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So I work returns for pretty much the next two weeks straight. I have told everyone who will stand still long enough that I hate, loathe, abhor and generally do not like returns, and I will be trying everything I can to get out of doing it. I will come in a few minutes late and try to sneak out early, I will encourage my coworkers to trade spots with me, and take 5 extra minutes walking to the break room for my breaks and lunches. I will not be up at that returns register for one second longer than will keep me from getting fired. And I will be goddamn miserable for the next two weeks as all the con artists come in returning "gifts" of high-dollar drill sets without receipts. YAY! Threefish, the 18 months I spent working at my last job I was freezing every drat day, so I feel your pain! I would wear three layers and still get chills all day. And our HVAC units were fine... it was just store policy to keep it that cold. So even if you're not technically allowed to call in a work order I'd be making calls or sending emails to corporate because goddamn, being cold SUCKS and you shouldn't have to put up with it.
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Dec 29, 2012 04:47
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Faerunner posted:And I will be goddamn miserable for the next two weeks as all the con artists come in returning "gifts" of high-dollar drill sets without receipts. YAY! Again, why do you guys give a poo poo? Follow policy, and if it loses the company money then gently caress them.
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Dec 29, 2012 04:53
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mookerson posted:Hrmph. Your job may suck real bad, but no-call/no-shows are pretty unforgivable if you weren't in the hospital. You left everyone hanging and other people had to cover for you. Pretty hosed up. I'd cut the poo poo out of your hours too. The NC/NS was partially retaliation for my hours being cut, partially just not giving a poo poo anymore. There was a time when I would have been unable to do so because I would have felt awful but I just find it hard to care anymore. The odd part was that no one mentioned it to me today. I figured the AM would bring that poo poo up right away.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:25
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I got a part-time job as a lot attendant recently. Today I helped an old lady get her stuff in her car and she gave me a donut. 
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Dec 29, 2012 06:38
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This isn't necessarily retail but oh god am I sick of people freaking out at the slightest hint of snow. We're in PA. You should be used to it by now. It's 2012. You're not going to be stuck in your house because of 3-5 inches of snow, nor do you need to panic and run to the nearest grocery store to stock up on water. The friday rush is bad enough without the panic of 3 inches of snow. Edit: I'm also tired of hearing these same customers complain about how weather forecasters are always wrong when they clearly listen to the weather once early in the week and don't bother keeping themselves updated. Byzantine posted:I got a part-time job as a lot attendant recently. Today I helped an old lady get her stuff in her car and she gave me a donut. What's a lot attendant? I'm guessing you handle carts and loading things in cars? I always liked doing that sort of stuff when I was at walmart. During the summer I'd stay out in the back area with the mulch and soil for hours at a time. It was great. It didn't hurt that the managers tended to forget about me, either. Sankis fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Dec 29, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 07:16
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CUMGUARD posted:
We don't sell food at all unless you count the candy and jerky that's hanging all around the counter area. My guess is it probably is illegal, but since the bathrooms do technically function at least some of the time they could probably wiggle out of anything brought against them. I mean they work sometimes, it's just that they work really badly and I'm tired of just going back to pee really quick only to have the toilet clog/almost overflow again. Also there's air in the pipes so the water bubbles really bad when you flush and you'll get toilet water on your shoes.  Faerunner posted:So I work returns for pretty much the next two weeks straight. I have told everyone who will stand still long enough that I hate, loathe, abhor and generally do not like returns, and I will be trying everything I can to get out of doing it. I will come in a few minutes late and try to sneak out early, I will encourage my coworkers to trade spots with me, and take 5 extra minutes walking to the break room for my breaks and lunches. I will not be up at that returns register for one second longer than will keep me from getting fired. I'm right there with you. At my store all the cashiers do returns. So in addition to the usual people making purchases, we have to do all these holiday returns as well. The whole process is long and sometimes gets complicated when some jackass wants cash for their gift receipt or whatever. So our registers are pretty constantly backed up and my brain is slowly turning to mush from trying to keep track of all this poo poo. It doesn't help that everyone in the store mysteriously disappears whenever I page them up to help me so I have to do it all alone fairly often. And I'm still getting bitched because I'm apparently supposed to keep track of what kind of shoes everyone walked in with (because people keep stealing shoes and wearing them out) and I'm still getting poo poo because I can't browbeat enough people into giving up their e-mail addresses. I've pretty much just resigned myself to doing what I can. It's not my fault their policies are poo poo.
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Dec 29, 2012 17:24
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NaturalLow posted:We don't sell food at all unless you count the candy and jerky that's hanging all around the counter area. My guess is it probably is illegal, but since the bathrooms do technically function at least some of the time they could probably wiggle out of anything brought against them. I mean they work sometimes, it's just that they work really badly and I'm tired of just going back to pee really quick only to have the toilet clog/almost overflow again. Also there's air in the pipes so the water bubbles really bad when you flush and you'll get toilet water on your shoes. Call the local health inspector, call OSHA, call as high up into corporate as you can. Do the sinks work 100% if not see above, this poo poo is illegal. Same goes for the goon working in 50 degree building. It may be legal but you need to get people to seeing it and getting that ball rolling. Call Call Call Call Call Call.
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Dec 29, 2012 19:49
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D34THROW posted:The NC/NS was partially retaliation for my hours being cut, partially just not giving a poo poo anymore. There was a time when I would have been unable to do so because I would have felt awful but I just find it hard to care anymore. I'd imagine the first you'll hear about it from an AM is when they write you up or fire you, if they're going to. If not, they've already cut your hours to nothing, why pick a fight over it too? An AM isn't gonna get anything but a headache and having to listen to some whining if they do that.
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Dec 29, 2012 20:21
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Darth Freddy posted:Call the local health inspector, call OSHA, call as high up into corporate as you can. Do the sinks work 100% if not see above, this poo poo is illegal. The sinks work just fine, it's only the toilets that are poo poo. I suspect some of it also stems from the fact that most of the problems are in the women's bathroom and most of the management are men so they kind of gloss over it. The men's bathroom is terrible too, but doesn't seem to be completely busted quite as often. I went in there today and the toilet in the handicapped stall was almost completely full to the brim with toilet paper. Who does this poo poo?
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Dec 30, 2012 05:26
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D34THROW posted:The NC/NS was partially retaliation for my hours being cut, partially just not giving a poo poo anymore. There was a time when I would have been unable to do so because I would have felt awful but I just find it hard to care anymore. As litany mentioned above, if your store's policy is written like most, one no-call/no-show probably isn't enough to fire you by itself, and if they don't want to keep you, they aren't going to talk to you about it. It isn't worth the paperwork if they are already constructively dismissing you by cutting your hours. If they wanted to keep you, you'd be getting a lecture or a write-up to try to stop you from doing it again. They figure you'll either accumulate enough to consider it abandonment of your job, or you'll quit from getting 3 1-hour shifts in a week.
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Dec 31, 2012 01:02
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Any managers in this thread? What's the requirements for applying for a job like assistant manager or zone manager?
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Dec 31, 2012 04:49
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usernamen_01 posted:Any managers in this thread? What's the requirements for applying for a job like assistant manager or zone manager? To get to assistant store manager, they would need to have been a manager of a department for a few years and/or lead position of some importance that may not be at store level. Seems to me our company loves promoting grocery managers, but then again they are the only managers aside from assistant and store managers that are salary and are already treated like poo poo from their higher ups, so the transition isn't a big one. A zone manager in our case could be a person supervising all stores in an area, or supervising a specific department for all stores in an area. These people are like one step above store manager. For department zone supervisor, it used to be that they would need only several years as department manager and some assistant manager experience. Now these days they have to have some years as a store manager under their belt and need not have any experience from the specific department.
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Dec 31, 2012 06:34
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ijii posted:Probably not many people here that are in high up positions like that, at least with stores that do retail sales of at minimum $100k a day. I've been with my company for over 10 years and I've seen quite a few people move up. Interesting. What company do you work at if you don't mind me asking? I worked at Wal-mart for about a year and a half before I joined the military. I did sales associate and backroom inventory work while I was there. I'm getting out of the military eventually and, after I get my degree, I am looking for ideas on what kind of work to look for. The assistant managers working there had a pretty cake job from my vantage point; it was mostly PR with customers, bureaucratic paper shuffling, and of course petting the dick of the store manager and any corporate representatives who wanted to visit 'the troops'. Zone managers, there at least, were people who were in charge of multiple departments and answered to one of the two assistant managers assigned to the store. The structure was pretty dense, but it seemed like "Zone Manager" was a stepping stone to assistant manager who's salary started at $60,000 plus a percentage of that as a bonus each year. Of course, the head honcho would make well over $100,000 plus a generous percentage of this as his bonus if the store did well. These figures are all from Texas just to put the standard of living in perspective. Do you see a lot of people come into the upper chain of command who otherwise had little experience with retail prior?
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Dec 31, 2012 06:47
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I work for a Kroger owned company. Kroger has been streamlining everything for the past few years so operations would probably be similar across all Kroger companies. It would be pretty close to impossible to get to assistant store manager or higher here without more time in department lead positions within the store. However it really isn't that hard to move up to a lead position once you get your foot in the door. Not many people want to deal with the bullshit that comes down from corporate. After that, depending how dedicated, reliable, and hard working you are you can try to move up again. I should mention, these days assistant store manager is far from cake. There's been more pressure than ever for them to get done what the company wants. I have to deal with them a lot and rarely do they smile these days and often listen to them vent. At one point I thought about going for one of those salary positions, but times have changed and is definitely not worth it at this time, for me anyways. I suspect after Pharmacy Manager > Store Manager > Assistant Store Manager > Grocery Manager > I get paid the next most at a store level and don't have to do deal with nearly as much stress and get overtime pay. Edit: From what I hear, Kroger is probably one of the better companies to work for compared to similar competitors, because of the union and they are a very large company. I doubt Wal-Mart would be a better place to work sub-store management level due to poo poo benefits. Unless you can spot yourself such a position, I'd climb the corporate ladder at any other company if you go the supermarket route. ijii fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Dec 31, 2012 |
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Dec 31, 2012 07:26
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quote:I should mention, these days assistant store manager is far from cake. There's been more pressure than ever for them to get done what the company wants. I have to deal with them a lot and rarely do they smile these days and often listen to them vent. What's their primary duty? Executing what the store manager wants done, obviously, but what exactly does this entail that makes them so upset?
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Dec 31, 2012 07:41
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mookerson posted:As litany mentioned above, if your store's policy is written like most, one no-call/no-show probably isn't enough to fire you by itself, and if they don't want to keep you, they aren't going to talk to you about it. It isn't worth the paperwork if they are already constructively dismissing you by cutting your hours. If they wanted to keep you, you'd be getting a lecture or a write-up to try to stop you from doing it again. They figure you'll either accumulate enough to consider it abandonment of your job, or you'll quit from getting 3 1-hour shifts in a week. Everyone's hours are being cut. There's only one person with more than 10 hours scheduled this week, and that's the normal weekday opener. I had 10, but I'll probably end up with 15 because of the truck. I've been at the job a year, called out 3 times, and no-called once. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to get fired, I dunno. All I know is gently caress Sandy, because her dumb rear end, when she closes, keeps leaving poo poo for the openers to do. Vacuuming, recovery, and go-backs are the CLOSING shift's responsibility, not mine, you stupid twat.
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Dec 31, 2012 08:18
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usernamen_01 posted:What's their primary duty? Executing what the store manager wants done, obviously, but what exactly does this entail that makes them so upset? ASMs are usually responsible for all the actual work that you think the GM or store manager should be doing. Because nobody strives to be the number 2 in a store, ASM is a stepping stone and the people doing the job are normally the ones willing to work the hardest to prove they deserve their own store. They are working more hours than anyone else in the store, probably for a salary that breaks down to about what a lead is making per hour. It's a make or break position in the retail career ladder, and depending on the store can definitely be the most stressful.
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Dec 31, 2012 08:23
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The ASMs at my store (keep in mind this was a small store so larger ones are likely different.) Here the ASMs are hardly ever in the office at least the good ones. They will be out on the floor setting up facings, working the truck. Dealing with random poo poo that would go down. You would even see them running registers, working the trailers out side to get water or paper goods to the floor. All in all they would come in around 8am and leave around 8pm on average. I don't have any direct experience with larger retail stores but I can imagine there is a lot of work to do "in the back".
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Dec 31, 2012 09:54
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My direct experience is limited, but I will say that from what I've seen, yes, it's basically 'do literally every single job in the store that's not facilities or pharmacy, plus paperwork plus bureaucracy plus angry customers'. Our management team is pretty much constantly speaking with vendors, working understaffed departments, setting up displays, coordinating different duties like shelf fill-up and lot clearing, unloading trucks three times a day, and just generally busting rear end everywhere all the time.
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Dec 31, 2012 11:29
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Darth Freddy posted:I don't have any direct experience with larger retail stores but I can imagine there is a lot of work to do "in the back". Hahaha At my superstore, the assistants never did a thing, it was all delegation to a ridiculous degree. Nope, can't pull a skid of toilet paper to the comp rail, better disrupt the undermanned unloading team to do it instead. Nope, can't log into the telxons to check if we have something, better get someone else from a different area to do that and ultimately spend tens of minutes having something done when it could have been done in two minutes. Nope, can't deal with customers on the floor, better hide out in the office and not answer the phone. The only thing the management at my store ever did in the back was yell.
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Dec 31, 2012 15:03
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Yea, our ASMs are pretty much what everyone has said except the last post. So their primary duty is making sure everything is running smooth. If the store isn't in grand opening condition (which is impossible), then there's work to be done. Generally our company is pretty good at not forcing more than 10 hours for them, until the holidays hit. I've seen them help produce or fill dairy or price meat when those departments are tanking. A lot of times they have to unload trucks because the day stockers is unavailable. They are the primary enforcers of many bad and ridiculous policies that everyone think is a joke. They have to constantly keep an eye on some extremely lovely employees that somehow was hired. These days, the whole store is completely understaffed so one slacker in a department or call out creates massive problems and ASM is usually the one that has to find a solution. Whatever displays aren't finished being built by the grocery manager gets taken care of by the ASM, which are constantly being changed. Then there's the paperwork. Lots of it. Lot of it they are having to respond to the district manager on why they haven't reached that figure on a piece of paper and their action plan to get it fixed. I probably could go on for a full page, but in a nutshell ASM is a lot of stressful work. ijii fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Dec 31, 2012 |
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Dec 31, 2012 16:07
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I don't understand why the hell customers won't just tell me things (usually very important, vital to know things.) Yesterday I had the following: one guy who let me go through the whole check-out process, then stopped me when I totaled everything up because he just then decided to tell me he was putting it on layaway. Judging from what he said, he didn't suddenly change his mind or anything, he just thought I knew for some reason. Then I had a lady bring up two pairs of pants to the counter. One of them scanned just fine, so no problem there. The other had not price tag, so I start looking all over the pants for some kind of tag I can scan when I feel something like a tag in one of the pockets (thinking maybe it broke off and someone just stuffed it in there). When I checked the pocket, I pulled out a $50 bill and probably got a  look on my face because I was thinking "what the hell?" That's when she decides to tell me that this pair of pants is hers and she just brought them to the store with her as reference for buying new pants. I put the money back, explained the misunderstanding, and apologized about a million times. The lady was nice about it, but I'm still scared to death that she's going to come back later claiming I tried to steal her money. Why the hell didn't she just say they were her pants in the first place? Also had a guy making a huge deal about how I didn't give him 41 cents in change (even though I DID and distinctly remembered doing it). So he stood by the register painstakingly counting every coin he had, then realized I had given him the change after the manager had already opened the drawer and taken out the change for him. He had gotten $130-something for a return but he was freaking about that 41 cents.
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Jan 1, 2013 00:15
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NaturalLow posted:I don't understand why the hell customers won't just tell me things (usually very important, vital to know things.) This right here. Being in an art supply store, many of my customers come in with their own sketchbooks, paint tubes, etc because they want to get the correct product, or they just came from class and are picking up more supplies, whatever. I just wish they would stop placing the stuff they brought in with them in the same pile as the stuff they're buying. It would be great if they also told me that those are their items BEFORE I start scanning them. Otherwise I look like an idiot, especially if it's too late then I have go through an embarrassing return process all while apologizing profusely so they don't get pissed off at me for accidentally charging them extra. Cashiers are not psychics. Please, tell us before a transaction if you brought your own items, or have coupons, or what have you. Similarly, if you notice an item is slightly damaged, do not wait until after you've paid for it to tell us! Especially if it is the last one in stock and we're already closed and we've been waiting the whole time for you to leave so we can start our closing procedures and go home. You were already taking your time before, why not waste more of our time inspecting what you're getting? It would have ironically saved us time.
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Jan 1, 2013 02:45
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About six months ago a friend of mine (a long-term retail drone) was really starting to wallow in despair. I opened this thread on their laptop and not only are they still reading it (at this very moment I believe), they're actually taking steps to study/level up out of the retail existence. Retail goons, there's little worse than the feeling that you're locked into the job, but just keep ploughing through the poo poo, you will  eventually!NaturalLow posted:the toilets are poo poo. I suspect some of it also stems from the fact that most of the problems are in the women's bathroom and most of the management are men so they kind of gloss over it. I worked in a bookstore (the chain kind) for a couple of years, and THIS. The building dated from 1901, and so did most of the plumbing. Periodically the male toilets would back up, and then we'd all have to share the female toilet (3 stalls) with a CD shop and a piercing place downstairs, for weeks sometimes. A massive new mall complex was being erected nextdoor; at some point someone crushed or sliced through the sewer pipe and afterwards, the stink of poo poo would just waft around, especially on a hot day. Our vintage air conditioner didn't really help matters either (though curiously, the manager's offices were always ice cold, go figure). Anyway, I manned the Special Orders desk. The job was a total anachronism. By rights, the service should exist only for the least sophisticated customers, people incapable of ordering online, but somehow, I was BUSY. These were the terms of our service: -we required a minimum 50% deposit -the book would take anywhere between 2 - 4 weeks to arrive, in store mind you -we could mail it to you (by snail mail, no guarantees) for an extra $10 -the price was subject to fluctuation at any stage -all additional costs (ie. distributor's small order surcharges) to be borne by the customer At a glance, it was obviously in no way competitive with Amazon et al, let alone our own webstore. But because our floor staff would send me more or less anyone they couldn't send off with a book in hand, I was, as I say, incredibly busy. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Generally speaking, the ordinary custs were very easy to deal with - either they'd sneer at the terms of service and walk off muttering about Amazon, or they'd outright laugh at me, or they'd shrug and pay their deposit and I'd get their book in with next to no effort (I liked these people). It was the freaks, though, that made the job worthwhile. My favourite was a guy we grew to know as 'Uncle Jim'. He looked like this:  He smelt about as bad, and had a thick rime of powdered skin, like eyelid dandruff, caught in the frame of his glasses. He'd come in EVERY Thursday during my lunch break and stand at the counter waiting, perving on the shopgirls all the while, to talk to me. He'd shuffle up real close and lech at me (I'm a guy and he was CLEARLY into girls), and say things, in his slurring, lip-smacking, gravelly voice, like this:  You know that statue in the mall *slurp* the one of the man doing a handstand? Yeah I know the one There were some young girls doing handstands like the statue wearing these little shorts *sluuurrrp*He'd always bring in these antiquated physics textbooks, more like pamphlets really, from the 50s I'm guessing, and ask me to order them. These were clearly pre-ISBN and I had no idea where to start, which I'd tell him, and then he'd tell me he didn't even need them, and slap down some enormous, expensive computer manual and proclaim he didn't need that either, and buy it. He told me his children had put him in a home and he had to throw out all his books; but that didn't stop him buying. The zenith was this, though: Had yer two-hour lunch break yet? It's only one hour, and yep I have thanks Whadya have *slurrp* A Sandwich(most of our chats opened this way) Did you watch (TV Channel) last night? At midnight they had this show about Nazi SS Officers do you know what they did? They had these 40 Jewesses and they made them take off their clothes in front of a big pit......and so on. Thenceforth he was known as '40 Jewesses' but because he bought so much we tolerated him 
STONE OF MADNESS fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Jan 1, 2013 |
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Jan 1, 2013 07:32
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I work in a store which is 900 sq ft soaking wet. It's in a very high-end shopping mall in a wealthy area. So of course it's hopping and bopping like crazy during Christmastime; there are usually 6 or 7 sales associates on the floor and two people working register. We get a lot of people telling us we should get a bigger space. This year, the weekend before Christmas, something went wrong with our store's connection to the headquarters server. Sometimes we could open the POS software, and sometimes not. The result of this was basically that, for four days, we were only able to do transactions manually. Most of the time we were figuring out cost and tax by hand; sometimes we could actually run the POS to the point where we could at least plug the items in, if not actually run the transaction. We had to use those old carbon paper card readers. We couldn't close the batch at night and had no clue of whether we were making targets, because that's all tracked by the POS software. In addition, the entire company ran out of gift cards. We even asked if they had Quebecois ones. You would not imagine the number of people upset because they can't have a physical gift card and have to go online, buy one, and PRINT IT OUT. IT was pretty much useless. On the 23rd (I think) they finally told us that if they could have the computers for 10 minutes, they'd have it fixed. It wasn't working. They were going to have to have someone physically drive down from Vancouver to look at the systems, but miraculously, after four hours, everything started working again. The whole experience really blew, but we did get an e-mail from corporate that a customer posted on our Facebook page saying that we were all so super nice and helpful even through all the difficulties. Thanks, nice lady 
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Jan 3, 2013 05:00
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fizzy-o posted:In addition, the entire company ran out of gift cards. We even asked if they had Quebecois ones. You would not imagine the number of people upset because they can't have a physical gift card and have to go online, buy one, and PRINT IT OUT. We had a complete and total crash of the store's computer system/registers during one of the insanely busy days leading up to Christmas. It was only for a half-hour or so, I can't imagine having to deal with anything like that for an extended length of time! Anyway, I'm dealing with something similar. We recently just had the first really BIG snowstorm of the winter a week or two ago. So now I'm dealing with tons of customers who are pissed because our stock of snow boots, snow pants, sleds, etc. is so picked over. This is compounded by the fact that we sold out of drat near everything popular during Christmas rush and since corporate is gearing up for the spring/summer season we aren't really getting new shipments of winter stuff beyond the bare minimum. It just amazes me the way people are baffled by the concept of a store being out of something, like "the back" is this magic place where stuff just appears when they want it. I also can't figure out where most of these people have been. We've had tons of this stuff from November until now and we live in a state notorious for its snowy winters. Really? On top of that, I'm also getting an earful of complaints about the fact that we're completely out of guns and ammo. Ever since the shootings in Connecticut, we haven't been able to keep any guns or bullets at all. The stuff is just flying out the doors and it's gotten to the point that our suppliers and all the other stores we normally order stock from in the entire state are out as well, so we're stuck. But nope, our stockroom should just have more bullets! I've had quite a few moments recently with guys bringing up entire shopping baskets full of ammo and the occasional dumbass who sends their KIDS in to buy the stuff for them.Also managed to break another goddamn ink tag all over some guy's coveralls thanks to the stupid backings that get jammed on there. At least he was nice about it and even kept the clothes since he was just going to get them dirty at work anyway.
Kimmalah fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jan 3, 2013 |
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Jan 3, 2013 22:17
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I'm really starting to think that I should just not have a job at all. Maybe I'll go on disability, since I just feel like I can't have a job unless I'm 100% mentally and physically perfect. It got really busy at work on Saturday and I ended up getting so flustered I could not speak, so I hid in the back until it calmed down. My boss, who is a really, really nice lady (she even bought me an actual Christmas gift, c'mon!) came back and asked me if I thought I could handle it -- which set into motion a whole train of thoughts leading to me seriously considering quitting. She told me that if I thought that was busy, I should wait until prom season, when there is literally a line out the door and at least 30 people in store waiting to get measured. I still don't know the prices for everything and I end up making poo poo up when people ask me questions. "Oh sure we have that in store!" (no we don't) "Yeah this particular tux set starts at $99." (no it doesn't, we don't have anything cheaper that $129) "We don't have that in that color." (yes we do, you just have to go to another store to get it). She wants to make me a keyholder and full-time by next month and next month is approaching quicker than I was expecting. I don't think I am ready to be by myself. They keep telling me "Well I am just a phone call away!" since my boss lives like 5 minutes from the mall, and the assistant manager is always available to call, but I am not sure if I can handle being ALONE even if I can make a phone call. It feels weird to be thinking about that if someone has a question, I will have to go, "Hang on, let me make a phone call." and have them wait while I call someone to get an answer to a question I should probably know. People don't have much patience when they're planning on spending hundreds of dollars on suits and tuxes. I can only take so many drugs to handle this poo poo. The assistant manager has mentioned she's walked out and gone downstairs to the restaurant to get a drink. Maybe I should just bring a flask with me, pop a few xanax, and man the gently caress up. I know that you're supposed to leave your outside life at the door when you get to work but I have never been able to do that and as much as I have tried, I always fail. Something bad going on at home? It's going to follow me to work and ruin my day. It's gotten to the point where having a bad DREAM is ruining my entire day. And I cannot afford therapy to get over this. gently caress I turned this into an E/N post. Someone just tell me that I'm not a complete failure at life and even people with asperger's and retardation can hold a job, so I should be able to, too. A coworker of mine is also pregnant... and already has 4 kids from 4 different fathers. She had what I can only think was an ectopic pregnancy and had to go to the emergency room to get surgery last week. Meanwhile I'm doubled over in endometriosis pain but I have to suck it up while people fall all over the pregnant girl. This happened at TW as well. Maybe I should get knocked up and people would be nice to me.
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Jan 4, 2013 14:43
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Sorry to hear you're having trouble again, especially after landing a job with a nice boss who at least tries to understand your position. For what it's worth, I used to get flustered when it got really busy at the petrol station when I was manning the site solo. What I did was train myself to clear my mind of everyone except the customer I was serving at the time. I'd help them out as best I could, and move on to the next person. Usually if someone joins the back of a ten-person line, they'll expect to have to wait a bit, so don't let it get to you. And frankly, if they expect to be served in thirty seconds then that's their problem. Same goes for people who walk past the line and try to ask you things while you're already helping someone. Tell them they'll have to wait, put them out of your mind and focus on your current customer. One person at a time and before you know it it's quiet again. Easier said than done, I know, but that's all the advice I can really give you. Hope it gets better. Oh, and regarding needing to know stuff like prices etc, try carrying a little notebook and pencil with you, and make notes or jot down info all the time. Soon you'll have a quick reference to help give someone at least a reasonably accurate answer to any question they have.
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Jan 4, 2013 16:22
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I really hope you are getting therapy, silver. In this thread, we tend to complain a lot about idiotic customers, but that is kind of amusing. Complaining that coworkers are paying attention to someone with a pregnancy complication is harsh. You also post about how you call in sick a lot, are late, and nowcompulsively lying to customers. It doesn't make me sympathetic, it makes me hope I never have to work with you. On topic, we get people trying to refill their controlled meds like Xanax or Lortabs all the time and we end up taking a good fifteen minutes on the phone each time explaining why we can't. Some top winners of why we should fill their meds early: "I live in (rich gated community's name) so I'm not selling them or anything" "My mom is on her deathbed" (the mother was literally the next person in line, looking just fine) "You always let me fill it early"
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Jan 4, 2013 16:38
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Dear Manager, When I walk up to you and say, "Hey, how's that (3 week old) transfer request of mine coming along?", the appropriate answer is not "Which stores did you request to go to? I forgot to call them". YOU SON OF A BITCH, you didn't even CALL the people I told you to call? I am moving in TWO loving DAYS, and you told me that you would have this poo poo handled week one. If you think I'm driving 50 loving miles a day for $8/hr, you deserve to wallow in this loving hellhole, you slimy oval office. EDIT: Just called them for you, no need to bust a nail picking up the phone now, you piece of poo poo. (Also, managed to guess right that after asking you to contact them at 7AM today, you still hadn't called them. And that you were only sending a fake text while I was watching you. I am your worst, most under-motivated employee, TRY TO PAWN ME OFF.) IndenturedHobo fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 16:46
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I called off (sort of) for the first time yesterday. I've come down with a cold, but I went to work anyway. I was scheduled 12:30 - 9:30, but I left at 5pm after calling my manager and asking her to find me a replacement. I actually am sick. And I actually am on my period (which is very painful and problematic for me), but I probably could have finished my shift. I just really didn't want to. I did actually go home. And I told them I went to bed, but I didn't. I got to make dinner with my kid for the first time in forever, and then I took a bath and played drums for a while. It was so nice! The drama in my store has exploded. We are ALL actively looking for new jobs. It's really crazy. My manager "had a talk" with me and one of my co-workers about how WE are NOT better than HER and she will not tolerate the way we talk about her. See, my co-worker and I were under the impression that when we complained about SM to AM, that it be taken as venting. It was not. Every word we said was repeated verbatim to SM. Granted, every word we said was true- but SM is not happy. We complained about how she tends to talk to people who come in for hours. The Lays vendor, her friends, the Pepsi ordering lady, her mother, etc. How she refuses to ever even come to the front the of the store to see if she could maybe ring a few people up since the cashier probably has a line of 7 people. The AM is better at this. She comes up front every 15 mins or so, and will help thin out the line before she goes back to her task. AM will not come unless I have to track her down because of a return or a void or something else than needs a manager key. Then she will usually just perform the key action required and go back to her task even if I have 7 people in line. I absolutely do not mind checking out people non stop. It's just that I have a list of like 20 time-consuming things I need to do and if I have to be standing at the register non stop because of customers, I can't get any of my actual work done and it creates a lot of stress! And I know it isn't entirely her fault because FD does not give her the budget to allow for an extra employee to be on a shift. But the AM combats this by coming and thinning out the line every so often so that I can usually snatch about 10 minutes here and there to recover a shelf or 3. Ugh. It is impossible to get everything done that we are supposed to get done. Anyway- I'm looking for ways to break into the fine career of dishwashing. I really do wonder if you can like listen to audiobooks on a MP3 player while washing dishes? If I'm going to make $7.50 an hour, I'd rather it be on my terms. And CUMGUARD: Please don't call in a work order! They know I'm the squeaky wheel! Corporate allowed us to wear jackets again. I guess they got enough complaints that their working environment was simply too cold to not allow them. But they have to be red! So now, with my thermal shirt, red polo, and sherpa lined red sweatshirt zip up jacket, and a space heater behind the register- I'm good!
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Jan 4, 2013 17:50
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silversiren posted:I'm really starting to think that I should just not have a job at all. Maybe I'll go on disability, since I just feel like I can't have a job unless I'm 100% mentally and physically perfect. Pretty much what Robzor McFabulous said. I work the register alone a lot (which in my store means I might as well be running the whole drat store alone) and I get pretty flustered when it gets busy. Just focus on the customer you're dealing with and if the other people waiting get mad even when you're doing the best you can on a skeleton crew, that's their problem. They should have enough sense to know that if things are busy and you're alone it's going to take time. If they still get pissed at you then (1) they're kind of being a jerk and (2) their complaint is really more suited for the people making the schedule, it's not your fault you're alone. Just take a deep breath and do the best you can. If a customer is angry or decides to go elsewhere, it is not the end of the world for the store. Like I've said before, it's kind of bad but it really helps if you just stop caring so much. Things that used to drive you crazy and ruin the whole workday will just roll off like water. As for the questions, in time you will learn the answers to the common questions people ask. And if you really don't know something it is absolutely NOT weird to say you need to make a phone call or double check with someone. Just explain to the customer that you're still a little new and want to make sure you have the correct information for them. Most people will understand and appreciate that you're being thorough for them. I do it all the time at work and no one has ever gotten mad because I checked with someone else. What WILL eventually piss people off is being told something is in stock or costs one thing then finding out later that you're just making poo poo up and they've been lied to. That's the stuff that creates angry complaints to management/the owners. If someone gets pissed or weirded out because you're trying to give them the best info you can, then once again they're the one with problems here. With the pregnancy stuff, I think you're being a bit harsh personally. If she actually had an ectopic pregnancy, that's almost always a fatal condition if it's not treated with surgery right away - major abdominal surgery that will take some serious recovery time. I know people do tend to fawn over the pregnant ladies (I dealt with a lot of bullshit involving that myself at my last job) but I think in this case she deserves some leeway. Yes even if she has "4 kids from 4 fathers" as if that matters. Have you explained your medical situation to your coworkers? I know it's kind of personal since it's a "female problem" and all that, but honestly a lot of people don't even know what endometriosis is much less what kind of pain and problems it can cause. If you can't explain it verbally, print off some information online and give it to them to read over. Hell, if you have to see if your doctor can write some kind of letter explaining that you may need to take it easy or take time off due to your pain. It sounds like your employers are far more understanding than your average retail manager so I think you could get the help you need if you're open about it. Kimmalah fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 19:20
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NaturalLow posted:They should have enough sense to know that if things are busy and you're alone it's going to take time. How long have you been working retail?  This sounds like maybe three out of two thousand customers I've dealt with in the last year. More often than not, I will have people straight up walk out of the store because they're the last in my 5-person line and the only other person on duty, a manager, is on break or lunch. Very few sympathize.[/quote="NaturalLow"] As for the questions, in time you will learn the answers to the common questions people ask. And if you really don't know something it is absolutely NOT weird to say you need to make a phone call or double check with someone. [/quote] This is true. Took me 2 or 3 months to learn where everything is at work, but now I have it down pat, along with most of the brands and pretty much all of the non-$1 prices. Eventually it'll all just click. Siren, I'd hug you if I could, but this is the best I can do. 
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Jan 4, 2013 20:35
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D34THROW posted:How long have you been working retail? Well yeah, I know. Emphasis more on the "should" part I guess. Although honestly I've been working retail in one form or another for years and I still really haven't had anyone get mad at ME over a long line or long wait when it's obvious we're busy/understaffed. Sometimes they'll bitch about how there aren't enough people working, but usually in that situation I'm kind of pissed about it too so we end up commiserating. I've had people make a big scene about walking out too, but I don't really give a poo poo if they leave the store. Either they have somewhere they need to be in a hurry or they're being big impatient babies. The store isn't going to die because they decided to go to Walmart. Coupons and discounts have been the major minefield for me when it comes to pissed off customers since I'm the one that has to explain that no you can't use 3 different discounts and 2 coupons, no I can't make this expired coupon work, no I can't use a footwear coupon on that gun you're buying, etc. etc.
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Jan 4, 2013 20:53
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NarwhalParty posted:I really hope you are getting therapy, silver. In this thread, we tend to complain a lot about idiotic customers, but that is kind of amusing. Complaining that coworkers are paying attention to someone with a pregnancy complication is harsh. You also post about how you call in sick a lot, are late, and nowcompulsively lying to customers. It doesn't make me sympathetic, it makes me hope I never have to work with you. This is what I mean when I say I feel like I shouldn't hold a job until I can completely handle it. The girl didn't have an ectoptic pregnancy but I had no other way of describing it. Something something she had a cyst that formed in her fallopian tube that ruptured and was threatening the life of the child, not the girl. My boss said that the cyst formed around the baby in the fallopian tube but I don't think this is correct. She had surgery and was out within a day. It's difficult to explain the endo to people because they hear "period" and "cramps" and just assume it's normal girly issues that occur every month. I've tried educating people about it but they don't normally get it, and sometimes I avoid mentioning it all together because I don't want to start off as being "the coworker who is always sick/malingering". I like to think I am a very, very good worker when I am at work and my boss and coworkers agree. I guess I'm really just scared because I feel like I'm not ready to go as far as my boss is pushing me right now and I feel like I am risking my job if I go "No wait a second, I can't handle this yet." but I think that's something I have gotten into the habit with from working at Publix.
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Jan 5, 2013 01:40
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Is that the thing where some of your uterine lining has escaped into your body elsewhere, like your joints and such? Because that sounds objectively horrific, yet I had never heard of it until one of my friends went in for surgery to excise some of the extra tissue.
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Jan 5, 2013 03:48
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Blade_of_tyshalle posted:Is that the thing where some of your uterine lining has escaped into your body elsewhere, like your joints and such? Because that sounds objectively horrific, yet I had never heard of it until one of my friends went in for surgery to excise some of the extra tissue. Yes, that's the one. The uterine lining outside the uterus reacts to the menstrual cycle the same as it normally would in the uterus so it can cause a lot of pain during periods. As I understand it, far beyond the usual cramps and stuff that most women get, but a lot of people don't really understand that.
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Jan 5, 2013 04:27
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silversiren posted:I'm really starting to think that I should just not have a job at all. Maybe I'll go on disability, since I just feel like I can't have a job unless I'm 100% mentally and physically perfect. Anyone who actually cares about looking decent already owns their own suit/tux, so why are you worried? Your customers are literally fashionless idiots and will be happy with anything, stop stressing.
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Jan 5, 2013 05:10
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Man, I feel bad. Today is my third sick day since September... the first one, I showed up at work and had to go home because I passed out on the clock, the second one I was vomiting, and this time I have some kind of chest/throat cold and can barely talk. My least favorite thing about retail is feeling guilty about sick days. My boss seems pretty upset today, because he and another of my co-workers are also sick, so the stores's on a skeleton crew. He asked me if I could come in anyway, and I told him that theoretically, yeah, I could. I'm glad he decided to let me have a day off, because my throat is still burning from talking to him on the phone, so working register and answering phones today... 
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Jan 5, 2013 18:27
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Another reading of the schedule, another week working Sunday/Saturday with Monday through Friday off. Also, I got a letter in the mail from Dollar Tree Wage Center. My folks thought I was getting laid off. I opened it to reveal information about a class-action lawsuit against Dollar Tree for making employees work on their breaks and lunches. Of course, I haven't done so, so I can't participate. Still funny though.
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Jan 5, 2013 22:25
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