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Well, I survived....
Dec. 1st, 2002 12:18 amBut it was a near thing. Work at K-Mart was brutal on both days.
I got almost no sleep Wednesday night, and had to be awake and alert and perky for the customers entirely too early on Thursday. Also, I seemed to attract a higher than average percentage of people in my lane who insisted the price they'd seen on the shelf or the signs or the ads was cheaper than what the item rang up as and demanded I fix the problem right now this instant. I certainly understand their feelings. We're supposed to have everything accurate every day. And when people have spent a long day fighting through holiday shopping crowds they really don't want to have to deal with more waiting while the problems are straightened out. But it's not my fault. I'm not in stocking and signs. nor am I in charge of entering the prices into the computer systems. I'm a little worried that I heard a manager mutter something under his breath about all the people in my lane wanting price checks... :;sigh::
There were a couple saving graces. :) Management had subs from Cousins and plates of candy available in the breakroom all day for us. Nobody had to go offsite in the cold to get food in 30 min. or less. And Aunt Mary ended up not serving dinner til 6 pm, so I was able to eat it while it was still hot, instead of nuking a plate of leftovers Mom brought home.
Friday was worse. I was sent to Apparel two hours before my shift ended.... and I was the only person there. The only other person not assigned elsewhere had to go help customers at the Jewelry counter. Everybody assigned to Apparel from noon onwards had called in sick - which is grounds for firing this weekend unless you're near death - or quit, or gotten fired for other reasons and had yet to be replaced. -_-;;;;;
This meant I had:
- six shopping carts worth of stray merchandise from the returns counter and left behind at the registers by customers who changed their minds. This all had to be sorted through and returned to its respective section of Apparel.
- a right and proper mess in Men's, Boys', Girls', Infants, Women's, Shoes, and the fitting room, which I needed to at least begin to tidy up. Why do people act like such slobs on sale days? I'd noticed it before when in stores as a customer. But I've never seen it this bad before... ::whimper::
- calls from the registers for price checks, phonecalls from customers at home trying to find out if we had something, and querys from customers actually present, all of which I and I alone had to field. I dn't know half of what they needed to know, damn it! ::cries:: I felt like a fool, and a fraud. All those perfectly nice women in Infants', trying to find the right size of diapers, which we were out of stock in, and me with no real clue if we were getting more anytime soon.
If I didn't need the money so bad I'd have been a breath and a whisper away from quitting after that shift.
Also, Wednesday, as I was getting ready to go home from my shift at Gilles, I ran into James, one of my best friends there, and found out he'd just gotten fired. He didn't really say why, and I was reluctant to ask, because he was clearly in a poor mood. I don't know what Tom, the owner, was thinking. James knows every single station in the restaurant. He knows more about the place than some of the crew chiefs. He's a hard worker. And he's generally a good person. Working at Gilles will be a lot less fun without him around. Most of the others are high school age, and act it. Hell, Jeff, my manager, is ten years older than I am and acts worse than the kids do sometimes. ^_^;
At least I was able to get Dad to give him a ride home, so he wouldn't have to take the bus home in the cold. Bad enough getting fired right before Thanksgiving.
Today was given to recooperation and anime watching. I bought some strawberry wine, drank a couple glasses, and ate my favorite foods. Trudged through the suddenly arctic air to the Model Zone and rented AMG. ^___^ My sibs really liked it, just as I predicted. I got it cheap, too. Normally videos cost $3 each to rent. I got episodes 1 and 2 for $1.50 each. I might just rent the remaining three tomorrow night, with prices like that. Keiichi and Bell-chan cuteness is an excellent anodyne to my stress. Better still, the clerk said they're planning an anime watching night at a local restaurant, with a really big room, this saturday. Pizza, soda, and raffles of DVDs too. I think I'll go if my work schedule allows.
Wish they'd get the renovations of the store done, though. The size will be tripled once they get the neighboring storefronts reconfigured the way they want.
Oh, and Drakstern... :p My work schedule may be inferior, but my next paychecks combined will be highly ferior to what I've been getting for months.
I got almost no sleep Wednesday night, and had to be awake and alert and perky for the customers entirely too early on Thursday. Also, I seemed to attract a higher than average percentage of people in my lane who insisted the price they'd seen on the shelf or the signs or the ads was cheaper than what the item rang up as and demanded I fix the problem right now this instant. I certainly understand their feelings. We're supposed to have everything accurate every day. And when people have spent a long day fighting through holiday shopping crowds they really don't want to have to deal with more waiting while the problems are straightened out. But it's not my fault. I'm not in stocking and signs. nor am I in charge of entering the prices into the computer systems. I'm a little worried that I heard a manager mutter something under his breath about all the people in my lane wanting price checks... :;sigh::
There were a couple saving graces. :) Management had subs from Cousins and plates of candy available in the breakroom all day for us. Nobody had to go offsite in the cold to get food in 30 min. or less. And Aunt Mary ended up not serving dinner til 6 pm, so I was able to eat it while it was still hot, instead of nuking a plate of leftovers Mom brought home.
Friday was worse. I was sent to Apparel two hours before my shift ended.... and I was the only person there. The only other person not assigned elsewhere had to go help customers at the Jewelry counter. Everybody assigned to Apparel from noon onwards had called in sick - which is grounds for firing this weekend unless you're near death - or quit, or gotten fired for other reasons and had yet to be replaced. -_-;;;;;
This meant I had:
- six shopping carts worth of stray merchandise from the returns counter and left behind at the registers by customers who changed their minds. This all had to be sorted through and returned to its respective section of Apparel.
- a right and proper mess in Men's, Boys', Girls', Infants, Women's, Shoes, and the fitting room, which I needed to at least begin to tidy up. Why do people act like such slobs on sale days? I'd noticed it before when in stores as a customer. But I've never seen it this bad before... ::whimper::
- calls from the registers for price checks, phonecalls from customers at home trying to find out if we had something, and querys from customers actually present, all of which I and I alone had to field. I dn't know half of what they needed to know, damn it! ::cries:: I felt like a fool, and a fraud. All those perfectly nice women in Infants', trying to find the right size of diapers, which we were out of stock in, and me with no real clue if we were getting more anytime soon.
If I didn't need the money so bad I'd have been a breath and a whisper away from quitting after that shift.
Also, Wednesday, as I was getting ready to go home from my shift at Gilles, I ran into James, one of my best friends there, and found out he'd just gotten fired. He didn't really say why, and I was reluctant to ask, because he was clearly in a poor mood. I don't know what Tom, the owner, was thinking. James knows every single station in the restaurant. He knows more about the place than some of the crew chiefs. He's a hard worker. And he's generally a good person. Working at Gilles will be a lot less fun without him around. Most of the others are high school age, and act it. Hell, Jeff, my manager, is ten years older than I am and acts worse than the kids do sometimes. ^_^;
At least I was able to get Dad to give him a ride home, so he wouldn't have to take the bus home in the cold. Bad enough getting fired right before Thanksgiving.
Today was given to recooperation and anime watching. I bought some strawberry wine, drank a couple glasses, and ate my favorite foods. Trudged through the suddenly arctic air to the Model Zone and rented AMG. ^___^ My sibs really liked it, just as I predicted. I got it cheap, too. Normally videos cost $3 each to rent. I got episodes 1 and 2 for $1.50 each. I might just rent the remaining three tomorrow night, with prices like that. Keiichi and Bell-chan cuteness is an excellent anodyne to my stress. Better still, the clerk said they're planning an anime watching night at a local restaurant, with a really big room, this saturday. Pizza, soda, and raffles of DVDs too. I think I'll go if my work schedule allows.
Wish they'd get the renovations of the store done, though. The size will be tripled once they get the neighboring storefronts reconfigured the way they want.
Oh, and Drakstern... :p My work schedule may be inferior, but my next paychecks combined will be highly ferior to what I've been getting for months.
