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  • Working at the local GaFs

    New job, new thread.


    From 1st July, all Aussies who get the dole will have to do some sort of volunteer work every week. I've been through this before, and as I refuse to plant copper logs in national parks or pick up rubbish in car parks, I thought I'd take the opportunity to keep my customer service and retail skills up-to-date, as well as get some new experience in working in a clothing / small goods and grocery store. Never worked in them before, so this is new for me, and I can add it to the resume.

    First day in, I arrive slightly early to find a deliveryman with a van of discarded bread. I had wondered where they got the free bread they gave away from, and it comes from the Woolies across the highway, where they have a regional bakery. They bake fresh every day, we get what hasn't been sold. A very sensible arrangement for all concerned, and it means we occasionally even have sweet stuff like donuts or (gasp) cakes!

    I established my bonafides with the breadman and helped him stack and count it, then asked the boss where she wanted me to start. She pointed towards the storeroom and said "do you think you can do something with that?"

    It was slightly full. Bags full. Shelves full. Cannot find the large table in the middle of the room kind of full. There are two industrial floor freezers in this room. Somewhere. Probably near the mountain of milkcrates.

    "I suppose suggesting a bottle of metho and a lit match is out of the question?"

    The boss grinned and agreed and left me to it while she got on with opening the shop. I pulled out the headphones and the ipod, pointed myself in the direction of the table, and started emptying and sorting bags of clothes, toys, junk, bags of rags, and quite a lot of . . . . other (shudder) stuff.

    By midday I had cleared a path to the important areas of the room (fridge, one freezer, found the back wall, and stumbled over the table), and was taking a stack of towels into the shop, when the boss told me that my nice, tidy piles would probably be destroyed by the end of the day. And that they've had one lady who'd taken to coming in and asking the most inane questions, pawing through everything, and then leaving with a 50cent trinket.

    I remembered it was my first day. I tried to be gentle.

    Apparently my eyes lit up like sun flares. However, I managed to restrain myself from drooling and toddled back to my sorting and folding. Towards the end of the day, I wandered out with a load of doonas, to find my carefully folded stacks and baskets being disembowled and scattered. I'm sure my growl as I placed the pile I was carrying on top of the stepladder was audible on the moon.

    Lady dropped the sheet she was holding and stepped backwards, then gathered her courage and asked "Do you have any pillowcases this colour?"

    My time on this website has allowed me to learn that shaking her by the scruff of the neck is NOT a good tactical manouvere, especially on the first day, so I held her gaze, dropped my voice by half an octave, and gestured towards a basket -- clearly marked 'pillowcases'. "All available stock is there, madam. Nothing in the stock-room is ready for consumption yet."

    "Oh." And with that, she wandered off to look at food, leaving me with armfuls of differing stuff to re-sort and re-fold, which took another hour and a half. I was a most displeased camper.

    The only other slightly exciting thing was as we were about to close and three of the usual suspects came in on a recon mission. Having worked in selling booze, petrol, and smokes, I recognised them as locals and began industriously fronting up the grocery shelves (closest to the front of house and the till). At this point, only the boss and I were still at work. I was interested to see how she would deal with these guys, and also as backup in case she needed it.

    The trio acted true to form. They came in and split up, and it's very hard to keep an eye on 3 people when there's only two of you there. I tried to move around and keep them off balence and in view, but we probably lost some stuff, just because it's so hard to do. It was as they were buying it got interesting. Two were ok, but the oldest started to bitch about prices (dirt cheap) and how she could get it cheaper somewhere else (ok, go there then!), and since she is Aboriginal, it's our fault she's poor and we should feel so guilty we give her unlimited food and anything else she wants for the rest of eternity.

    I may have laughed at loud when she said this.

    The boss is new to the area (the shop is new), she hasn't worked retail before, and she made a classic fatal mistake -- she engaged in the argument. The trio tried to argue the boss into giving them what they wanted, but she stood firm. However, the only mistake she made was to try and hand over the change in a pile, rather than carefully place it in the ladies hand, as it allowed the woman to tip her hand so the change fell onto the counter, which started another rant.

    At this point, I accidently dropped two bottles of water, making a loud clatter. When I looked up, the trio were out the door and the boss was locking it behind them. She made the comment that she probably shouldn't have engaged, but I pointed out that there was no way to know what they were about to try. I did get thanked for being visible and dropping the bottles, which broke the moment and allowed the boss to hustle them out.

    All considered, not a bad first day.

    I think I shall be enjoying my time here.

  • #2
    A boss who admits that they don't know it all and are willing to (a) accept help and (b) be thankful for it is a rare gem. She sounds like someone you could be happy to continue working with!
    Experience is knowing how not to get your teeth kicked in - again. -- The Freethinker

    "And that... entitles you to no mercy at all, no matter what." -- from Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

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    • #3
      This boss sounds like a real keeper! More bosses need to be like her - can you talk her into getting herself cloned?

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth Thud-n-Blunder View Post
        A boss who admits that they don't know it all and are willing to (a) accept help and (b) be thankful for it is a rare gem. She sounds like someone you could be happy to continue working with!
        Given it's a volunteer place, that sounds about right.

        I believe I know the type of store, as I remember passing on "damaged" stuff (ie a 6-pack of muesli bars that was missing a bar) to our donation service, which from the sounds of it, is the one you're working for.

        (This was one of the few things I did like about working at this particular company: if there was cosmetic damage to a box or similar, we'd donate it. Stuff like what I described above was initially marked as "known stolen" then donated after that if it was still usable. (The criteria for "known stolen" was basically say, a pack of condoms that had been opened, the packaging was left behind but they took the condoms. This did actually happen and my supervisor commented "they could've at least taken the instructions! )
        The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

        Now queen of USSR-Land...

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        • #5
          The amusement level increases.

          The shop is fun.

          After making reasonable inroads into the piles of bags in the storeroom, the boss and I have reached an understanding. With that in mind, the boss has been interviewing for more people to help me, so I can start to learn the rest of the shop.

          She's said she wants me to take on the upcoming Day Manager role. It will mean 3 days a week which will give me a little more money each week, a good thing for everyone.

          One of the new people, one who has lasted longer than 24 hours, was introduced to me as 'this is Mark, he's a Sci-fi fan as well.' I've met these sort of claims before, so I countered with 'name 3 shows, 2 of which must not be American.'

          The lad look only a seconds thought before saying 'Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, and Firefly.'

          Oh yeah, this one's a keeper.

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          • #6
            Quoth dakhur View Post
            Oh yeah, this one's a keeper.
            Your boss is probably thinking the same about you, hence the offer of the day manager role.
            No trees were killed in the posting of this message.

            However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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            • #7
              Quoth Thud-n-Blunder View Post
              A boss who admits that they don't know it all and are willing to (a) accept help and (b) be thankful for it is a rare gem.
              This is exactly why I stayed loyal to the gamestore I worked at -- for three years -- despite the poor attitude Corporate has towards anyone at store level, and their unreasonable demands of us with regard to pushing certain add-ons that most customers despise On his first day working there, the new SM who took over asked us to congregate for a store meeting before hours the next day. When we showed up, the first thing he did was to explain his own background (running sports apparel stores), and to ask each of us what our specialties were in terms of game and system knowledge. e.g. who's the sports guy, who's the RPG guy, who's the FPS guy, who's the PC guy, etc -- he did this with the explicit intention of learning more about the games from us (corporate doesn't really train anyone on game knowledge), and so that he could more easily point customers to ____ guy when they had a specific question for someone who needed the help of an expert in that genre. It worked out really well

              (Side note -- Firefox thinks "add-ons" is misspelled, and yet, it felt that "ix" (a misspelling of "is") was just fine...H2G2 fans, methinks )
              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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