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January 2, 2006

Burning With Rage

I'm burning inside. I wish it was a righteous anger…

My bookstore manager in conspicuously and conveniently absent on many of the busiest days the store has had this season. She's just become engaged. I can't blame her for not wanting to be there… But she's the fucking manager of a retail store. Get over it. Lead us into battle you absentee bitch! And stop going home "sick."

Also? How about some schedule planning. If the corporate office is smart enough in their forecasts to predict a day that's way above average in sales, how about staffing the store for it? How about some of your own thoughtful research into the calendar holidays vs. days of the week? How about the fact that a lot of people were given today off since New Year's Day fell on the weekend? Fucking Mondays.

Customers who leave shit all over the store. I'm plenty guilty of this one. I'll admit to having a sort of addiction to shopping as an escapist activity. And how! I know I've perused large store in excess of an hour before ditching the items I thought I might buy. So, I get it. But fuck is it frustrating to find merchandise that the inventory systems tells you is in stock but is nowhere near where it's supposed to be. Thanks for helping me to lose sale after sale. And I'm sorry I—I know I've caused you pain, too.

When you're in line at the cash register? How about can you write your check while you're huffing impatiently? Or better yet? Stop writing checks. Just stop. Checks take a painfully long time to validate, require ridiculous amounts of tedious yet useless additional information, and the check scanners don't fucking work. Let's please stop the madness.

You people who write SEE ID on the back of your credit card? Let's have that ID ready when I ask for it, OK? And also take the time to notice that your card says IT'S NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED. You thank me for asking for ID when other people don't, but yet you won't follow simple rules yourself. Let's stop this game, too. Or I'm not going to take your card anymore.

Cash payers? I love you deeply. Except when you say something stupid like "I hate change." Fuck you. Why are you making everyone in line wait while you dig through all of your pockets, your purse and your wallet to see if you might have exact change? Just put your change in a jar, and every so often take it to the bank—like the rest of us.

I know this is just me being a bitch. I'm pissy today because it was really busy, and the busier the store gets, the more little things become annoying. Like my coworker who is paid as a bookseller like me, but who insists on hiding behind the register. This guy constantly calls for assistance. Now, to be fair, the rule is to call for assistance if you have three or more "guests" waiting in line. Most of the time, he's got at least three when he pages. But he always pages when he has three in line. So 10-20 times a shift, this guy is paging for assistance at the registers. Today he paged a few times while he was involved in complicated transactions—and might have needed assistance but really didn't. I know, I know, it's all good customer service, right? Yes, for the folks in the check out line. But that means I'm taking myself away from my post at the information desk where people have legitimate questions that deserve answers. I just about lost it when he paged me to the info desk today. I couldn't win. Couldn't help customers because I was at the register. Couldn't put misplaced product away. Just answered pages after a while. I guess I got some exercise walking back and forth, eh?

If it's so awful, why don't I leave? Whatever. I like a lot of my job. I like the challenge of finding things for you and I find it rewarding when you thank me. A lot of you do and I'm really grateful for that. Honest!

This has been building up for a bit. I needed to vent. Thank you for listening.

[+] Posted by Sinner, who was transgressing at the time (January 2, 2006 6:36 PM) by revealing evil. [+]

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