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I have a BA in Psychology, but just having a BA is almost the same in the field as not having any degree, it seems like. at any rate, my year as a tutor for AmeriCorps convinced me I'm not quite ready for primetime in terms of providing life assistance to people. So I applied for a bunch of lovely retail jobs, and now I work at a Safeway in the deli department. It's...an experience. I work closing shifts, and get at least 28 hours a week, which given I live in Washington and Safeway is union, is enough to get by comfortably. and closing means my shifts with the deli managers only overlap by a few hours, if that. Some weeks I don't see them at all, and my only management contact are PICs. Who are almost all good people who care way more about their job than any of the deli managers, so that's nice too. This store has crazy high turnover, partly because it hires a lot of kids, and partly because...our customers are loving lunatics. We're centrally located in the downtown of a large Seattle suburb. and also a gigantic apartment complex comprised of 12 seven story buildings opened a couple years ago....right across the street. And the majority of it is public or subsidized housing. also because we're centrally located, we get all the transients. I try to use the employee bathroom and avoid the restroom as much as possible - a couple weeks ago I saw someone getting high in the stall. I wish we could lock the bathrooms and have a code or something, but the store would probably get sued. also up until recently there was only security one or two days a week. yeah. Theft is absolutely rampant. I have a mental list now of the regulars who don't actually pay for what they get from the deli, so if I see them again I can politely suggest that I can ring them up. or call a PIC, in a couple of cases. But a lot of the time I just don't care, because nobody else seems to, at least not in management or corporate. This is my first proper customer service job, and since I started in October, I've had a steep learning curve. It's some kind of insane miracle that I've been able to hold down this job for ten months, despite being on the autism spectrum. And I actively choose to stay up front! In part because I'm trying to get some serious practice interacting with people, and managing my own impulses. Also because gently caress doing dishes or cleaning the fryers. I still need to get better at not letting irritating people get to me. I have gotten a lot better at not escalating situations with shitlords, but dealing with very dumb people is still a challenge. especially when they order fried chicken and then get angry at me that I am not giving them baked chicken.  but there's a real sense of camaraderie with my deli coworkers - everyone agrees the majority of our customers are either awful or not very smart. There's definitely sort of an us vs. them mentality, although we also do have favorite customers. That us vs. them mentality is pretty dominant among people who've worked in the store a long time. Out of sympathy and SOLIDARITY, I tend to be very polite when serving coworkers. Some customers are really eager to complain to managers about us for no adequate reason, to the point that it's a real Boy Who Cried Wolf Situation. PICs seldom take customer complaints about bad service seriously, and the worst I've ever gotten is a friendly talking-to. I used to be really reluctant to send assholes to the PICs, but now I'm like "yes, please, go bother them, see where that gets you". Also I like responding to "constructive" customer suggestions about the running of the deli with "yeah, that sounds like a great idea. sucks it'll never happen, but great idea anyway. thanks!  "Overall, I like ragging on this job, but it's weirdly not completely terrible for a lovely grocery store job.
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Aug 30, 2018 04:09
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 16:35 |
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