I had every reason to believe that I was going to start at eleven like usual. Instead I was summoned by Laura a few hours early and told that I was late. Huh.


To be continued… (break’s over, gotta get back to work…)

-------

And we’re back!


A sub issue to this issue deals with food handlers permits. Apparently we all had to have them in order to work in the kitchen or wait tables. Laura wasn’t entirely sure or informed of the issue so none of us had them. Finally Melinda (another family member) came up for a visit and let us know that we should all get them. I had already started mine the month before – just never got around to finishing it. After finding this out, La told us that no one could work until we had completed the online course. I asked if I should finish it that night, La told me to do it in the morning - yet another reason to believe that I was to come in at 11:00 rather than 9:00.

Issue #3 – The snowmobile gang came in for the weekend and requested a banana cream or lemon morang pie. I let them know that all we had was cherry and blueberry, but that I would put in their request to the kitchen – no promises. I then asked fellow employee Carolyn if she knew how to make either of those pies, because the boys had requested them and had offered to pay double for them :). She said that she might be able to, but that she would have to check with La for permission before starting. I said excellent and washed my hands of the situation. Later when La asked Carolyn why she was making those pies – all hell broke loose in the back bakery. I felt like Carolyn was being picked on rather harshly so I stepped in and offered that I was involved as well. I told my side of the story and left. Well – over the next few hours and into the next day (the day I got pulled into the office) the story evolved into that I had given Carolyn permission to make the pies – leading us back to the original and mother issue of them all – me trying to take over management…

I concluded by saying that I hated the feeling of not being trusted, and offered that our main problem was communication – or a lack thereof. After having explained my side of a lot of things, they understood where I was coming from a lot better. La opened up and told me a bit of her life story – how being a twin she tended to be the one in the shadows trampled over and taken advantage of. This was her big chance to prove that she is capable of manning the lodge and she didn’t want to screw it up. The conclusion that I drew was that in trying to be a good boss she is pumping a lot of energy into her job. However, being the new boss – she feels that her hands have to be in everything and that those things have to be perfect – thus paying too much attention to minor details and ignoring other issues that should take priority.

Oh! – I forgot to mention that during their circle lecturing, they were kind enough to point out a few positive things – that I was a good hard worker, could be trusted with lots of projects, I brought an energy to the lodge, and that they enjoyed having me there.

At the end of our meeting Sale shook my hand and Laura gave me a hug. Though I hated being in the hot seat, I feel like I now have a better understanding of management – even though I disagree with their methods sometimes.