Quitter

Yup, as of yesterday I'm a quitter. Though I don't know if they've realized it yet...

So I went in on Friday to find they'd scheduled me to work on Black Friday, which I expected. What I didn't expect was that I'd be "manager on duty" which is their term for the chick with the keys. Or as I like to think of it "She who gets yelled at". Not really comfortable with that. The night was long, and though I like working with Suzie she stresses about how long we are there cleaning up so at 10 she asked me to clock out and I worked another 45 minutes. This isn't the first time, but I decided it was the last. It's just not cool.

So I got home around 11, saw Frank for the first time that day, had dinner and went to bed. Oh the excitement. I'd been feeling like I was absent from my own life since this experiment started and not liking it. I miss Frank even though we live together, the animals aren't getting much attention, the house is a mess, I'm tired all the time and I was talking to Greg about getting together and realized we couldn't find a time. All this and I had a party Saturday night.

My original plan had been to work until 9:30 then head to The Lighthouse after, but if I didn't get out until 11 again, and had to get up at 8 for work the next morning I was going to be miserable and there was no point in going! I'd made a costume and was really looking forward to it, so I decided to be irresponsible and call out of work. I knew we had an extra person on that night because I was "training," not that there had been much time to learn things because there was always something more pressing, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I called early and explained I had a family emergency and wouldn't be in. Well it was an emergency, I missed my family and I'd backed out on looking at wedding rings with Frank twice already, I wasn't going to do it again!

No one seemed to care, so I went on my merry way. We looked at some nice rings in the North East, grabbed some Chinese, braved the Franklin Mills Mall (where after 30 minutes I asked if we could go back to civilization), watched a little Batman and Robin from the 1930s and got in a nap before heading out. Oh the party was such fun and it was so nice to see folks! Plus I won a prize for my costume, as did Frank! Whoo hoo!

Sunday morning I crawled out of bed and headed to work where there was a hornet's nest of activity. It seems our manager was incommunicado, they weren't sure if I was coming in Sunday and didn't have my phone number, plus there was a computer issue the night before. So Sunday was completely over scheduled and we still could have used more people. I hate the way they schedule, there are never enough hands even when they know it's going to be a zoo because of a sale.

Anyhow, Sayrah and I were both shunned as we had both called out once that week. Sayrah was still obviously sick and I would have sent her home, but it wasn't my call and no one was talking to us anyhow. So by the end of the night I'd definitely decided to turn in the resignation letter I had in my pocket. But there was no one to resign to as the manager was probably on vacation (no one was sure, but there was a rumor) and the assistant manager wasn't in. So I labeled it with both of their names and left it on the keyboard in the office.

Unfortunately I left my jacket behind and I'm trying to decide how much I like it, if it's worth retrieving...

Things I've learned...

So in the 3 weeks I worked at Joann Fabrics I learned some disturbing things:

1-My coworkers hate it there. So why stay?
2-You don't so much get trained as have instructions hollered to you from across the store as things come up
3-The customer is the enemy. I swear they complain about the customers when they are still present!
4-If you call out you will be shunned the next day-it's like you are an invisible fairy that works there but no one interacts with you.
5-After a week I deduced my manager's name was Sue
6-After 3 weeks I learned Suzie was actually the assistant manager.
7-I don't like working for free
8-Both the amount of the discount and when you get it are top secret. No one will discuss it. In fact, I haven't seen my coworkers use it.

Too Old

Too old, too tired...but not dead yet!

So I hounded AC Moore and got an interview two weeks ago. After passing the background check I was put on the schedule this week at $8/hour. I was dreading working there on Black Friday, but what can you do?

I had put in an application at Joann Fabrics, but they weren't hiring at the time. Then over Columbus Day weekend we were picking up a few things there and they were insanely busy! So being obnoxious I asked if they were hiring. The manager's eyes lit up, she asked a few questions and then had me fill out another application. Last Monday I popped in to drop off my resume, just for kicks, and we made an appointment for an interview on Saturday morning. The interview really wasn't one, just letting me know they were looking for a closing key holder, would I be interested? It paid $9/hour...While I love the store and it's size I wasn't sure about having keys again. Walden was a madhouse at closing. But I said yes and we scheduled me for work this week...which conflicted with AC Moore. Sigh.

After a lot of thought and talking it over with Frank I was almost positive I wanted to go with Joann's, but just in case I held off on burning any bridges until I made it though my first shift. Which was last night.

The people are nice, I know the product and closing procedures have gotten a heck of a lot easier since I last did them, but 5 hours on my feet was a killer on my back and soles. As I crawled into the car at 10:15 I wasn't so sure I would be able to get back out. I got home, my sweetie had saved some dinner for me so we sat down and recapped our days. I took an Aleve and headed to bed where I promptly passed out.

Getting up this morning was ugly. I woke up at 5 and considered getting up and doing some yoga to stretch out sore muscles, but miraculously they were in pretty good shape, so I fell back to sleep. The alarm went off at 6, I ignored it. Again at 6:15, snoozed. 6:24, snoozed, 6:33...turned off. At 6:50 I crawled out of bed just before Frank was about to come check on me.

I stumbled into the bathroom to clean up, put toothpaste on my toothbrush and, I swear, almost brushed my armpit. I wasn't tired, not at all! I managed to get the brush where it belonged and get the rest of me ready, throw together some lunch and stumble out the door clutching a cup of coffee like a life preserver. I was only 10 minutes late for work! Whoo hoo! I get to do it again tonight. I'm not sure I'll survive.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank God I have my trainer on Wednesday and get a night off! I'll be back there on Thursday and by then should have a better feel for things. In the meantime I'm thinking of selling a kidney, if anyone's in the market.

In search of...

So since Julyish our work hours have been cut from 40 down to 32. The first 3 months were tight, but not horrible. I started noodling around looking for other job possibilities when the news first came down, but in September I got a bit more serious about it and started thinking about a part-time job to make ends meet.

I quickly learned that when looking for part-time work in retail you have to be obnoxious, almost stalkerish. Remember all those youthful moments when you tried to restrain yourself from calling that person you liked too much? Did you know you could channel that energy into a job search? I knew it would come in handy some day.

So before I learned this but had put in a few applications and hadn't heard anything, I broke down and answered an ad to work as one of those people who hangs out in the mall and bugs people to do surveys. I got to the mall about 1/2 an hour early so I popped over to Things Remembered to find something for my new soon to be nephew (Megan had a healthy baby boy of 9/24/09). While making my selection I learned they were hiring so I took an application.

I went to the interview where I found chaos. Their internet was down and all hell had broken loose. People were collating papers on the lobby floor, some woman was barking about FedEx labels and a guy was on the phone with Verizon trying to fix things. It turns out the barking woman was the one I was to interview with, and she forgot I was coming (now I call to confirm interview times, lesson #1). I offered to reschedule, but she was insistent on doing this now so I settled in with a huge stack of papers and filled out an application while people ran around outside the cubby I was in.

Just about the time I hit the W-4 and started wondering why I would fill this out if I hadn't been hired yet the woman came bustling in asking if I knew what a modem looked like. Why yes, I do. Next thing I know I'm on the phone with Verizon. I introduced myself to Sylvia, the tech, and we both had a good laugh about my not actually working there. As I climbed on a chair, in heels, to look at their modem hub I told her if she heard a scream to hang up and dial 911. I got the new modem hooked up and gave the phone back to the gentleman who had been talking with her so he could do the computer testing, as I assumed I shouldn't be on their machines.

Not long after the woman I was to interview came in demanding to know if I thought he could handle this. After reminding her I didn't know him, I told her it wasn't that difficult and he should be fine. She left and soon was yelling in the hall again, and came back complaining about the "China-men" next door. It was at this point I began to wonder if she had a problem with the young black gentleman who was working on getting the internet back up. Great.

So it ended up that they offered me $10/hour and wanted me to start that Sunday. In a fit of desperation I agreed, but as the day went on and I told the story a few times, and talked things over with Frank, I decided to decline. If the best part of the job is going to be accosting people in the mall, well I don't think that's for me. I did put that application into Things Remembered though.