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You don't know how many layers of dumb I've had to deal with today... It boggles the mind, it really does. Now I don't know if I mentioned it to anyone yesterday about the fact that I accidently booked the special needs school's portraits appointment on the same day as the new girl from Studio B.
So I told my boss that I'd come in for half an hour to help out the new girl with the special needs kids. Since she didn't know how to shoot ad package only, and had never dealt with Suzie's Kids. So I am going with the intent of saying hi to Suzie, showing Carin how to work the multiple ad packages... And going home... Thirty Minutes TOPS!
So I go in... I get there at 11:10. Sandy and the kids aren't due to arrive for another 20 minutes or so... I discover that the new girl transcends any sort of concept of dumb. She's taken the cash bag we keep locked up in the cash office. Which is supposed to remain locked up until at LEAST 3pm after we've returned from lunch.
She's picked up the deposit cash bag and SHOVED it hard into the cash drawer. It jams closed... Duh...
"Oh! I phoned you about that... I guess you already left."
"Umm did you phone anybody else!? Like Jessie or Helen?!"
"No..."
ARGH!!!!!!!!
She's already phoned once and asked where the float bag was... told her and I thought that'd be the end of it.
So I spend an hour with the manager of the one hour photo, fighting with the cash drawer. Jimmying it and trying to force it open with two screw drivers and a monkey wrench.
And while I do this, I'm also expected to do her job?! Like shoot the special needs kids' photos while she dicks around - wandering aimlessly and slowly as possible - selling a previous shoot's photos. Of which I had to finish the session because she was wandering around the studio - as far away as humanly possible from the baby cooing at it. And it's screaming it's damned fool head off.
She had 3 shots total. She needed 7. What took her over 30 minutes to get 3 shots. I got the last 4 in about 2 minutes. Popped a couple props in the shots to change up the variety. And it was done... Then I got to shoot the next session. (did I mention it's my DAY OFF!?) and shoot the special needs kids - by myself!? And then after I'd done that - I played with the till some more with the manager until we killed it good and it popped open.
After I'd done the special needs kids and sales and everything and all I needed to do except ring it through. Carin's still at the computer staring at it like it had just SUDDENLY appeared there. POOF! And the thing about this computer. It's DOS. It's idiot proof. It'll ask you six times whether you want to do something. And there's only 3 keys to remember Y, N, ENTER. And every screen is the same as far as instructions. She sat and stared at the basic info screen (name - address - birthday) finger poised over the keyboard when all she had to do was hit ENTER all the way down until it beeped at her to push N.
And she did this for every transaction.
While passport people stood there and gawked, while her appointment and two others that were waiting...
Then I said okay - the special needs kids are done - till's 'fixed'. I'm going to get myself some lunch - and go home after I've phoned tech support. I go get a burger with the phone attached to my head... I sit to eat and see about 7-8 pairs of eyes staring at me...
"Umm can I help you? Lemme guess... You waiting for..."
and they all point at me. "YOU!" They reply. Thinking they're sooo funny...
and I say "Yeah... Actually I came in here about 2 hours ago... for 1/2 an hour... Passports eh? Kay... Excuse the phone I'm on hold with tech support."
They thankfully are at least that accomodating in realizing I'm sorta busy with other stuff that's not anybody's fault.
I shoot the passports and realize that we're all out of passport envelopes to stick them in. So I do makeshift little paper envelopes out of notepaper... Where's Cindy when this is all going on? I haven't a fucking clue...
So all the passports get done... The customers are remarking as to how long I've been on hold... I shrug, "They do tech support for all of Canada, USA and Mexico... I think they might even have for Argentina or where-ever else they have stores... I'm usually on hold for about an hour."
So after the passports are done. After I've FINALLY got through to tech support... Carin's next appointment's shown up.
"Have you given them their paperwork!?" She asks me. I back away from her and reply. "I'm not even here!"
Serve your own damned customers!
I phone Helen again. Who still can't believe that Carin locked the blue cashbag in the register. Asks whether I told her how to close up since we're not taking cash or debit... I told her twice. I don't know how many other times I need to remind her. Helen told me to phone Jessie... I did... But it was so hard to explain the stupidity on the phone without saying "THAT NEW HIRE IS DUMBER THAN A BAG OF HAMMERS!!!" So I explained it... Probably not as good as I could have, because I was so baffled as to how anybody could do that. Several LARGE empty open drawers which would have housed about 50 cash bags if we needed to... And she shoves it in the till. The teeny little cash drawer.
<shakes head>
Best part is that Mandy from Studio B said last week. "Oh well Michelle says you can have Carin..."
If she's this bad now... I don't want to see Christmas... Please god. I am hiring all my own staff.
I don't want Carin! Take her back!!! My sister says I'm being a bitch about this... I don't think it's out of line for somebody to know that big things don't fit inside little things, and to do their own damned jobs...
When I got home I found this little jem on my phone...
"Hi, it's Carin calling again. Sorry to keep bothering you. I have a serious problem. When I was looking for the float this morning, I grabbed the money bag thinking it might be in there and I stuck it under the till in the cash register... And now cash register's popped up and now I can't get it open! So if you could give me a call back to let me know what I should do. I'd appreciate it."
On the bright side... I just got a call from the DM... I'm getting paid for the two hours I spent dealing with this shit, but next time. I'm to step back and let her do EVERYTHING except have me fix the problem at hand - mainly the fixing the till this time. Instead of juggling everything and doing HER job. Pull her in the backroom and explain that I'm there on my own time. I'm there to help her with the special needs kids and I didn't need to be ambushed by other things and have other things dumped in my lap. You're here to do a job. You're here to shoot the passports and the portraits... And I'm here to fix the till and show you how to shoot the special needs kids.. She's giving me the power to give shit if I need to. I didn't know where my boundaries and barriers were. Now I do. "Don't be mean," said the DM. "Be firm. Tell her what she's doing, what she needs to be doing, and what you will do. Step back and let her do it."
So I told my boss that I'd come in for half an hour to help out the new girl with the special needs kids. Since she didn't know how to shoot ad package only, and had never dealt with Suzie's Kids. So I am going with the intent of saying hi to Suzie, showing Carin how to work the multiple ad packages... And going home... Thirty Minutes TOPS!
So I go in... I get there at 11:10. Sandy and the kids aren't due to arrive for another 20 minutes or so... I discover that the new girl transcends any sort of concept of dumb. She's taken the cash bag we keep locked up in the cash office. Which is supposed to remain locked up until at LEAST 3pm after we've returned from lunch.
She's picked up the deposit cash bag and SHOVED it hard into the cash drawer. It jams closed... Duh...
"Oh! I phoned you about that... I guess you already left."
"Umm did you phone anybody else!? Like Jessie or Helen?!"
"No..."
ARGH!!!!!!!!
She's already phoned once and asked where the float bag was... told her and I thought that'd be the end of it.
So I spend an hour with the manager of the one hour photo, fighting with the cash drawer. Jimmying it and trying to force it open with two screw drivers and a monkey wrench.
And while I do this, I'm also expected to do her job?! Like shoot the special needs kids' photos while she dicks around - wandering aimlessly and slowly as possible - selling a previous shoot's photos. Of which I had to finish the session because she was wandering around the studio - as far away as humanly possible from the baby cooing at it. And it's screaming it's damned fool head off.
She had 3 shots total. She needed 7. What took her over 30 minutes to get 3 shots. I got the last 4 in about 2 minutes. Popped a couple props in the shots to change up the variety. And it was done... Then I got to shoot the next session. (did I mention it's my DAY OFF!?) and shoot the special needs kids - by myself!? And then after I'd done that - I played with the till some more with the manager until we killed it good and it popped open.
After I'd done the special needs kids and sales and everything and all I needed to do except ring it through. Carin's still at the computer staring at it like it had just SUDDENLY appeared there. POOF! And the thing about this computer. It's DOS. It's idiot proof. It'll ask you six times whether you want to do something. And there's only 3 keys to remember Y, N, ENTER. And every screen is the same as far as instructions. She sat and stared at the basic info screen (name - address - birthday) finger poised over the keyboard when all she had to do was hit ENTER all the way down until it beeped at her to push N.
And she did this for every transaction.
While passport people stood there and gawked, while her appointment and two others that were waiting... Then I said okay - the special needs kids are done - till's 'fixed'. I'm going to get myself some lunch - and go home after I've phoned tech support. I go get a burger with the phone attached to my head... I sit to eat and see about 7-8 pairs of eyes staring at me...
"Umm can I help you? Lemme guess... You waiting for..."
and they all point at me. "YOU!" They reply. Thinking they're sooo funny...
and I say "Yeah... Actually I came in here about 2 hours ago... for 1/2 an hour... Passports eh? Kay... Excuse the phone I'm on hold with tech support."
They thankfully are at least that accomodating in realizing I'm sorta busy with other stuff that's not anybody's fault.
I shoot the passports and realize that we're all out of passport envelopes to stick them in. So I do makeshift little paper envelopes out of notepaper... Where's Cindy when this is all going on? I haven't a fucking clue...
So all the passports get done... The customers are remarking as to how long I've been on hold... I shrug, "They do tech support for all of Canada, USA and Mexico... I think they might even have for Argentina or where-ever else they have stores... I'm usually on hold for about an hour."
So after the passports are done. After I've FINALLY got through to tech support... Carin's next appointment's shown up.
"Have you given them their paperwork!?" She asks me. I back away from her and reply. "I'm not even here!"
Serve your own damned customers!
I phone Helen again. Who still can't believe that Carin locked the blue cashbag in the register. Asks whether I told her how to close up since we're not taking cash or debit... I told her twice. I don't know how many other times I need to remind her. Helen told me to phone Jessie... I did... But it was so hard to explain the stupidity on the phone without saying "THAT NEW HIRE IS DUMBER THAN A BAG OF HAMMERS!!!" So I explained it... Probably not as good as I could have, because I was so baffled as to how anybody could do that. Several LARGE empty open drawers which would have housed about 50 cash bags if we needed to... And she shoves it in the till. The teeny little cash drawer.
<shakes head>
Best part is that Mandy from Studio B said last week. "Oh well Michelle says you can have Carin..."
If she's this bad now... I don't want to see Christmas... Please god. I am hiring all my own staff.
I don't want Carin! Take her back!!! My sister says I'm being a bitch about this... I don't think it's out of line for somebody to know that big things don't fit inside little things, and to do their own damned jobs...
When I got home I found this little jem on my phone...
"Hi, it's Carin calling again. Sorry to keep bothering you. I have a serious problem. When I was looking for the float this morning, I grabbed the money bag thinking it might be in there and I stuck it under the till in the cash register... And now cash register's popped up and now I can't get it open! So if you could give me a call back to let me know what I should do. I'd appreciate it."
On the bright side... I just got a call from the DM... I'm getting paid for the two hours I spent dealing with this shit, but next time. I'm to step back and let her do EVERYTHING except have me fix the problem at hand - mainly the fixing the till this time. Instead of juggling everything and doing HER job. Pull her in the backroom and explain that I'm there on my own time. I'm there to help her with the special needs kids and I didn't need to be ambushed by other things and have other things dumped in my lap. You're here to do a job. You're here to shoot the passports and the portraits... And I'm here to fix the till and show you how to shoot the special needs kids.. She's giving me the power to give shit if I need to. I didn't know where my boundaries and barriers were. Now I do. "Don't be mean," said the DM. "Be firm. Tell her what she's doing, what she needs to be doing, and what you will do. Step back and let her do it."
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