Duty Bound

I have long decided that I was going to treat this job with respect throughout my employment. Easier said than done, as the saying goes. I deeply admire people who work hard to provide for their families. This survival is like serving your country without being in the military but it still takes discipline and courage to see each day through. Retail has proved itself no exception. A great deal of patience is needed and when things go wrong, it feels like having to diffuse a bomb. People dislike inconveniences but most generally take it gracefully. Others are in a hurry with things to do and people to see and so if my register freezes, they will ask if they can leave with their purchase (without scanning it) after just handing me the money. That only works in the movies, in real life, that is considered theft and I could lose my job for allowing it. Showing patience is hard work and I do wish sometimes for others to show as much patience as possible until a solution is reached. I wonder if there will ever be a time when things like patience and respect are given regardless of the situation or the person. These things are easily taken for granted when things run smoothly.

Pain, Pain go away

It has been over a month since my last entry. I feel that nothing important has happened. Now it has. My immediate supervisor who is the assistant manager and has been acting manager of the store I work at hurt herself. She tore some of the muscles from her chest bone but if she does anymore heavy lifting, those muscles will be completely torn from the bone and would require surgery to reattach them. So the rest of us are going to have to apply ourselves more while she has to take it easy on herself. I don't really have a problem with working harder. Our assistant manager, Deb, is a terrific lady and a hard worker. She's a jewel in her own right and deserves to be treated as such. It's just hard seeing someone who is not only your boss but your friend, hurting like this and not being able to offer much comfort. All I can do is be there after the shift as a friend and during the shift as the best worker I can be. She deserves that.

There is a sun

I know that my previous two blogs written dealt with what I dealt with and the frustrating part about life is that I think everyone has jobs that gets on their nerves and it is not always easy to find another. An actual career might be better but all jobs have their ups and downs. Retail is not easy, although it seems that way from a distance. I knew that I had to keep this job for as long as I could until something better comes along. This job has taught me a lot. I see my coworkers and my supervisors as family, we even joke around and get on each other's nerves as family but it's a tough love. We have a job to do and everything must be done by the time we leave. No one can run a store by themselves and you got to have a great crew that is willing to apply themselves. You can't let a bad day bring you down. I have seen other stores that have larger crews that don't get as much done. In fact, their stores are always a mess because try as the store manager might, he or she can't get those store associates motivated enough to do themselves proud. They'd rather be lazy, sure the pay isn't great but you still have a job to do and at the end of the day, it's coming home doing yourself proud. I could easily have been that lazy person but I was lucky enough to get good people as my store family. I stayed to do them proud and not doing my job would've stressed them out far more than it would have me. The way I see it, if you can't apply yourself and work hard in what you don't want to do, even for a short period of time, then do you truly deserve to be rewarded with a job you want to do and get paid well for it? Life doesn't always work that way. Sometimes we have to develop our passion for free, just for the experience and lessons; to face fears or what have you. My love lies in my art and writing. In fact, writing is much easier but I do miss my painting classes. Sure it took 3 hours or more for a painting start to finish but those 3 hours were relaxing and therapeutic. Writing about my job stresses had the same effect, although it was the same stuff that irritated me. I had two choices, I could either let my job get to me or I could finally cope with it. I chose to cope with it because I would rather not have anything in life change me for the worse. Meditating twice a day has been a big help, so has finding a life outside work. I also learned that one reason we get so mad at work is that each little thing is a reminder that we don't take care of ourselves and so we wish that others took care of us. The cure is to take care of yourself before you go to work; challenges are easier that way.

Is it ever worth it?

I remember when I first started my job in retail about what I would be able to do. I thought I might be able to stand up for myself but I know plenty of times when my job got to me because I let it. And sometimes, that wasn't hard to do. I saw the bad side of some people and one rude person seems to have more power than 10 kinds ones. I couldn't help but think if I was seen as the idiot behind the counter. The disappointing thing was if I tried to stand up for myself against a rude person, I could get in trouble for it. So much for what I thought I could learn but that is one of the few things that kept me going at a dead end job for over a year; what I could learn from it. I did learn a great deal though. Time management and making a budget are two. I have also seen how that company treats its best workers, not only because I am one but all the supervisors I have had who decide to stick with their job as long as they can. The one who got me the job was rewarded with a brand new store recently because of his great work with the one I currently work at. He tried going for a raise too but he didn't get it. This company is 10 million dollar company and they didn't give him a raise, although it was very much needed? The worst thing is that I know for all the work these managers put in, their paychecks are so bad they can't even make ends meet and some have to get a second job somewhere else.
When I first started, some coworkers of mine warned me to not become a puppet and I have wondered if they were right. I think they were. This company just uses its employees. They restrict the man hours each store can get which means employees don't get many hours at all. I have also seen many people quit, because it is just not worth their while to stay with a job that is so demanding and then have a paycheck that won't carry the weight it's supposed to. I refer to that as a job that is not doing its job to standards. The company cares more about making a profit than seeing if their employees are treated as they should with the work that is expected of them. The good news is that I have found an outlet for my frustrations. I have joined the local writer's association and I am writing an ebook about how to cope with a job like this one. When you have been in a bad situation and you have learned how to cope and stay strong, then you absolutely know that there is something better. I can just feel that there is another phase coming into my life, I just have to keep going. I know that whatever happens in my life, I will be a voice for people who work hard to make a living. My mom is one and so were my grandparents and great grandparents. Hard work should provide for your life, not drain it away.

As I remember I also look to the future

I remember like it was yesterday. It was my first job in over a year. I had been laid off due to an injury and no one would hire me unless I was 100%. My first day in the store was after my birthday in 2008. I was so happy to be working again I considered it somewhat of a birthday gift. It was fun being in a store that sold things I could use and afford like toilet paper or greeting cards, as opposed to being in a store that held high end products like $300 sheet sets, which was where I worked before. My boss was so nice and clearly gave her all. Everyone there was a large family, and like a family we sometimes picked on each other by sneaking up on each other. I remember how fun it was at first, scanning the items and how carefully I bagged the items. I was just showing proper respect to another's belongings.
It wasn't until I had been there a while that I found out that it was not always such fun. Things do go wrong.. The software responsible for processing checks and checkcards had stopped working. We could only accept cash until it was repaired. I remember putting up a sign on our front door saying that the systems were temporarily down and we could only accept cash in the meantime. It's hard to believe that I thought it would be read automatically by people coming in. The manager on duty and I also mentioned it to anyone coming in that we could only accept cash.
I don't think we were heard by everyone, that's when it happened. An elderly man and his wife had come in and they did their shopping. I am positive that I told them but I didn't notice any reaction. They came to the register and I scanned everything and gave them their total and they only had checks on them. Their reaction to this problem wasn't pleasant. I was accused of not caring about them. I did care, I was just naive enough to think that all warnings and notes are read upon entering a store. That was the first day I cried at work. There would be many more to come as I learned more and more about the downside of retail.