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| Bah Bah Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool? |
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It's official. I have, indeed, passed on the torch to my little sister, Roslyn. Yep! I am no longer the "evil sister". Well, I am no longer considered the evil doer! This is good news. I've been carrying that torch around with me, it seems, ever since the whole engagement to Jeff fiasco. In the four years since then, I have found ways to proudly bear that torch in other ways and demonstrate my superb qualities for carrying such a torch. Yes, upon more than one occasion, I have definitely disappointed my family. I've not paved a pathway to the lifestyle of their choice. I haven't done anything horrible or demoralizing. I've just not lived the life that they had wanted me to live. The whole premarital sex and being engaged to someone of a different faith issue became the basis for all Hell breaking loose.
However, I no longer possess that torch. In recent weeks, I have successfully passed it on to Roslyn.
My baby sister is a wonderful person, and no one will ever convince her family otherwise. She doesn't always see outside of herself, though, or her little family. She doesn't always consider other people's feelings or situations, and it has come full circle and bitten her on the ol' hinder!
Roslyn owns a bridal shop, and a couple of years ago took on a couple of business partners (when she needed some money to build a bigger inventory). The sum of the partners' shares are just slightly less than Roslyn's, but her high school friend and business partner doesn't realize that she owns just under 25% of the business, much less than Ros. I believe that she is more of the impression that she and Ros are equal partners and that she has the same or more to say about what goes on with the employees and such.
My older sister, Tonya, and my mother both work for my sister, too. In the past months I have heard from them the horrible things that this "partner" has done and said. She's basically made it impossible to work in a positive atmosphere and is, one by one, driving the employees off. Mom and Tonya have stayed because they love my sister. They respect her for all the hard work and care that she has put into her business.
Roslyn just doesn't see (or refuses to see) that "Linda" is not a positive asset to the business. They are friends first, and Linda can do no wrong. She takes her word over her sister's or mother's, and this definitely creates a very tense working atmosphere.
I have never liked Linda. Even when we were younger she and I would get into awful fights when she came over because from day one, she has put on airs of superiority and excellence. She is not, in any way fathomable, superior to my sister or my mother. She lacks tact, common sense (in many ways, not all), and courtesy. I don't mean to harp on the poor girl. She does have her nice qualities (she can be funny) and does have her moments, although rarer and rarer, of being pleasant. It's hard, as my older sister states, to be treated like a little girl by someone who is four years younger. It's especially taxing when there's absolutely no reason for Linda to be treating her that way.
Since I have been home, certain things have been happening that have been rending the delicate fabric of familial relations AND business relations.
None of this suprises me, though. I've known Linda for a long time, and I have always found her to be exactly what she is. One just hopes that a person might mature and grow out of such a "stage". Unfortunately, this little stage of hers has lasted and continues to last for years.
It's exasperated by the fact the Roslyn defends all of Linda's actions and words and does not see how Mom and Tonya (and the other two employees) are being treated. She has made it abundantly clear that she often does not believe Mom and Tonya when faced with a situation regarding "what Linda did" or "what Linda said." It's disconcerting, to say the least, to be put in that kind of situation by a sibling or daughter. I've told Mom and Tonya more than once that I could never work with Linda because I would never be able to take the kind of condescending attitude that she exudes with each and every breath that she takes.
Most recently (yesterday), one of their best non-family employees quit. They (Ros and Linda) shouldn't have been surprised, but they acted as if they were. Tonya and Mom tried to defend the girl and her reasons for quitting, but it just turned into an ugly confrontation which ended with tears and one of my sisters leaving. I'm so glad that I wasn't there. Yikes! We all went out last night, though, and one would never know that something had happened.
Tonya's last day of work is today. Mom is driving back to California with me on Monday. Ros and Linda are going to be working all day every day by themselves. I do believe that they will, sooner or later, regret their actions of late.
As I've stated before, I don't think that Linda is evil (well, if I did say she was, it was just in jest... right?). She has some very good qualities (when there are few, they tend to stand out as good). She is a very good friend to my sister, Ros. She has a lot of really great ideas for the business. She just lacks in the getting-along-with-people category. I do wish the best for my little sister. I want to see her store succeed beyond all expectations. She is a GREAT asset to that company, and her knowledge and passion for it are almost tangible to her customers. It's quite the opposite for Linda, though, as she has chased away more customers with her attitude and words than can be counted. Hopefully one day Ros will realize this.
Then she can pass the torch on to someone else. Not me, though. I want nothing to do with that stinkin' torch!
On a side note: Yesterday I drove over to Roslyn's house for a bit. My nephew was washing my car (he's 9 and likes to earn money!), and I left Ros to talk with her husband. I could tell that they needed to (little did I know at the time why - all that went on at work that day), so I went downstairs with the kids in the rec room, hoping that Ros would come down after she was done talking. Well, a few minutes later her husband came down and said, "Ros said to tell you that she'll see you later. She went to LInda's house."
Ummm... okay.
Needless to say, when that was innocently mentioned to my other sister and parents, that torch was dedicated to Ros for just a bit longer. I was a bit bummed that she left without talking to me. I am only home once or twice a year. She has Linda almost every single day. My family was not impressed, to say the least.
I love my sister, but good golly! I know it doesn't sound like it, but we all actually get along really well now. (Now that I am not engaged to a Jewish man and having sex with him before I'm married! Heh!) It's just little glitches here and there that kind of tug at the whole tapestry of life.
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