Sunday, as usual, I was late. This time, I was LATE. I didn't arrive until 518a. I got right to work, though. I was able to go upstairs around 730a, so that I could begin doing my Time & Attendance work. Around 8a, I got a call from Dana, who was working downstairs. She asked me to come and check. I did, but explained how T&A (as it's called) kinda takes priority, since the paperwork is expected at 10a sharp. I suggested that she call the manager, and let him tell me to go down.
You see, the people I have to send my paperwork to get NASTY if it's not ready on time. They've gotten on the manager before because I was being used to check.
I don't mind checking, mind you. The thought that was going through my head at the time I talked to Dana about it was that it'd be on her if the paperwork wasn't done. However, if she called the manager, and he told me, or told her to call me, that would make it his decision. Makes sense, right? I was looking out for a co-worker, not trying to get out of working.
Dana didn't see it. She got RUDE with me, and started to stalk off. When I tried to stop her, and explain, she fired off a comment about "I know you have a different thing to do each day, and you can only do one thing at a time". She then pointedly ignored me. At this point, I was
pissed off, since 1) I had failed yet again to convey my meaning in words**, and 2) she wasn't listening to me, so I couldn't make things right. I threw my keys down in the middle of the front end, and walked out the door.
Sitting on a bench outside to calm myself, I was instead met by the manager, who was outside clearing baskets. Apparently, the morning bagger did a no-call, no-show, and he was clearing the lot. Did he call me for my help? No. He had asked me to call another bagger, and get them in, which I did. Now, I'm sitting out there, trying to calm down, when he looks over and asks me what's wrong.
Normally, I really like my manager. He's a relatively friendly kind of guy, and he has joked with me before. However, today he asked me what was wrong. (If I'm that mad, I hate when people ask me that.) I told him I didn't want to discuss it. He halfway let it drop. After about a minute, though, he started in on me about making sure the morning bagger is present. I went upstairs at 730a, the morning bagger is due in at 7a, and people run late at this store like the clocks are just set fast. How was I to know? Am I supposed to run the front end until 955a, and then run upstairs and do the two hours of paperwork in five minutes? So, I got up and started back inside. He stopped me to reiterate his point (which I do see, to some extent). I was looking worse than I was when I came outside, and he asked again what was wrong. I replied. "It just seems that everybody is jumping my case about something or another this morning." He let me go at that point.
I went inside. I was terribly pissed about Dana. So, instead of running back upstairs to continue my work, I went back to my register, and stayed there until after 9a. We were missing a checker at this point, so it was needed, but I was making a point, dang it. Finally, it slowed enough that I was able to run back upstairs to finish my work. I was horrbily depressed and angry by now, and turned off my music when I got back up there. I mean, I was thinking about going to the manager, and asking him if I could move my week of vacation up to next week, instead of week after next.
I sat in silence, the stress nearly killing me, and did my work as efficiently as I could. I stopped at one point, and realized that I was almost to tears. I also was beginning to get the feeling that people think badly of me because they don't see me on the front always checking and bagging. I wondered what Joyce, my CSM, has said about me when I wasn't there. That comment of Dana's couldn't have just come from no where.
That is what hurts. Aside from running late (which everyone there does), I read the paper in the morning. After that, I am CONSTANTLY doing something work-related, and never slow down. Just because you can't see me pulling the coke machines, or filling the U-Scan change tills is no reason to assume I'm sitting on my ass, doing nothing. I'm constantly asked to something or another by my manager or Joyce. I also am the resident "person to call about computers", so if something gets weird on a computer in the store, I'm called to do that. (I've even helped fix the Zone Manager's computer once. A zone manager is the manager of usually 10-15 stores. In essence, my boss's boss.)
Do people see that? No. I come home from work tired, because I have been working my ass off. The dumbasses on the front don't understand that just because you're not on your feet checking or bagging, that you can be just as wearied by doing paperwork. Doing T&A is draining. I enjoy doing it, because I get some quiet time, I get to work on a computer, and it's something that "gives me a challenge". But no one knows that. They apparently don't see me running all over the front end, either. I've been known to help someone in guest care, and by the time the customer was checking out their groceries, I was there, bagging, or running U-Scan if that's where they went.
What do those clowns at my job do? Get into Guest Care, and sit, or talk on the phone, or wander off. Some go in the back, and talk for hours. I've been known to go back there, and sometimes we just gossip, but BY AND LARGE it's almost always to discuss accounting issues. (I am the backup CSM. For now, at least.) To all those who feel that I don't do squat up there, I have one thing to say.
( Cut to keep you from getting in trouble at work or school )
** - I feel that I cannot express myself vocally. It always seems that, when I'm trying to explain something of more than a mundane nature, someone misunderstands me, and gets offended.
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