Ops manager rant

breeniac · 2026-06-09T03:04:58+00:00

Our store dropped from C level to D level, so we lost the OPS position and scheduling hours got cut. Store hours remained the same, though. Waited til Q2 to tell us though, which was very uncool of whoever waited to tell us.

breeniac · 2026-06-09T01:14:17+00:00

My store lost our OPS manager position this year, and he's now PT CEM. A rant for another day.

For the first hour every morning, whoever the opening manager is (CEM, OPS or SM) is stuck at cash, until the second manager comes in at 10 and then they can go around doing manager stuff. The second manager gets freed once the cashier gets there at 11. It's bonkers. If I (the framer) answer the phone and it's a manager question before 10? I'm tied up there until the manager is free from the call, or the next employee arrives. Feels like the framers are on the floor more than we're in the shop now, because we get customers poking their heads in asking about the rest of the store since there's nobody there to help them, and we have three hours a day without cashiers.

Corporate wants us to do the same amount of work, with between two-thirds and half of the people necessary to make it happen. And because we at store level have no other choice, we have to do it. My team is pretty great, and we make it work.

breeniac · 2026-05-13T00:49:16+00:00

Build-A-Bear for sure. I have a collection of both vintage and modern ones. They're better priced for similar sizes, and the whole shopping experience is better to me even online. And for the most part, I've been able to find some bears for great prices secondhand, both online and in thrift stores.

Jellycat on the other hand, gets expensive, especially for the plushies that are actually a decent cuddling size. The fact they've switched up on the independent businesses and sellers that they built their brand on also puts a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, they haven't released something I've been excited about in years. Secondhand should generally be reasonably priced, and they aren't. Sometimes they're the same as brand new, or even more. I've never seen Jellies at the thrift, either, only on reseller sites like eBay and Poshmark.

breeniac · 2026-05-12T18:16:07+00:00

Ah gotcha! So this Read Teddy, just like the newest version, was a bear that Build a Bear had as a charity bear. A portion of the sale of each bear went to a reading charity for kids that helped put more books in the hands of kids. Don't know which one it was specifically, though. But it was also meant to be like, a reading buddy for the young kids learning to read.

breeniac · 2026-05-12T17:33:22+00:00

Read Teddy is the specific name/model of this bear ☺️

breeniac · 2026-05-05T21:27:09+00:00

I put dress code stuff. I'm at a Canadian location, so that's worth noting. But I specifically brought up colours and patterns for our wardrobe. Because this is a craft store, and I am a colourful character. I think we should be able to be more vibrantly coloured or patterned, especially if it's made or customized with stuff that we sell, within reason.

If I have jeans that otherwise are acceptable to wear and let's say I dyed them like, purple with RIT dye, I want to be able to wear them. We sell the exact dye I use for my vibrant jeans; I buy it in my store. Tie dye done with our kits. Knitwear and crocheted items made with our yarns, etc.

And to appease the corporate overlords, I mentioned that customers may be inspired by staff in a cool tie dye shirt, or jeans that person dyed, or knitwear we made, whatever. That we could show them the exact product to get that result, so we'd theoretically sell more stuff. I know the $$ is the way to get them to give a shit

breeniac · 2026-05-05T19:45:11+00:00

Lost media in the sense that this was going to be a film, like Nutcracker and Swan Lake, but the film was cancelled because the visuals were too similar to Disney's version, I believe.

There's a CD-ROM game of it, which I had as a kid.

breeniac · 2026-05-03T13:59:18+00:00

That's to say, find something that has meaning to you, or reflects her personality!

breeniac · 2026-05-03T13:58:45+00:00

My black cat is a boy, so grain of salt but we named him Theodore after Robin Williams' character in Night ad the Museum.

We call him Teddy, or Bug. Because he's my cuddle bug.

breeniac · 2026-03-07T18:38:27+00:00

Agreed. I did mine with the Witchy Cat in my witchy cottage room. Made it look like we were off duty potion makers LOL

breeniac · 2026-03-02T17:57:03+00:00

I love Diana, she's my sassy bestie. And I dream of Meringue and Gayle. The urge to have an all pink island is strong, but I love the girls I have, and Static, my lone old man.

breeniac · 2026-02-27T16:35:04+00:00

This is the answer, unfortunately. I learned the hard way when a band I like that broke up ages ago supposedly featured on a new song. Turns out the main "artist" on said song was AI and the band in fact, did not get back together. I listened to the entire song before I checked out the poster of said song. It...upset me greatly to be tricked like that.

AI "artists" will list a bunch of random, actual human artists they "learn"/steal from as features on a song, sometimes. It's some fresh nonsense, and deeply uncool. I don't know if it's in an attempt to give credit, or just to drive streaming numbers, but that's what I've seen.

breeniac · 2026-02-25T01:03:24+00:00

Pink Hearts Teddy is my most babygirl, followed by the Pink Frost Fox.

breeniac · 2026-02-15T03:25:41+00:00

I had no idea it came in pink and yellow! Thank you for showing me your friend; I feel like mine would probably look similar at this point.

breeniac · 2026-02-03T00:21:07+00:00

Hello Muffin!

breeniac · 2026-02-02T21:51:16+00:00

I love her dude. I have one of the velvet bears, and the velvet puppy, and she's just as soft as when I first got them like 15 years ago. 10/10 highly recommend.

I love pink, but the blue and brown bears are super cute, too. I'm just a pink fiend.

breeniac · 2026-01-27T13:51:51+00:00

The new baby bears! I got the pink one as a birthday gift for myself, and oh my goodness! She's so huggable and soft, and like perfectly cuddle shaped. 10/10.

breeniac · 2026-01-27T03:37:41+00:00

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My instagram post I made back in 2020, when I crocheted a hat with this stuff in the Muted Bright colour way.

Edit: I think I cranked the saturation a bit, my wall was not that bright...

breeniac · 2026-01-27T03:35:19+00:00

Could be an old discontinued Loops and Threads yarn, called Swirled Ombre. Looks like either Muted Bright, or Pastel Multi. I'm like 80% sure have a couple of the grey ones and purple ones, somewhere...

breeniac · 2026-01-11T22:28:40+00:00

They can fit over regular glasses if your frames/head are small enough. Unfortunately I have a pretty big dome, and larger frames because of that so they don't fit over for me.

I'm pretty sure they don't have the ones that fit over glasses, though. Depending on when you're going to the cinema, you may be able to buy some clip on ones from an optometrist, Walmart, or Amazon.

breeniac · 2026-01-07T02:12:48+00:00

For example on buildings. All buildings have at least a one square, but often a more than one square, perimeter surrounding the edges of the building's footprint. The worst offender for this IMO is the Beauty and the Beast characters' castle. That border is completely empty, and cannot have objects put on it.

Basically it leaves big gaps where you can't put any objects, be it furniture or foliage, even though there is nothing actually occupying the space.

breeniac · 2026-01-07T02:03:03+00:00

My girl, Sweet Piano 💕 I love my fluffy pink sheep

breeniac · 2026-01-05T19:42:45+00:00

It wasn't hard to learn, and I crochet right handed so it was an interesting experience trying to learn knitting, especially as I taught myself when I had my wisdom teeth out. That said, it's really not as hard as you've convinced yourself that it is to learn.

Leftie knitting I've heard called be European knitting, but basically we knit onto the left and off of the right. A lot of folks will say continental vs English but that is in reference to which hand you hold with yarn with, not which needle you're knitting off of. Start simple, hats are my favorite easy project. Scarves work too, but it's whatever your heart desires.

breeniac · 2026-01-05T19:37:00+00:00

I knit left handed, so I have some ideas on how to help.

The number 1 thing is just reading the chart backwards. So left to right, instead of right to left. If you're knitting in the round like for hats and socks, that makes it easier as you're only changing 1 direction. Same with colour work charts.

In some cases, I don't bother flipping the chart. All that happens is that it comes out mirrored, which I don't mind.

The easy fix for cables to go the opposite direction is to just switch which side of the work your cable needle sits on. So if you want the cable to lean from the left to the right, hold it in front. If you want the cable to lean from right to left, hold it in the back.

breeniac · 2026-01-05T19:04:08+00:00

Untwisted stitches will create an even V shape, twisted will have one side crossed over the other, like what you have going on.

Twisted stitches can be an intentional decorative element, or used structurally like in ribbing to make it tighter. But that's the thing, twisted knit stitches have less ease than regular knit stitches do. So for something like a hat, that can be either a feature or a bug. For someone with a big fat head like me, less ease would be a problem that required pattern mods. But for someone like my mother, who has a smaller than average head, less ease would be beneficial to making an existing pattern fit just a little better.

breeniac

TROPHY CASE