Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about numbers that only hold empty spaces.

Good evening friends...I'm gonna take a break from hockey talk since there's only scant time left til I shave again in hopes of growing a fantastic playoff beard, and talk a little about my day-to-days...yeah, I'm gonna talk about work. For something that means everything to me, it really feels like it's all about nothings.

And that's plural, and I meant it. This talk goes beyond the basics...I love my coworkers, I don't hate what I do, I used to be good at what I did but now I'm doing something else, and everything's changing again.

I'm what's known in the big world of my big corporation as an "STL", as in "Store Team Lead". It's a new position that was meant to replace the store inventory coordinator, only with more perks. And by perks, I mean more management functions, like more money handling, opening or closing the store when needed, and being more of a face of the store than you ever were before. My last position was HPS, which was running the photo lab. I actually acheived an even higher ranking, "Photo Jesus". Sadly, the company didn't monetarily recognize the status, but everyone else inside it did. Mainly because I lived up to it.

And that's a smirk with a attached, cuz I've got a full pocket of emotions to pass around daily.

So I suck at my job now, because my job went from semi-interesting and engageful to mundane and lame. Why? Because I've realized that what I do amounts to nothing. I mean, it means something to the checker-uppers higher up, but it almost really means nothing to me.

Why is that? How can such a big company make something seem so small? Let me explain. Every morning, after I release the new batch of price changes and markdowns (and there's a whole lot more price changes than markdowns...picture me in "game show host" or "monster truck advertisment"voice going around the store, bellowing "WE'RE RAISING PRICES!!", cuz that's part of what I do) I grab a big, awkward, gun shaped device we'll call a "Telxon" (which sounds really cool, but it's not, and you can't get a high score on Pac-Man with it), which pretty much decides what I'll be doing for that day.

Inventory work (ie; counting random items on a daily basis) feels like 80-85% of my job. Sounds easy, no? Feels like it sometimes. Faking it feels really easy. Sometimes it's 38 items. Sometimes it's 56. Sometimes it's 250. And sometimes it's kinda in a straight shot around the store. Other days, I get zig-zagged around like the water slide wants to take you through the sand traps of customers who think deodorant (aisle 2) should be in with first aid (aisle 9) (and no bullshit; this happened to me today).

Some days, I get super-lucky and have to be in at 5:45am to unload a shipment, and get out early, but it's not like I can come home, crack a few beers and relax, cuz then I'm responsible for other things that require attention. Even then, it's not like I can get to bed any earlier than usual. The part that really sucks is that the attention-necessant parts of those days aren't quite forgiving nor appreciative. It's here and now, or hell to pay; be it ignorant people or damn obligations that are either of my poor choices or the choices of others that I have to deal with.

The biggest bitch about my job is the Telxon; I mentioned it above. Like I said, it dictates my day. It tells me what to count. If I don't count everything, we look bad in a corporate-generated report. That makes the district manager look bad. Then that makes my manager look bad. Then I have to explain why counts weren't done. Then I have to tell her that I am scheduled two days off a week, and if you look bad, I wasn't there those days. So yeah, it's that kind of job where it needs to get done when I'm not there...skip the "management looking bad" bullshit for a minute and do my math...my counts accumulate, so if nobody does them on my day off, I'm stuck doing all of them, on top of being "semi-management" sometimes.

And yet, none of that is my complaint, actually. One of my five workdays is actually dedicated to walking the entire store and scanning shelf labels of product I've considered the store is "out of stock". The Telxon then tells me if we have it or not. Some products are still available in our store, and I should be so lucky to find them. Usually, I'm not. And usually, I'm correct. Then I have to adjust the store's ordering level for that product. Which isn't as great as it sounds.

My biggest fit though is, like I mentioned, the 80-85% of my job, which includes the Telxon. It tells me what to count, but the descriptions are so vague, and now that stores are going to be renovating soon, you can't trust what it's telling you as far as item location is concerned. To make matters worse, I'm looking for items with a quantity listed at store level of "0" (that'd be "zero", if you're keeping score at home) about 90% of the time. And if I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be counting, then eff it, we don't have it. Same with the bs we have way too much of...I'm not gonna count 46 frozen pizzas...that freezer is bullshit enough to get in to, without me getting claustrophobic once it shuts. I waste so much time looking for something we don't have, just to make sure we don't have it...or on the off chance we still may have it.

And if it says we have "zero on hand", like 95% of the things the Telxon wants me to count, then why am I supposed to count it? If you know we don't have it, and once a week I tell you we don't have it, then why am I damned to be wasting time counting something we don't have? All it does it make me walk around the store, frustrate me, and frustrate my customers. And yes, they're "my" customers. Foursquare will tell you that when you check in to my store, I'm the Mayor. So step off when you can't find the full shelf of the couponed crap you're looking for, with your entitled attitude. Just because we advertize it, doesn't mean you deserve it over the people who came and got it before you. Give us hard-working nothing-counters a break. We'd love to manufacture your toilet paper and coffee by hand, so as to see it's still in stock for you on a Friday when the ad Breaks on a Sunday, but by then we're too busy dealing with a report telling us what we're out of, and to make sure we count what we're out of. And after basically counting it all week, yeah, we're mother-effing out of it.

VITAL STATS:

No, I don't do nothing at work. I just get frustrated at counting a lot of nothings, especially a lot of nothings that I don't really have an idea of what kind of somethings they might be.

On a brighter note, the other 5-15% of my job has gone a lot smmother than recent weeks. That'd be the cash-handling aspect. I balance now like a champ. I punched out with the store looking immaculate (as oppsosed to what I walked into) at 10:12pm. The downside is I'm scheduled a certain amount of hours, and the "want to go home"vs the schedule kicks my ass in the wage department. Plus the fact that this week is the week we've got all of our appointments for various things scheduled, kinda sucks.

Enough negativity! Just love up on this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9boD5WIUGTw&feature=feedu. Just kids being kids, right? That's me and my girl, unfortunately...she kisses me, offers suprises, and I dump just about eveything but yogurt on her dome. But that's why she's enough.

And speaking of Atmosphere, I LOVE preordering stuff from their website, http://www.fifthelementonline.com/ cuz they always throw in free goodies. That's important in this online world. Sneak in a few surprises and you've got a friend for life. They threw me this video and I snagged a pre-order: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0chdjyvOIQ

Just couldn't let it go that I still think the Sabres will pull this series out against the Flyers. This is for you, Julie D - PUBLISHED! : {link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4R2DWVhs8}

And with that I bid you all a good night...It's only now that I regret I opted out of the cake 10-6 schedule I had into the 8-4 I requested. I'll believe it when I get fitted for a tux on Thursday. Til then, PEACE!!