Hurricane Erin Made a Turn

Despite the threat of Hurricane Erin hitting the coast where we vacationed last week, the weather was great. We never got any stormy weather. The hurricane turned up away from us. 

The waves got pretty big while the tide was coming in but it did not bother us as we sat out on the beach every day. What did bother us was the dang flies. They were terrible on Wednesday and Thursday. They eventually ran us off the beach. They won. We gave them the beach and headed back into the RV park and did some walking around and got ice cream. 

At the first of the week they made us move our camper back few spots incase the surf got to high and flooded our campsite. Well, the surf did come in high and flooded the first one or two spots. This is actually pretty normal during Kings Tide. 

Looks empty as about 200 campers were moved 

We went out for breakfast on Friday morning. I wanted to go to Blueberry Grill. We ate there before and it was delicious. This time I got 2 eggs, bacon grits and coffee and Nick got a gravy biscuit, bacon and coffee. Our bill was $41.00! That’s a lot of money for a basic breakfast! I wanted to sit out side but the patio was full so we had to settle at a table next to the kitchen. The clanging dishes and the wait staff huddling around made the experience less comfortable. We will probably not go back. Cereal in the camper is just fine with me. 

We are back home now and the work day came too quick. It’s back to reality until October when we go back. 

Funny story: One time after spending a week at the beach, we were so tanned. 

How tanned were we?

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way home. The waiter came up to us and started speaking in Spanish. We looked confused. He said “You speak Spanish?” We said no and he said “sorry” then walked off and sent over another waiter. We laughed and thought we were so tanned that we looked like Mexicans.

Hurricane and Camping

We are on our long vacation. We stay in our camper at the beach. Everyone back home is asking me about the weather here at the beach. They must be hearing some scary stuff on the news. There is a Hurricane brewing in the Atlantic ocean on my side of the map. People kept warning me before we left that it could be bad. We took our chances. I am not afraid. I have seen more hurricane damage in my home town 200 miles from the coast than I have seen at the actual coast. 

Sunday was 82 degrees. With the humidity, it felt like 102. We sat out on the beach all day. It was getting late so we decided to just eat a sandwich and continued sitting on the beach until the stars came out. It was so relaxing. We could have stayed out there longer but I was afraid we could not be seen by any motorized vehicles that scan the beach.

Monday was 84 degrees, clear and not a cloud in the sky. During the afternoon, the waves started getting wicked and the swells were about 6 feet high before crashing down. We kept having to move our chairs back as the tide came in. 

Tuesday, we got a notification that our camper will have to be moved back 4 spots due to expected flooding from the high tides and surge. We were disappointed because we loved the spot we were on. It was perfect. Our new spot, not so much. It is smaller and not as level. We spent half the day waiting and moving. On a positive note,  200 feet back is better than 200 miles home. We will make do. 

We spent the rest of the day on the beach. It was beautiful and sunny until out of nowhere came a hard rain that ran us back in. We went ahead and called it a day then settled in for dinner. We had salad and potatoes. 

I’ll update at the end of the week on how the rest of the week went. Will we get hit with Hurricane Erin? Probably not but they are expecting really high tides and large waves. We will definitely feel the effects. 

Toxic Management

Have you ever worked with a toxic manager or supervisor? Hence the title of my blog, I just feel the need to express this situation.

You work hard, complete deadlines, remain caught up and help others in the work place and yet your supervisor will find negativity and criticize your intentions almost daily.

A toxic manager is not the same as a toxic work place. You can love your job and the people you work with or around despite all the criticism from your supervisor. A toxic supervisor can ruin your vibe causing you to work harder and stress more while you are always trying to meet expectations. But you can never seem to reach those goals because the harder you try, the more negative drive they give you.

This can lead to low moral in the office. It also leads you to be unhealthy away from work. You get home at the end of the day tired and exhausted from trying to keep your supervisor happy. You begin to let yourself go. You never feel like working on yourself. The supervisor has already worn you down and made you feel worthless. All you have ever done is work to make a living and hope your making a difference but you question yourself. You begin to give up things that used to make you happy and relieve stress such as hobbies, healthy habits and family time. You are put in a mind set that you will never succeed. You want to move on and get out of the rut but you fail interview after interview. 

How do you pull yourself out? How can you escape a toxic supervisor when you need the job? How can you prove your worth? Do you just continue and hope for the best? That’s what I’m doing now. 

Upper management can be blind to a toxic supervisor as they can come across as a great supervisor. They claim they are just wanting to have all the employees on the same page. Complaints are addressed but little is done. 

Here are a few other samples of a toxic supervisor or manager.

-Micro managing: They are more concerned with numbers and spreadsheets. They knit-pick at every thing you do and critique every email you send. You have to account for every move you make and explain why you do everything you do. 

-They set you up for failure: They give you deadline task on the day or day before the deadline. They set unrealistic goals. 

-Poor communication: They often ignore you. They will walk past you without even speaking. Meetings are one on one instead of with a team. This can lead to confusion as there are different discussions about expectations while everyone has the same responsibilities. 

-Critical: They always point out all the mistakes and never praise for good works. Your ideas are never good enough. If it is not the supervisors idea, it’s not a good idea. 

-Poor evaluations: No matter how well you do in your position, you will never get the grade you deserve. In their eyes, they really do not think your worthy. This causes low self esteem and struggles when your searching for a new position or advancement. 

-Favoritism: There is often that one employee that gets away with everything and takes all the credit for the works completed by others, while they do the minimal. 

One more thing. A toxic manager or supervisor will not fire you. They make you so miserable in you job that you look for other positions or finally give up and quit. They do not want an employee that can out smart them. 

Toxic management is a real thing. Work bullying and gaslighting are real. It’s ok to ask around before accepting a position. Learn the culture of the position you will be in. Find out how the supervisor leads. Last but not least, pay attention to the turn over in employment. The job your excited about getting may be unhealthy in the long run.