u/joreo95

Anyone else been in their job long enough that the simplest tasks are now the most difficult and annoying? Scheduling used to be the easiest part of my day. Now I want to bang my head against the wall.

Currently dealing with -

• 7 employees scheduled for 24/7/365. Two night employees, five day employees
• WeekDAY rotations (my night staff is week 1, employee 1 does 4 days and employee 2 does 3 days, then week 2 they switch. Which affects my day staff schedule because one of them has to start their shifts at a different time)
• WeekEND rotations (weekend shifts are 2 people on Saturday, one person does 12 hours and other does 6 hours as backup, then 1 person on Sunday alone. We alternate people every other weekend so they don't work back to back weekends)
• Half of my employees are not seasoned enough to work alone, so I am restricted to scheduling them weekdays between 8am and 7pm when there is another staff member present, and that also means they are limited to working the "back up" Saturday shift since they cannot be alone for the Saturday evening or Sunday shift
• Virtually every single employee has some time off request to factor into almost every schedule
• One employee just took a part time job so now her hours are restricted during the weekdays, and she also happens to be one that cannot work alone so I cannot shift her hours to be picked up on the weekend

I want to scream. Technically, I am fully staffed. But I am currently working more overtime than any of my employees to fill in spaces that they cannot cover.

I would REALLY love to move everyone to 3-4 shifts/week that are 10-12 hours in length. But cannot due to the amount of restrictions. I hate how inconsistent everything feels, and how the workload falls to half of the staff because the other half simply cannot work alone yet to pick up some weekend/night slack.

How do you all cope with trying to balance hours, time off requests, restrictions, and so on?

Teddy is a 10 month old Pyrenees/Retriever. He currently has a never ending need for playing and running. But its been 90-100 degrees for the last week with no end in sight. So we arent going on long walks, hikes, parks, or doing lots of free time in the backyard. And he has had enough.

Im trying everything I can think of to offset the lack of outside time. We are doing food puzzles, frozen kongs and Topples, indoor rough housing, sniff games, car rides, anything. Its not enough.

How are you burning energy for your working pups during this heat?

I have three cats. The litter box is my worst enemy. I'd really like to get a litter robot but I have two concerns -

1. Two of my cats are a bit bigger, and each of them is missing an eye. I'm worried they will have problems going through the entrance and into the litter box because it will feel small or confined. Even more worried with them missing an eye that their depth perception will make this tricky to overcome. Anyone have a cat with a disability who has managed to be okay using one of these? Or have larger cats that aren't offput by going into a smaller space for the bathroom?

2. Sustainable litter. I currently use Okocat and really hate typical clay litters. I love my cats but also hate the environmental impact of regular litters. From what I read, the litter robot works best with standard litters. I really don't want to have to special order something expensive. Are there affordable and accessible sustainable litters that are working for anyone?

My puppy, Teddy, is a Pyrenees/Retriever mix that is going to be 10 month's in a few weeks.

For the last 3-5 months, bedtime has not been a struggle. He has slept through the entire night, sometimes up to 10 hours. Originally I had him in his crate overnight since the day I brought him home, but about 1-1.5 months ago I started leaving the door open so he could sleep where he wanted to in the bedroom. Everything had been going fine. Now, night time hits and he turns into a bit of a monster.

He starts crying around 4am. I get up and let him out, then we start our day. We do food puzzles in the morning, and he plays with his brother while I get ready for work. I go to work between 6:45-7:30am. While at work he has a whole room to himself full of toys. I usually leave him another treat puzzle before I go - his brother usually comes to work with me, but otherwise they stay home together and I do not leave a treat puzzle to avoid food aggression issues while they are together without me.

I take a break around 11am and 1pm to let him out, play a little, and leave him another puzzle before I return to work - I am usually home for 30 mins with him for this break. Then I get home between 4:30 and 5:30. He plays the entire evening. Running and rough housing with this brother and the kids, sometimes getting an evening walk (we haven't done many lately due to the 95+ degree weather), or we go for a car ride, and use puzzles for dinner.

I have been staying up as late as I can to get his energy out. After starting our day in the 4 o'clock hour I struggle to get past 10pm, but sometimes am up until 11 or midnight trying to get him to burn out. But even if we go to bed that late he throws a fit. He has started to become destructive by ripping up his bedding even though I have several of his favorite chew toys available to him in the bedroom. When he finally settles down to sleep, I cannot get him to sleep past 4am. He his always up and crying at that hour.

I am not sure what to do anymore. I have tried to keep structure for him and keep us on as much of a routine as possible, as well as do both physical and mental exercises for him. He still has so much energy and I am extremely sleep deprived after roughly a month of this. His brother is 10 years old and a Pyrenees/Lab mix, and he was never this intense as a puppy.

Should I be trying to enforce a bedtime until he gets used to it? Should I be doing more to get his energy out? Maybe I am overstimulating him with everything I try to cram into our time? I just don't know anymore. Someone please send help!