The weirdness hasn't stopped. I dubbed the store manager "The Funeral" because she kills every room she walks into, mood-wise, and also because up until Thursday of last week, everything she did was so stupid that I would start giggling uncontrollably (as one would during a funeral, when one is REQUIRED to be dignified and stoic and quiet).
Last Thursday, she pulled out every weird stop, and she pulled it on me.
Kyle was home sick with an ear infection, and I did what I normally do - cope with being alone up here until Ryan shows up, with Dan backing me up if I need a drink or bathroom break. I end up being alone maybe 1.5 hours at the most, and it happens once a month, maybe.
Unfortunately, until Thursday, she was unaware that this was how we were handling it, and of course as soon as she heard about it, it pissed her off because what doesn't. So, she griped at Heidi about it (and made Heidi come talk to me about it as opposed to handling ANYTHING herself), and Heidi very nicely let me know that from now on, I need to let her know when my cashier calls out sick. That was fine.
BUT. Then, I suppose because the whole point is that I can't be up here by myself for "safety reasons", Stupid Monica came back here, sat down in Ryan's chair, and used his desk to do her work for the better part of an hour. It was nasty and gross. I felt babysat, and it also felt like a pissing match, a territorial takeover, a violation of privacy, and every other wrong thing I can think of. Ryan was extremely unhappy to hear that she would feel free to commandeer his office space, even though technically, it's her store and she can do whatever the hell she wants with it, anywhere in the place.
One good outcome of this was that it gave me the opportunity to wonder what she must have thought of the informal decor back in our office space - the goofy photocopier cutouts of Dan's and Kyle's faces, the quotes I've written down from my coworkers because they were funny, the "Taste Like Burger" everywhere (would take too long to explain), the pictures and notes we've drawn and left for each other. It's very teamy. I'm proud of the way we all like each other and get along and share silly jokes.
There is NOTHING like that in her office. I can't even imagine her knowing our last names, let alone our partners' or kids' names. I think she thinks of us as this obnoxious, amorphous blob with seven heads, not one of us a human being - just this THING she has to do battle with every weekday of her life. I don't think she likes us, individually or as a group, and I don't think she wants to know us.
Yet, she hovers around us constantly, when she's not back in her lair. I think it's because our fun and warmth and team atmosphere make us irresistible and she'd love nothing more than to be part of it.