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I want to start out with the good. Honestly it far outweighs the bad and I am happy with this job. I want to do well and stay. I got hired on as a supervisor at a large chain craft store. I have NO idea why- all I had on my app was 3 years of home business and I was applying for a $7 an hour cashier/stock position.
My fellow employees:
All but one or two are twice my age and experience. Its a little intimidating but I have found that they are all kind, extremely intelligent and creative. They have a great work ethic and have for the most part been there for years. Great sign really.
They are all characters in their own way. NONE of them take crap from customers. "we help the customers but we dont hold their hand... we dont feed emotional black holes". Its actually kind of hard to adjust to this attitude and I often have trouble with being assertive due to fear of getting in trouble.
One particular co-worker is a true gem. She is insanely smart with a sharp sense of humor. She randomly plunked down a textbook one day and started telling me about her quantum physics class. I dont know how she gets away with half the shit she does though. She will say the rudest things RIGHT IN FRONT of the customers. Cussing, insults, snide comments, the works. I have no idea how she does it without getting caught. Maybe she has perfected the exact tone/volume so that she remains just out of earshot even though they are two feet away. She also seems to be a master of knowing the exact level of attention they are paying her.
I work in a great atmosphere overall. The tedium of being on the registers is often mitigated by the fact that everyone is so damn creative. Its a lot of fun to ask about the projects they are doing and drool over the random crafty stuff they bring up.
The bad:
Well I have no experience and frankly I suck at the job I was hired for. I suck at working at mcdonalds too (when I was 16). Why is it that I am horrible at jobs that any idiot can do? ugh. I feel like I have no common sense for retail and I seem to annoy the store manager with my stupid mistakes. I have a hard time with the whole "being in charge" thing. Telling other people what to do isnt all its cracked up to be. Especially if they are all older then you and have done your job at one point or another.
Each of them does it differently too. I am still being trained in this fashion. I am often told one thing then the complete and utter opposite the next day. When I do what I *think* is right it often is majorly wrong and right in front of the store manager. When she gets pissed I dont exactly want to say "but but so-and-so told me to do this". I am pretty frusterated with all this and I hope and I figure it out soon.
The ugly:
I was really dreading the customers in this job. The only people who come into the craft store are old ladies and soccer moms. SC worst nightmares. Honestly the old ladies are almost never trouble. They are usually sweet old grandma types who are knitting for charity or grandkids. You get a few bitter ones but even then you can tell they are just grumpy and not specifically out to get you. The real "gems" tend to be the soccer moms. The ones that come in and spend over $200 on freaking scrapbooking paper and 4$ stickers. I dont get it.. really... why all that time/energy/money for such a thing. I guess its a socially acceptable hobbie and you can choose from a set list of acceptable looks to create your "unique" thing. (No offense to general scrapbookers just the rabid ones)
That or its a million freaking small random things for their precious little snotty brats. Who they of course dont control and allow to scream/cry and they even beg their kids to be good and bribe with pizza or chocolate. They are the ones who will raise hell if your store procedures inconvience them.
I remember one specific sc. Group of SCs really. They came in and shopped for HOURS and filled up (Im not kidding) 15 carts of of stuff. They came up to the front at exactly closing time. It took 45 minutes just to ring all their shit up. At first I was marginally excited at such a large sale but aparently EVERYTHING they picked up was on sale. It all came out to about $600. Of course we then had to help them load it all up in their van.
And of course the returns.... THE REEETTUURRRNNNSSSSSSS As "the" front end surpervisor I have the all powerful keys and am the only one who can do returns. Help me... No really this is honesty the worst part. Our return policy is actually pretty decent but it doesnt mean it isnt taken advantage of at every oppurtunity. People will buy a couple hundred small random things and return then ALL because the items went on sale within 60 days of purchase. Often these items are spread over several receipts and must be done seperatly. I guess I cant reaaaalllyyy get pissed because I can sorta understand the motivation but it sure is annoying.
Next there are the people who buy something and never use it. Months later they bring it back and are pissed that they can only get store credit. Probably the least annoying of the bunch.
The penny pinchers.... often related to the "price adjustment" crowd. They will bring in 50 embrodery floss thingies to return at like .06 cents a piece. Of course after 20 minutes of going through the return procedures it all comes to less then 3$. *sighs*
Probaby the most annoying types are the people who buy tons of stuff for photo shoots or weddings. They tend to bring it ALL back the next day and take a good 30 minutes returning it all. Of course they expect us to kiss their ass for being such "big spenders".
To top it all off this place has more paperwork then any other retail place Ive worked at. It borders on insane. So many little slips of paper to be signed/filled out and such for just about every transaction.
All in all its a good job... Im really looking foward to my first paycheck which I wont get untill Ive been there for 4 weeks. I hope it includes everything and they dont "hold" the first two weeks untill I leave.
My fellow employees:
All but one or two are twice my age and experience. Its a little intimidating but I have found that they are all kind, extremely intelligent and creative. They have a great work ethic and have for the most part been there for years. Great sign really.
They are all characters in their own way. NONE of them take crap from customers. "we help the customers but we dont hold their hand... we dont feed emotional black holes". Its actually kind of hard to adjust to this attitude and I often have trouble with being assertive due to fear of getting in trouble.
One particular co-worker is a true gem. She is insanely smart with a sharp sense of humor. She randomly plunked down a textbook one day and started telling me about her quantum physics class. I dont know how she gets away with half the shit she does though. She will say the rudest things RIGHT IN FRONT of the customers. Cussing, insults, snide comments, the works. I have no idea how she does it without getting caught. Maybe she has perfected the exact tone/volume so that she remains just out of earshot even though they are two feet away. She also seems to be a master of knowing the exact level of attention they are paying her.
I work in a great atmosphere overall. The tedium of being on the registers is often mitigated by the fact that everyone is so damn creative. Its a lot of fun to ask about the projects they are doing and drool over the random crafty stuff they bring up.
The bad:
Well I have no experience and frankly I suck at the job I was hired for. I suck at working at mcdonalds too (when I was 16). Why is it that I am horrible at jobs that any idiot can do? ugh. I feel like I have no common sense for retail and I seem to annoy the store manager with my stupid mistakes. I have a hard time with the whole "being in charge" thing. Telling other people what to do isnt all its cracked up to be. Especially if they are all older then you and have done your job at one point or another.
Each of them does it differently too. I am still being trained in this fashion. I am often told one thing then the complete and utter opposite the next day. When I do what I *think* is right it often is majorly wrong and right in front of the store manager. When she gets pissed I dont exactly want to say "but but so-and-so told me to do this". I am pretty frusterated with all this and I hope and I figure it out soon.
The ugly:
I was really dreading the customers in this job. The only people who come into the craft store are old ladies and soccer moms. SC worst nightmares. Honestly the old ladies are almost never trouble. They are usually sweet old grandma types who are knitting for charity or grandkids. You get a few bitter ones but even then you can tell they are just grumpy and not specifically out to get you. The real "gems" tend to be the soccer moms. The ones that come in and spend over $200 on freaking scrapbooking paper and 4$ stickers. I dont get it.. really... why all that time/energy/money for such a thing. I guess its a socially acceptable hobbie and you can choose from a set list of acceptable looks to create your "unique" thing. (No offense to general scrapbookers just the rabid ones)
That or its a million freaking small random things for their precious little snotty brats. Who they of course dont control and allow to scream/cry and they even beg their kids to be good and bribe with pizza or chocolate. They are the ones who will raise hell if your store procedures inconvience them.
I remember one specific sc. Group of SCs really. They came in and shopped for HOURS and filled up (Im not kidding) 15 carts of of stuff. They came up to the front at exactly closing time. It took 45 minutes just to ring all their shit up. At first I was marginally excited at such a large sale but aparently EVERYTHING they picked up was on sale. It all came out to about $600. Of course we then had to help them load it all up in their van.
And of course the returns.... THE REEETTUURRRNNNSSSSSSS As "the" front end surpervisor I have the all powerful keys and am the only one who can do returns. Help me... No really this is honesty the worst part. Our return policy is actually pretty decent but it doesnt mean it isnt taken advantage of at every oppurtunity. People will buy a couple hundred small random things and return then ALL because the items went on sale within 60 days of purchase. Often these items are spread over several receipts and must be done seperatly. I guess I cant reaaaalllyyy get pissed because I can sorta understand the motivation but it sure is annoying.
Next there are the people who buy something and never use it. Months later they bring it back and are pissed that they can only get store credit. Probably the least annoying of the bunch.
The penny pinchers.... often related to the "price adjustment" crowd. They will bring in 50 embrodery floss thingies to return at like .06 cents a piece. Of course after 20 minutes of going through the return procedures it all comes to less then 3$. *sighs*
Probaby the most annoying types are the people who buy tons of stuff for photo shoots or weddings. They tend to bring it ALL back the next day and take a good 30 minutes returning it all. Of course they expect us to kiss their ass for being such "big spenders".
To top it all off this place has more paperwork then any other retail place Ive worked at. It borders on insane. So many little slips of paper to be signed/filled out and such for just about every transaction.
All in all its a good job... Im really looking foward to my first paycheck which I wont get untill Ive been there for 4 weeks. I hope it includes everything and they dont "hold" the first two weeks untill I leave.