Job rant =(

[RammsteinGirl]

Sorry but I need to vent about my job =/ I only worked 4.5 hours today (4 hours is about the average for a part-timer's shift at K-Fart) but it was a hell of a day. I came into work at 9 AM and I was the only cashier till 11 AM. At one point I had a line about 7 people deep. This is typical for K-Fart and sometimes they don't even have any cashiers scheduled until 10:30 AM. It just seemed like everything was going wrong today at once - things missing UPC's, people not answering pages for price checks, snippy customers.. you name it. I got snapped at by one of my co-workers today to top everything off.. and it really pissed me off.. I was already stressed out from busting my ass trying to get customers checked out, and I paged her for a merchandise check in electronics. Well, I wait about 50 seconds, and I page her again. She calls up and nastily SNAPS "YOU don't even give me time to get to the phone!!!!!!" If there wouldn't of been a customer standing there within earshot I would have told her to fuck off right there. I could feel tears starting to come on (because I'm a rather sensitive person and especially when I'm already stressed out) but I held it in because I didn't want to cry in front of the customers. I understand that everyone's under pressure because we're so understaffed but it's not my fault so don't bitch me out!

I have really had it up to here with this job. All of my co-worker's are sick of it as well. Morale is really low, stress is really high. I've actually started smoking recently to help relieve my nerves (don't get onto me! :P) because MAN is a cigarette good after a stressful shift!

People who have been working at my store for 35 years are talking about bailing and finding a new job. I don't blame them and I think they should jump ship before it all sinks. On top of all of the problems with lack of hours and understaffing, everyone hates our store manager.

My one co-worker, C, is ready to quit because he is convinced that our store manager, D, has it out for him. C recently lost his father, so he's been taking a lot of time off work lately. His brother is also leaving for Iraq so he is really depressed and stressed out. Because he's missed so much work, he thinks D hates him. C works the service desk and he says whenever he calls D up to resolve a problem, he gets treated and talked to like he's stupid, in front of other employees and customers as well. D does sometimes have a way of making you feel dumb.. I've never really had any problems with him, but I know he rides my other co-workers' asses pretty badly at times. I guess it's because he's under a lot of pressure.

One day, C needed D to go back and get change for the service desk drawer, and D flat-out refused, saying that he was going to lunch and that it would have to wait. 3 hours later, still no D and no change. Our HR manager, P, talked to D and told him that he should go get change for C, and I guess P got screamed at by him. C told one of our assistant managers that he was going to call K's integrity hotline and report D, and she advised him not to - they would get onto him and he would become even worse - turn into a monster. C told me today that he was going to go ahead and call corporate and report our manager, and I don't blame him for it. C isn't the only person who has been having issues with him, but I'll save the rest for another post, this one has gotten entirely too long!

I can't wait to see what happens with all this.. drama-rama at the K!

Sorry that was so long, just feels better to get it out! I have the next 2 days off work so I get to hide and recover.. unfortunately I don't get paid for not working

[powerboy]

I have really had it up to here with this job. All of my co-worker's are sick of it as well. Morale is really low, stress is really high. I've actually started smoking recently to help relieve my nerves (don't get onto me! :P) because MAN is a cigarette good after a stressful shift!

That is how I started smoking off and on again, for 7 years now.

[RammsteinGirl]

I'm not planning on smoking a pack a day or anything.. just 2-3 cigs a day. I'm kind of a nervous person when I get stressed out so it really helps calm my nerves.

[Becks]

I'd say leave RIGHT NOW, but that's not feasible. Start looking for a new job. Please. For your health and sanity.

And I won't jump on you for smoking at work. I do it. There's no shame in it. (I like saying, "They allow us to smoke while we're on break. I'd be more fun if we were allowed to drink, though."

[Sableonblonde]

I'm sorry you had a bad day I don't understand the big deal about having a line, though. Whether I have two people in my line or fifteen, it's all the same to me. I'll get to them eventually, is how I look at it. I ain't going anywhere, anyway. But whenever the lines start getting long, everyone else, especially managers, freak out. What I HATE more than anything is when I'm fixing up somebody's order and then I turn back to my register to find the manager is on it, helping customers. There's tens of thousands of people in the park, versus the three or four registers we have, so there are going to be lines. It's a fact. People have been waiting in half hour lines for rollercoasters all day, it won't kill them to wait five or ten minutes for food. If fifty people all decide at one time to get food from a place that has only three of four registers, then oh well...they can wait. We aren't getting paid by the amount of food we sell, we get paid by the hour, so I'm going to keep at my usual pace (leisurely) and not lose my cool over anything.

I remember at the last place I worked, the big manager guy used to come and stand right behind us in our work station when the lines got really incredibly long - as if having some big jerk standing right behind us and causing us to have to constantly manuever around him would help us get things done any faster. I used to go even slower than usual on purpose whenever he would pull that crap. You know, things might have gone a little quicker if he actually perhaps helped out, instead of standing there. Eh, whatever.

[RammsteinGirl]

K has a saying that they keep posted up next to our break room "NOW: No One Waits." Every time I see that, I laugh because it's such a crock of crap. No one would have to wait in line if they would actually sufficiently staff their stores.

The reason managers get pissy about long lines (although my managers seem to ignore the lines most of the time.. I RARELY ever see them jump onto a register to relieve the lines) is because that's the #1 thing that customers get pissed off about in retail stores.. having to wait in line to check out. Salaried managers are scared that customers will call corporate and complain. They are scared that they will lose business to their store and therefore lose their end-year bonuses when the store fails to meet their sales goal.

When I lived in Florida I used to work for a popular grocery store chain - starts with a P and I've seen it mentioned here. If you're from FL you'll know which store I'm talking about because they're practically on every corner. Since that was the only other job I've ever had, and my first job, I constantly compare K to P. P is SO MUCH better than K in every way.. the stores are always immaculately clean, well-staffed, the employees get Sunday and Holiday premium pay, they actually get hours (I was getting 32 hours a week while I was still in high school). The managers were wonderful, caring and very professional (except our store manager was a little odd..). The only downside was that the customers were EVIL and I had way more mean customers at P than K (what is it about grocery shopping that makes people evil? LOL). What's sad is, I made more money per week working with P in high school than I am now at K! I wish they had P stores up here!