What the Last Hour Costs
The thing about supervisor shifts in October is that they end later than your body expects them to. Not dramatically later, twenty minutes, half an hour, but your feet have alread…
Read entry#endofshift
11 entries tagged #endofshift.
The Thing the Stranger Left
End of a long Thursday shift. The floor was quiet, the way it gets in that last twenty minutes when everyone is moving through the close on autopilot, wiping down, restocking, not…
Read entry
The Last Good Cup
There is a specific minute that happens at the end of a long shift, not when the clock actually hits the mark, but a few minutes after, when you are still on the floor technically…
Read entry
The Fridge Did Not Need My Keys
It was the end of a long shift and my brain had clearly punched out about forty minutes before my body did. I was at the break room counter, coat on, bag on shoulder, ready, and I…
Read entry
The Ice Harvest Thing
Started, I think, with fermentation. Or possibly brine. I was reading something about kimchi, something I'd half-remembered from a cooking thread, the kind of thing you skim at 10…
Read entry
Four Seconds, Apparently
End of shift. Jackets on, one of us already standing. Simone asked me something, the kind of question that sounds casual and is not, and I stood there for a full four seconds befo…
Read entry
The Part After the Shift
September first. The shift report was three pages, which felt like a lot for a Tuesday, and the coffee from the break room was that particular brand of bad that you stop remarking…
Read entry
The Machine Had Other Plans
June twenty-third. The vending machine dispensed the wrong thing. I want to state that plainly before I explain anything else, because the sequence of events only makes sense if y…
Read entry
The Shift Ended Eventually
June twenty-fifth. Nine hours. That is how long the shift was, and I want that number on the page before anything else because it explains everything that comes after. Simone and…
Read entry
The Oat Milk Was Gone and We Took It Personally
May sixth. Here is what happened at the end of the shift: the coffee cart was out of oat milk. That's it. That's the whole incident. Simone looked at the cart, looked at me, and s…
Read entry
The Lanyard Goes in the Bag
July twenty-fourth. The shift ended at eight and I stood in the break room for about forty-five seconds doing the specific nothing that happens right after a long day, lanyard sti…
Read entry