The Cleveland Family: October 2011

So quite a lot of change has been going on for us lately.
1. We bought a new house :)
2. I got a new job
3. We sold all of our furniture so we could buy new furniture
4. Autumn is growing up like a weed--too fast.

I guess four things is not that much but it feels overwhelming sometimes. I'll go into detail about each of these things eventually. I think I'll start with my new job.

So as a lot of you know from previous posts I was working at Olde Mill Salon as a stylist and loving it. I really loved doing peoples hair, teaching them how to do their own hair and learning new things all the time. It was great. And I still love doing all of that, I just felt like I needed to find somewhere new to do all of it. Here is why:

I used to work every Wednesday morning. My boss and I were the only ones there until noon. This was great at first. I was able to ask her things, learn about why she used certain colors for certain things, watch her technique etc. But after a while this time turned into a venting session for my boss. This would have been all fine except that she was venting to me about all of my co-workers. It was very awkward. She would just talk horribly about them. I told her it made me feel uncomfortable and she stopped for awhile. But then she started again. I always wondered what she was saying about me to all of them. And I also noticed she would never tell them what they were doing that bothered her. She would talk about it to me and to everyone else...but not to the person it concerned. She would even talk about her coworkers behind their back to her clients. I felt like it was very unprofessional.

One morning I got there and she seemed to be in a good mood. She told me that she had text one of the girls who worked there that morning about getting a business licence and that the girl had responded she would. She told me she had been trying to get this girl to get one for over a year and had had no success. But she had only just realized that if she text her maybe it would work better. She then went on to tell me everything bad about this girl. Well this girl just so happened to be my best friend in the salon and I hated hearing about it. She finished her venting by saying "And I think she has been stealing my color and developer, there is not enough back on her shelves for her to be doing all of her clients." I had heard her say something similar to this a week before to someone else and it really bothered me. The girl she was talking about she never even worked with so she had no idea if she was bringing in color each time she worked with her (which she was) and she had no right to be telling people that this girl was stealing from her. I felt that that was a huge accusation.

This girl so happened to come in that day to do a color. I felt like I needed to tell her what our boss was saying about her so she could take it up with her. I told her. She freaked out. She was so upset, which she had every right to be. She started packing all of her stuff up and quit right there on the spot. When my boss asked her what she was doing she said she was quitting, and that she was sick of how our boss talked behind her back and everyone else. Our boss then told her that she had signed a contract that she would give a 30 day notice before quitting and my coworker told her to sue her then because she wasn't going to work for her for another minute. After she walked out to her car to put some of the boxes she had just packed in there my boss came up to me and said "What did you say to her? I saw you two talking up here earlier and I know this is your fault." I was like, "Excuse me? Maybe you shouldn't tell me things about other people if you don't want it to get back to them." Then I told her that she talks behind everyone in the salon's back and that it was really unprofessional and she said "Ya I talk about you guys, you all talk about me so I should be allowed to talk about you." In my head I thought, are you freaking listening to yourself, you sound like a two year old. Then she said "I was talking to you about this because I thought you were my friend." So I said to her, "that's fine, I can be your friend, but you're my boss first and you can't talk to me about problems you're having with my coworkers, it's very uncomfortable for me and I've told you that." and then she just said "I thought you were my friend" again. Then she picked up her keys and walked out the door. So there I was sitting at the Salon by myself feeling like maybe I should just quit too. But I also felt like that would be a very emotional decision and I should wait it out for a few months and see how things go, and so I did.

The rest of that day was pretty awkward, my boss came back about an hour later and didn't say a word to me. When the rest of the girls got there my boss told them that this girl had quit that day because of me. The next day I had a color and as I was going through my color book I realized I hadn't been updating it like I should have been, so I went through my books to make sure I could remember all of my clients I had done that week and write down their formulas before I forgot what I did on them. After I was done doing this I went to clean up my station a bit and my boss came over to me. She said "what were you doing on the computer?" I told her. She said "you better not be going through your books to get all of your clients info so you can quit too. You better not do that to me." I couldn't believe her, if I wanted to get my client info so I could quit I had every right to do that. If my clients wanted to follow me that was their choice, she didn't own them and neither did I. But that's not even what I was doing and it really bothered me that she automatically assumed that's what I was doing. She then went on to ask me if I was quitting. I told her I had thought about it but that I decided not to right now. She said good and then went on to compliment me on some chairs I had upholstered for the salon. She said she thought I was great and that she wanted me to stay.

The next few weeks were not too fun. The girl who had quit was one of my only friends in the salon. It wasn't like I didn't get along with everyone else, but they weren't the kind of people I hung out with out side of work, I wasn't close with any of them. They would have girls nights all the time and talk about them in front of me but I was never invited. I assumed they thought I wouldn't come because I don't drink and that's what they did at girls night, and the truth is I probably wouldn't have gone, but it still hurts when you're the only person not invited. It's sucks when everyone around you is talking about what a fun weekend they had together and you weren't given the choice to go or not. But to be fair I didn't try very hard to be friends with them either. I wasn't really interested in making friends. Work had become a place I went to for work and work alone. When I had clients and I was busy I felt great. But when I had gaps and I was slow work was unbearable. I hated being there.

The receptionist at the salon was my bosses son. He was amazing at remember people. He knew product better than I do. He was very pleasant to clients most of the time, but he was also a teenage boy who drank a lot, smoked a lot and wore a band t-shirt with jean shorts everyday. He was the first person someone would see when they walked into the salon and he wasn't exactly what I would call professional. Not to mention that he and him mom would get in fights. A lot. In front of people. I had more than one client comment on how awkward it was that they were over hearing a family fight while getting their hair done. I felt stuck, I didn't know what to do.

My boss finally fired him/he quit after a really horrible Saturday where he left early and then sent her a text message that he was going to kill himself. I freaked out, then the girl who quite earlier in this story told me that he does this a lot. She worked at this salon for 6 years and she said it happened once a year. Not that it's not serious or anything, because that is a serious thing, but it was just too much. There was too much drama, unprofessional ism and so forth going on there I couldn't handle it.I knew I wanted to quit, but I was scared. I didn't know where I wanted to go. I didn't know if my clients would want to follow me. I didn't know how to tell my boss, because she freaks out and it's crazy. So I didn't do anything.

Two new receptionist were hired to fill my bosses sons place. (By the way he started working at an Old Folks home and loves it and is doing much better on the depression stuff). One of these receptionists really changed things at the Salon. She was so amazing. She had been a manager at Sego Lilly for a long time and had taken time off to be with her two sons, but she was now ready to get back into the work force. She was so professional. She just turned the atmosphere in the salon around. I felt like things might work out after all. She and I attended a color class together and she asked me about how things usually ran at the salon because she felt like things were pretty unprofessional. I don't even know how but this whole story just came tumbling out. She was a little surprised with my version of our boss. She hadn't really seen that side of her yet. But she said she did feel like the salon was pretty unprofessional and that my boss didn't know how to handle things very well. It wasn't even another month before she ended up quitting due to her own experiences. When she came in to put in her two weeks she asked my boss if she could have a minute to talk to her and my boss responded that she was busy and she could talk to her right there (she was doing someones hair) so this girl told her that she had an opportunity come up (which she did, Sego Lilly had called her and wanted her to open two new spas) and that she unfortunately was putting in her two weeks notice. My boss freaked. She started yelling at her that what she was doing was so unfair. She told her to leave the salon right then and not come back. She called her later to tell her she expected her to finish the two weeks. You can imagine how nervous this made me because I had been going back and forth on quitting for ever 4 months now.

A few days later I hear a quote that said something like "you'll never change anything until you know what it is you want" and I realized that I wasn't quitting because I didn't know where I wanted to go. I called my friend (the first one to quit in this very long story) and asked her if her salon was hiring. I had been in there to get my hair done and I liked it. It seemed relaxed and much nicer. I wasn't positive that's where I wanted to go but I thought it would be fun to work with my friend and it was nice and such. I was unsure because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure if i wanted to go to a commission salon or a booth rent salon and the one my friend was at was a commission salon. My friend was a booth renter but they let her stay that way because she moved over there with a full clientele. That wasn't the case for me. My friend told me to bring in a resume for sure. Then as an after thought she said, you should check out Salon Pure too. I've heard good things about it. So I did. It looked nice from the pictures and so I decided that I would bring a resume there too.

That night I told my husband that I was planning on quitting. He asked me to wait for a few months because we were closing on our house that week and it stressed him out to think of me quitting. I told him that I wouldn't quit unless I had another job but that I was going to be actively trying got get one. I put my resume together that night and the next morning I went in. When I walked into Salon Pure I immediately liked it. It gave a good first impression. It looked really good. It was decorated well, it looked high end. I was immediately greeted as I walked in by two girls at the front desk. I told them I was just dropping off a resume and i asked if they were even hiring. They asked what I do. I told them I was a stylist and they smiled and said yes. One of them asked if I did booth rent or commission. I said I was interested in either. As I was walking out the door I heard one of them say to the other "She was really cute." I felt excited. I hoped I would hear back from their manager. It turns out I did. The next day. While I was at work. I was so excited I could hardly wait to call her back when I got off. When I did she set up a first interview for the following Monday. She said from there we would set up and audition interview where I would do a color and cut in front of her. This made me a little nervous but she was so friendly and nice on the phone I couldn't wait to meet her.

On Monday my sister came up and babysat Autumn while I went to my interview. It went so great. I felt like i was just having a conversation with a friend rather than being interviewed. By the end of it she told me she loved me and wanted to hire me right then and there. She asked when I could get a model in by to my audition so I could start. I was so excited! I called my sister and asked if she could be my model that afternoon. Everything just seemed to work out. Her sister-in-law was able to watch our kids so I could do her hair. We did a consultation and then a color and cut in front of my new boss. She said I did great and that she was definitely hiring me. Now all I had to do was put in my two weeks notice at Olde Mill. I was a little terrified. I can be such a chicken sometimes.

I put in my two weeks notice the following Wednesday. It went a lot better than I thought it would. I told my boss that night after I was done with my appointments for the day (just in case she told me to get out like she had my coworker) but she acted exactly opposite of what I was expecting. All she said was "I know, I had a dream you were quitting over a month ago, I've been expecting this." It was weird, but better than a freak out.

I started my new job at Salon Pure two weeks ago and I really like it. It's always hard to change. But I know I will be happier here. Most of my clients even came with me! :) and we bought a house right down the road so I'll be able to stay here for a long time. She also said I can do commission until I'm built enough to switch over to booth rent and then I can switch. It is a great opportunity and I am very excited about it. The girls that i have worked with so far I've really liked and I think that this fresh start was exactly what I needed!

P.s. my new boss is absolutely amazing and just the right kind of person that I need to work for. My boss at Olde Mill is a good person, she just wasn't the kind of manager that I could work for, her style just didn't work for me, but I hope that she is successful and happy. I think that me leaving was the best thing for both of us.

Here are some photos of my new place of work! :) Isn't it beautiful