SOS

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The stress at work I've mentioned? I knew I couldn't go on like that forever but figured I'd know when it was time to speak up. Guess that turned out to be yesterday. I realized I was a day late filing a sales tax return, which will cost the company a penalty. The NY sales tax return has odd periods, not month-to-month. We pay monthly, then quarterly too. I thought this was a monthly, due after the 22nd. Turns out it was a quarterly, due on the 22nd (because the 20th was a Saturday), which I realized on the 23rd. I have no excuse. I screwed up.

My boss stopped in my office yesterday morning to see how the audit was going (which I haven't touched, due to working on the sales tax return) so I immediately 'fessed up about the tax return. He's obviously unhappy but never gets mad, just tries to fix things and move on. I told him my bigger problem was that I can't keep up with the workload. I told him I thought I could, by putting in more hours but that wasn't enough and not a good long-term solution. (The good thing here is that, to my knowledge, he's not one to put in more than 40 hours himself.)

To his credit, he immediately took steps to see about off-loading some of my work by talking to Jen - who took my rock star employee into her department, whose work I'm overloaded with. (I took the piece that was 80% of her job, by her estimation.) I don't think that's the answer but it was worth investigating and I was glad Bob took my thoughts seriously. I think today I'm going to gather my team to see if we can hash this out - who can do what and what has to slide.

Before you ask, there's no way I'll be allowed to hire someone, even part time. I've asked. It's next to impossible to hire someone, in this economic climate especially, who is not revenue-generating. We're "overhead", don't you know?

When we lost the aforementioned rock star employee, I knew we couldn't survive efficiently long term without her. But there was no choice but to absorb her work. Time to reorganize.

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Couple that with the stress of Simon moving home and I'm feeling a little defeated on all fronts. Not only do I love Simon to pieces, but I like him as a person. We have a very good relationship. But the give & take of living in this house feels a little lopsided to me. It's all a work in progress. Every day gets a bit better.

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On a more pleasant note, I'm happy with my progress on the Pine Tree Designs front. I've mentioned the next show in mid-October is a biggie - so there will be plenty of time for panic before then.

And my poor neglected Etsy shop needs some attention desperately! This weekend, I must get new product posted. It's almost empty. Which is sort of a good problem to have, but not really good for current or future sales.

Enough babbling and whining, must get to work. Thanks for listening.

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