Time For A Change, I Think

Now more than ever I find the hours I work to be incompatible with my life.

So I've mentioned to my manager that I'd like to go to the 4 - 1 shift (1600 - 0100) and work in the backroom doing inventory stuff. The main reason for this is because it would be much easier to balance work with my duties as a Future Sailor. DEP meetings and DEP mentoring are always at 1600, which is smack in the middle of my sleep time. Granted, DEP meetings are only once a month, and I've already fixed my schedule so that I have that day off every week, but it really sucks to have to get up, go to DEP mentoring, go back home, and try to get some more sleep before work.

Also, I find no satisfaction with my current position. Not saying I hate it, but I find it less rewarding than stocking. I go home feeling like I haven't really accomplished anything.

Manager said there'd be some openings soon, and that he'd keep me in mind. But then again, I've been told that before.

Manager Does Not Equal RDC

It seems that certain members of management have decided that it's their job to "prepare" me for military life. By this I mean they're hen-pecking me more than usual, and then telling me I need to learn patience or else the RDC's at recruit training will "eat me alive" when I get fed up with it. One of the Customer Service Managers actually told me he was going to "get on my nerves" and "push me" once he found out what I'm doing with my life. I get the feeling that either they doubt me, or they're drinking some mad Haterade.

First off, I am human, and though I try to get a grip on my emotions (especially at work), sometimes my frustration shows itself. And it often comes in the form of sarcasm and cynicism, not because I'm a negative person, but because that is my personality. Being told that I have a negative attitude will only make it worse, because anyone who really knows me knows that that is utter bullshit, and I refuse to believe that the way I feel at any given moment is invalid or wrong. Do I act upon these negative emotions? No. Do I grumble and become slightly less cheery? Yes. I don't know anyone who works retail and can keep a nice, big smile on their face all day/night long. If they can, that's really creepy.

Second, since when was it your job as a retail manager to "prepare" me for recruit training? Last time I checked, that was my recruiter's job, and I don't think he needs any assistance in that area. After all, he's actually in the Navy, and you are not. You certainly did not prepare me for my position as a cashier, so why the hell would you bother to train me for anything else?! Maybe you think you're being helpful, but you're not. You're coming off as pompous and it irritates the crap out of me. Mind your business and do your job. I will worry about my Navy career, along with my recruiter.

Third, I do not expect nor demand special treatment, whether positive or negative, because I'm joining the military. The only thing I have asked for is to have Thanksgiving off, because I ship out in the beginning of December, I don't know when I'll be able to come back on leave, and deserve to spend that time with my family. I certainly did not ask to be, in my opinion, harassed or pushed harder than other associates. You expect me to continue to do my job during the time I have left with the company, so it only makes sense that you treat me as any other associate.


To the people who support me and are as excited about this as I am, I sincerely thank you, because it makes up for all this negativity. I love you all. To those who doubt me, I'm making a list, so that when I come back, I will ask you which one of my butt cheeks you'd like to kiss.

Tales From 4476

So, last night, I had my first ever encounter with a high customer. This lady had come in around midnight, and apparently shopped for nearly 4 hours. I was the only cashier scheduled (which naturally occurred because the regional VP is supposed to visit today), and my CSM (customer service manager) was on his lunch break. At 3:50 a.m., she decides she's ready to check out. At this time, I'm bust running what little freight we receive up front (batteries, lighters, candy, etc.). I see her approaching my register with her cart full of what looks like something from every department. About 80% of her cart was clothes, which made me cry inwardly because I hate ringing up clothing. So she plunks everything on the belt and tells me to let her know when the total reaches $100. I rang up her stuff, and alerted her that her total had reached $98.84. She went on babbling about asking me if I could do a credit charge with her driver's license, because she didn't have her credit card with her, claiming that Burger King had done it. It was at this time that I knew she was stoned out of her mind. I said, "No, but if you have the account number, expiration date, and security code written down somewhere, I can do it manually." She said she'd have to go to her car to get this information. So she left, and I waited for about 5 minutes before going outside to check the parking lot for her, and I didn't see her. This bitch straight up left a cart full of crap (including milk) behind and never came back. At first I was pretty pissed, because I knew I was going to have to put all that shit back, but luckily my CSM told me not to worry about it.


A few nights ago, I had the joy of dealing with a man who really fucking needed his batteries like OMG right now. Now, it's important that you know that, being a 24-hour store, the system that the registers operate on has to reset for the next days' sales at midnight. We can't begin ringing up until 12:01. Also, we have to reset the cash drawer, which basically involves putting the new bills and coins in there appropriate place. The process takes about 2 minutes. I was on register 5, and my co-worker was on 6. This dude started off in line at 6, with 4-5 other folks ahead of him. I had come back from my break and opened 5, and this dude rushed over to my line, where I then informed him of the fact that he'd have to wait a minute while the system reset itself. He huffed a sigh, then ran back over to 6. I was like, "Seriously, going to another line isn't gonna solve your problem." Our CSM sent my co-worker on her break, so she closed her register and left. Battery Dude runs back over to my line and says "You're determined to make me wait the whole 5 minutes, aren't you?" all distressed like. Dude it's midnight. What the hell could you possibly need your 9 volt batteries so bad for? Wait, maybe I don't want to know.

What I wanted to say: Yes sir, I quite enjoy watching you squirm in line like you're about to piss yourself. It's a vast conspiracy set forth by Home Office, and we associates gladly participate in such activities.

What I actually said: Sir, it was only going to take a minute.

And so I rang him up without further fanfare, fighting the urge to go off on him for getting an attitude with me for basically no reason whatsoever (also I was grumpy as this was my 6th night in a row working). After I cashed him out, he took his precious batteries and ran off, hopefully he heard my oh-so-sarcastic "Have a good night, SIR."


Dear Two Redneck Teenagers In Line: I do not care why you're guying condoms. I did not assume that you were a gay couple, nor would I care if you were. No, I am more concerned as why, along with your condoms, you are also buying duct tape. That is what concerns me.

Never A Dull Moment

So I finally went and bought my new TV that I'd been saving my tax return for. Of course I purchased it from my store, mainly because that was the best deal I could find, and also, associate discount. Anyway. I found my TV and Jack, the electronics associate, rang me up. Now, the Assistant Manager in the department, who had just finished her overnight rotation in February, was hovering about and the following conversation occurred.


Manager: Did you tell her about this TV?
Jack: Why do I need to do that? She works here.
Manager: Well she hasn't worked electronics in some time...
Me and Jack: *WTF face*


Because all knowledge I ever had about the department and our products just flew out the window when the job code did. Yes. That makes sense. Why then, does everyone on my shift holler for ME when there's a customer needing assistance?! According to this logic, I have completely forgotten how to stock now that I'm a cashier.


Also, Virginia state law disallows the sale of alcohol by retail establishments between midnight and 6 a.m. The system literally will not allow us to ring up an alcohol purchase. There is nothing I can do about this. There isn't an "Unless It's Your Birthday" clause. It has nothing to do with me, this store, or the company. It's STATE LAW.


And please remember these things the next time you feel like antagonizing the poor cashier who works for slightly more than minimum wage:

Musings

Thank you, Blogger, for not alerting me to your new format. At least Facepage tells you when it's going to turn your shit upside down and/or sideways!
I digress.

Leroy went in for his annual state inspection earlier this week. He passed as usual, but he's beginning to show his age. The bulb behind the tachometer is burned out, which will cost $100 to replace, he'll need all new tires next year, and the clear coat on his tail gate is beginning to bubble up in some places. Allow me to brag a moment: Nearly 10 year old Toyota, 80,100-something miles, and only cosmetic issues. Like I said, I will drive him til the engine falls out; he'll probably last that long too.

I do wish customers would realize that the answer "Yes, except for the free stuff/big pile of money" is not acceptable when asked if they found everything ok. It's not funny. It never was. It does not make you clever. It makes me go >:|. Please stop it.

Also, if you're on WIC, you should be familiar with the process involved to conduct the transaction. I have a procedure that I must follow in order to process your WIC check. I know it's tedious and takes longer than everyone would like, but it can't be helped. You have no right to complain about how long it takes to process the transaction.

I wish I knew why cats seem unable to walk in a straight line. Every time I leave the kitchen on my way to my room, here comes Piggy walking diagonally along the hallway into my room. He goes from right to left, and always manages to intersect my path at some point. This is especially unnerving when I have my coffee in my hand. One day, I will trip over him and end up in the hospital because I've broken something.






And I got a little creative the other night. I should show this to the customers who exhibit the above behavior(s).

Tales From 4476

Story time! :D

OK so, last night I was working in the cereal and snacks section. Around 4:30 a.m., this family comes down the cereal aisle and is presumably debating on which cereal to buy. They have a small child with them, who is probably like, 3 or something. So family is debating, and their kid is just...staring at me. I'm sitting on a milk crate stocking the bottom shelf with Great Value Corn Flakes, and she's standing like 2 feet away from me, staring at me like I have 3 heads, which is a surprisingly common occurrence when I encounter children. She keeps asking her mom "Who is that?" until her mother finally says "I don't know honey we don't talk to strangers." And they leave. I couldn't help but stop what I was doing, look at the ceiling, and say "FFS I work at Walmart, not out of a white, windowless van with 'Free Candy' written on it!" Not that I was offended but come on! By the way, if you sit and stare at me, I won't speak to you regardless because you're creeping me out and it makes me very uncomfortable.


And now I'd like to make a public service announcement: When we are on break, we are customers too. During this past week, our manager told us of this one lady who called up the store to complain about us. She claimed we were rude and unhelpful to her (which manager didn't believe at all), and had the nerve to complain that we didn't let her cut in front of us at the register. Excuse me. We are on our break. We get 15 minutes. When I am standing in this check out line with my bottle of Gatorade and perhaps a 3 Musketeers, I am a customer just as you are. My navy T-shirt does NOT give you the right to cut the line, treat me like dirt, or act like I am your servant. My badge says "Jenny" NOT "peon." Now get your snotty, entitled ass in the BACK OF THE LINE and wait like everybody else.

Venting Session

Work's been pretty overwhelming lately. More so emotionally overwhelming, and by that I mean that things have been happening that tension has kind of been mounting for me.

First there was my promotion to the Mod Team, which I got pretty excited about. Yay, learning new things and a Sunday - Thursday schedule! WRONG. I have yet to help set a single mod (and there's been a lot dropping), and Co-Manager, who makes the schedule, has apparently decided that I will have the Mod Team schedule when it isn't inconvenient to him. So I'm back to having who-knows-what days off and they don't let me work on mods. Why even bother giving me the position if you don't actually plan on having me do the job?

Lately I've been assigned at least 3 departments to stock every night. These are relatively small departments, so no big deal. However, when they add toys to the mix, plus running picks for all 4 departments by 5:00 a.m., it gets nuts. There literally is not enough time for me to get everything done. And basically, I can do pretty much everything: Stock, work the fresh departments, bin, picking, work electronics, run a register, handle pick-up-today orders, pretty much everything shy of being licensed to operate the forklift. And yet, I get no recognition for that. No Associate of the Month, no certificate of appreciation Co-Manager sometimes gives out, not even a shout out in the next shift meeting. Nothing. Except more expectations. The promotion I got doesn't even mean anything to me because nothing has changed.

Add to that the feeling of inadequacy after seeing a dude who's been there 8 months get promoted to Support Manager (the highest hourly position, one step below Assistant Manager), when I've been there over a year, and I know others who have been wanting that position, and well, it's like "Why do I bother?" It's a double edged sword. I'm happy that management has such confidence in me, but assigning me what seems like the entire GM side to run, promoting me to a position I never get to do, taking away ANY opportunity of working electronics even just for one night, and not even giving me a sliver of appreciation is really beginning to get on my nerves. If I'm so fucking good at what I do, WHY DON'T I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW FOR IT?

Introducing...Retail Robin

Anatomy Of A Shelf Label

So I know you guys generally only pay attention to the price of an item, but have you ever wondered what that other mumbo-jumbo retail-ese on it is? Do you wonder what does it all mean?! Well, I'm going to explain that to you!

BEHOLD!

What That Shit Means:

Product Description - Tells us stockers WTF goes there. This matches the item description on the label that is on the box the product is shipped to us in. This item is a red PlayStation 3 DualShock controller.

Price - How much money you gotta pay for it, durr.

Department Number - Tells us what department the item belongs in. Dept. 5 is Media and Video Games (this does NOT include plug 'n play games...those go to Toys! Get it right!).

Shelf Cap - How many of the item will fit on the shelf/peg. Sadly, Home Office sometimes doesn't account for the size of packaging, so this isn't always accurate. I can tell you 8 controllers will not fit on this peg.

Mod Date - The date the current mod went into effect. Not really important, except during a mod change; you can look at this and see if mod has been changed for this section or not.

Location - This tells us where on the mod the item is located. You read it as CATEGORY - SECTION - LOCATION. When the UPC is scanned with the Telzon, it will also give you the department number. This information helps us find the item to stock it if needs be, especially if the mod for that department has been changed. If the item was deleted (taken off the mod) the Telzon will tell us "No mod in the system for this UPC."

UPC Number - This is the MOST IMPORTANT piece of information. Every piece of merchandise has its own unique code. We scan this when binning, when doing picks, price checks, and especially when stocking. The last 4 digits are what we focus on on the floor. In this example, they would differentiate the red controller from the black or blue one. Find the tag that matches up with the code on the packaging and you've won.

Facings - How many "rows" of the item should be on the shelf.



So as you can see, there's a ton of information we have to process when stocking. What amazes me is that some folks can't count and shove 12 items on the shelf when the shelf cap is like, 6 or something, and it makes our job more difficult than it has to be. YOU GUYS FAIL. It's hardly rocket science.

Where Does This Stuff Even Come From?

It's mod season at work! This means we're attempting to recover (inventory wise) from the clusterfuck that is the Christmas shopping season. Putting out new stuff, getting rid of deleted stuff. Yeah!

Speaking of which, I just want everybody to know that, although we WILL take back your returns, it would be nice if you would return items you actually bought at this store. Or least from a Walmart, not Target or something. Why? Because it short circuits our brains when we come across an item on the shelf that we don't sell. There is no place for it. We can't leave it there, because we have to put This Other Item in that spot. But we can't move it, because we have nowhere to put it. We can't bin it because it would come up as a "Not On File." Basically, our reaction is "WTF. Does not compute! *brain sizzles*"

I was stocking in the stationary department last night, and stumbled upon a brand of secretary envelopes we don't carry. It was plugging up the space where our lovely Walmart "@ The Office" envelopes go. I stared at it for probably 3 minutes, deciding that the best course of action would be to put our envelopes back on the pallet as overstock. One time, we had a Lexmark printer behind the electronics counter for weeks because we just could not figure out what to do with it. We carry HP, Canon, and Kodak, no Lexmark. It's like random merchandise just appears on the shelf and the Retail Gods laugh as we flail about trying to decide what to do with it.

All we can do is just leave it there and somebody buys it, so we can put our shit back on the shelf. Though sometimes it just floats around the store because associates move it from location to another.

You Are Not A Special Snowflake!

My shifts are usually fairly uneventful. Despite working overnight, I don't get a whole lot of "crazies" or anything like that. Even drunk people are few and far between (but we have some, it's the talk of the store). I chalk it up to the area my store is in.

At most, I get awkward conversations with customers. Like last night. A customer came in and inquired as to the price of a desk and file cabinet that was on display. First off let me just say that I do NOT work in the furniture department, but as it's right across from electronics it never fails that a customer (or an associate) will ask me questions about furniture. Naturally, I assist the customer as best I can, but to associates I just shrug and tell them "IDK I don't work furniture." They're smart, they can figure it out! ANYWAY. Dude comes in, who's fairly regular, and always nice to me, and asks about prices.

Customer: How much is this desk? Does it come as one piece?
Me: The desk is $149 and the file cabinet it $69, sir. They're separate.
Customer: *pulls box with desk in it off shelf, inspects box* Is it (the desk) damaged?
Me: No sir. (Box is in fact intact, no signs of damage whatsoever.)
Customer: Can you give me discount?
Me: No sir, I can't.
Customer: *looks around as if searching for a damaged box* ......Can you give me discount?
Me: No sir, I don't have that authority.
Customer: Hmm.

Customer decides he wants the desk, and I help him load it into his cart, and he's off on his merry way. I would like to know why he thought I had X-ray vision and could tell if the desk was damaged or not without opening the box. I could have opened the box, but most likely that would have led him to pull out each individual piece and inspect it for damage. Frankly I don't have time for that. Also, this is not Haynes. We do not haggle on the price of furniture, or anything for that matter. Lastly, you cannot get random discounts on whatever because YOU feel you're entitled to one. My manager would have to approve it anyways, so it's not even up to me!

Can I Breathe?

My apologies for not posting as frequently. I'm on a new schedule, which although great, has me working 5 nights in a row, which I am not accustomed to. Add to that my management running me ragged every night doing what seems like 15 things, it's difficult to get myself up out of bed.

Seriously there was only 2 of us on the GM side. They assigned me 5 departments again, and the other guy only had 2. And I always get stuck doing the crafts department and I hate it 'cause it's a pain in the ass to stock, 'cause there's like 1,372,874 little tiny things to put up, and I just wanna throw the box in the air and go "Fuck it. Store Manager isn't gonna care anyways."

Coming Soon: Retail Robin

Teaser:

Why I Like My Job

A lot of folks look down on those of us that are in Walmart's employ. Not so much in the "Oh, you must not be able to do better" way, but in the "Wow, you work there? That SUCKS, lol" way. People assume that I would hate my job because they do. But actually, I don't. In fact, I quite enjoy what I do.

As strange as it may sound, I like stocking, probably because it's an activity that caters to my meticulous nature. My brain likes to be busy. I reckon after having been conditioned to be through numerous years of schooling this would make sense. I could NEVER be a cashier or people greeter for exactly this reason (that and I'd be standing in the same spot all day). I think this may be an underlying reason why I didn't like working in produce; it was literally the same thing every day. The only thinking part what deciding what you needed off the truck. And it's one reason why I love(d) working electronics. I was always helping customers, whether they just needed to know where something was, or how to play the music on their phone through their radio. As far as zoning is concerned, that's never "exciting," but it is more so when I'm zoning a department versus all the end caps or action alley displays. My brain is like "OMG I COULD BE BINNING ELECTRONICS INSTEAD OF THIS CRAP. FUUUUU---!"

My job allows me an outlet in which I can be meticulous, neat, and orderly without be labeled OCD or whatever. Others may try to shove the extra 4 items that clearly won't fit in the shelf up there, whereas I refuse to do so. I will not put up extra freight and have the department(s) I'm working look like shit. I can't stand when people do that. Take a look at the shipping/packaging tape in stationary and you'll see what I mean.

And it helps that I have awesome co-workers. :)

Why I Can't Stock New Releases In 30 Minutes

Back in the day, when I was actually allowed to work the electronics department in a relatively undisturbed manner, management would basically leave me alone on Monday nights because they knew I had to put out new releases. I enjoyed this very much because A) they left me alone, and B) they couldn't pull me to do some inane task another associate could do.

Nowadays, it's the same "Hurry up I need you to do [insert department here]!" Uh, I know my release load has died down drastically from what it was, but it still takes most of the night to put them out. Firstly, I can't start until midnight. The store (and possibly me) could get in trouble for street date violations. Now, I can do maybe 2 small departments before then, but not 3.

So here's the breakdown:
10:00 - clock in, nightly shift meeting
10:15ish - 11:50 - do whatever I'm assigned
11:50 - go get new releases
12:00 - 12:15 - first break
12:15 - 2:00 - print floorplan and mod labels (if they're not done already), change mod on new release end cap, stock new release end cap
2:00 - 3:00 - lunch
3:00 - 4:30ish - reset mod for GM cart rail, stock cart rail
4:30ish - 5:00 - plug holes, clean up
5:00 - 5:15 - second break
5:15 - 7:00 - zone electronics plus whatever other departments they tell me

As you can see, this is mostly an all night task. And there's only one of me. When my sidekick Melisa was working with me, we could get in done in half the time, plus the new release in-line, TV new releases, and games. But she got a fancy pants promotion, so now it's just me. And guess what? This HAS to get done. The customers expect it. The store manager expects it. However, I have no problem telling him that you decided that stocking the crafts department was a better use of my abilities, and have YOU explain to him why it didn't get done. And believe me, I'm doing it as fast as I can. I've done this enough times, I've got a system, but I won't fuck it up so I can go stock knitting needles and flower arrangement supplies. That is not my priority right now, and it shouldn't be held against me. I am not the only associate capable of doing that. But I AM the only associate who knows how to do this PROPERLY. And also, I'm rather busy right now.

So if you'd kindly get off my back and let me do what I do [dominate like a boss], then we'd all have a much better night, and I won't want to smack you with my set of keys.

Yet Another Adventure At 4476

Today I found out some unexpected news; it seems I'm being promoted to the modular team at work. "WTF is a modular? And why does it need a team?" you ask. A modular (or "mod"), is basically the way the merchandise is positioned on the shelf. A layout of where shit goes, if you will. Every so often, Home Office decides they want things displayed differently on the shelf. For example, I reset the mod each week when I put out the new release games and movies. And actually, we've just finished up the cereal aisle. Essentially, the Mod Team is a group of associates who handle re-doing the mods (re-arranging the stuff on the shelf to match the mod). When they're not doing that, they stock like err'body else.

So while I won't have any sort of authority, I will be getting a slight pay raise and best of all, their schedule is Sunday - Thursday. As of yet I don't know when this will go into effect, but nonetheless I look forward to it.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if this would be considered a promotion, since I've never received one (produce to electronics was a lateral transfer).
ME: So, just curious, did I just get promoted?
MANAGER R.: *nods* Mmm-hmm. But you know what that means right? You gotta do a good job you know.
ME: I haven't failed you yet. *confident grin*

In keeping with the spirit of epic-ness, FUCK YEAH SABATON! \m/

Welcome To 4476.

During your time here, you will discover things that will astound you, bewilder you, or make you literally laugh so hard you can't breath. Such is life at Walmart #4476.

It is not unusual to/for:
- Be told that something that actually is your job, is NOT your job. Then be told to go in the back and do that same task, but for other departments.
- Hurry up because they need you in grocery.
- Witness an associate running with a shopping cart from the toy department to the pharmacy to deliver pharmacy freight...in a Captain America mask.
- Be assigned to the furniture department when you can't lift half the freight.
- Be called over the P.A. to go out and collect carts. This will only happen when it's below freezing outside.
- Find other departments' freight on your pallets.
- Be asked to bin dairy or frozen when you have a cold.
- The nearest bathroom is ALWAYS being cleaned at the time you need it most.
- Don't expect to get through the checkout line quickly during the first of the month. It'd be quicker to go to Wawa to get your orange juice on your midnight break.
- The McDonald's is notorious for not taking plastic. Don't bother if you don't have cash.
- Hear other associates busting into song while stocking the paper towels, namely, "I Believe I can Fly."
- The backroom associates to ambush a manager who's been promoted to co-manager with Silly String.
- Hear associates hollering at each other 'cause we don't carry walkies and thus need to compensate.
- Expect whoever's working chemicals to smell like Fabreeze at some point.
- You'll need a gas mask to stock the feminine products. That aisle is more pungent than the perfume aisle.
- Be looked down upon by the day shift. Regardless of the situation, it will ALWAYS be overnight's fault. I believe we even got blamed for the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.

Enjoy your stay.