Whine, Whine, Whine!

What. A. Week.   And it's only Wednesday!

Lately, the absurdities in my BigBox store are mounting.  The management structure of a BigBox store is based on sales volume, and we're losing key management because we didn't achieve our sales goals.  But oh how I wish I could pick which one(s) we're losing!   Why is it the ones who are deemed "the worst" by those who have to put up with -issues- are the ones who stick around???

I don't have a degree in accounting, or in managerial skills, but I've worked retail 15+ years, and I'm not dumb.  (Unless of course it's on purpose to get out of ...something. lol)   But in a retail environment, the store doesn't have a large markup on items, so it creates profit based on sales volume.  Pretty basic.  But one of the key factors is having workers who are productive, who use their time wisely.  I've always been a proponent of "work smarter, not harder", and for me that means being productive and accomplishing things in a set amount of time.  I have one manager who insists on things being done her way, and frankly, it's not a productive use of time.  I've been 'swimming upstream' with this individual and getting no where.  So I've come to the conclusion that I'll just have to do things her way.  But what happens when the job I've been instructed to do isn't being accomplished because I am being 'advised' on a different way of doing things?   *smh*

The other issue I have is having a co-worker who's work ethics and sense of accomplishment differ from mine.  If you label me as the Type A gung-ho worker, their label would be a full pendulum swing in the opposite direction  - no matter how much there is to do, there is only one speed.  If things aren't done when the shift ends, eh - no matter to them at all.  And it really bothers me.  I would tolerate it better if the slower work meant that it was accurate work, then it might be a different story.   Or it might be tolerable if this person wasn't always thinking of a way to get paid for doing nothing.  Like clocking in 15 minutes early and then flopping in the lounge to gossip with friends before beginning work is one example.  Leaving for lunch, walking to the front of the store to purchase said lunch, then walking back to the lounge before clocking out for lunch is another example.  In my opinion, that's stealing time.  It's been reported, and nothing happens.  I've been reporting this, the inaccuracies of the work, the errors that, if discovered, might result in fines from the DOT or other environmental agencies, for over a year.  Today, this same manager comes in and asks me to "make sure I'm keeping up on reporting the inaccuracies, etc" ..... I'm sorry, but I'm just tired of doing that over and over again.  It takes maybe 2-3 minutes to make the necessary corrections before shipping something out, and 15-20 minutes to make a log of the error and corrections.

Yep, it's been a whiny day.  Actually it's been a week of whiny!

Two weeks ago, this manager pulls me into the office to see if there's "something wrong..." and why don't I say good morning to her?   Um, I'm here to do a job, not blow sunshine and smiles at you to make you feel good.  And it might be different if she didn't swing back and forth between cheery and bitchy on a daily basis.  This morning my greeting was " ..... when you get these shopping carts emptied, I want them pushed up to the front and not left here in the back ..."  So I did just that.  I emptied one shopping cart, and pushed it up front.  Then I emptied another shopping cart, and pushed it up front.  Until all 6 shopping carts were gone.   *lmao*  It meant I had 11k steps by lunch time!  Talk about unproductive time, though; if I could have emptied several and pushed them all up at once.....  but, that's my way, not hers.   *sigh*  

3,485 days - give or take a few!

I'm ready now!

Be Strong

When it comes to cancer, there's only way to be and that's strong.  In fact, for all of us, fighting cancer or not, being strong is what's needed.

These days, there are so many things we have to deal with that we never had to before.  When I was a kid growing up, the incident in Ft Lauderdale might have made a mention in the "world news tonight" segment of the news hour, but constant or instant updates didn't happen like they do now.  Our lives are instantly changed by events not only in our local community or state, but world wide as well.


All of this instant information can be quite alarming, and sometimes quite addicting.

Back in April 2016, an incident happened in my store where a police officer was shot, and recently they released the tape of parts of it.  And it's frightening -- but also kind of spookily weird.  When I watched it - and let's face it, we are drawn to look at incidents - I could see myself walking through the very doors where it happened.  Something, anything can happen anywhere, but when it's in our own "backyard" we feel the effects differently.

But with information technology, we see things in an instant and nowadays events across the country can feel as if they're in our own "backyard" as well.  And it's difficult to find a way to turn it off, to set our own personal limits on when and where we let the information in.  If you're like most, you're attached to your phone -- or it's attached to you.  Either way, we have them set up with notifications that alert us to when we need to pay attention.  And even without an alert, we're checking constantly for updated information.  But when do we say "enough" ??

For me, I've set limits.  I don't check my phone constantly any longer.  I allow myself 10 minutes to check things at the beginning of my lunch hour and then 20 minutes when I get home while dinner's cooking.  That's it.  I have to limit myself and what I let in, because it's important to have "down time", time for me, time for my brain to think of things that aren't bad/scary/frightening and to learn to refocus on the good things, things that bring me happiness.  Our time is so limited, it takes great strength to be a part of the techno-info world and yet still have time for what is important to us.

In these times, I say it's time to be strong,
to set limits and give ourselves time to be us,
time to think and do and create.

My sister is doing just that:  in the face of stage iv pancreatic cancer, she is being strong and proactive.  Her first chemo treatment went well, she is also having acupuncture to deal with pain and nausea and it seems to be working well.  She also takes a med daily via epi-pen.  Technology sure has come a long way when it comes to health issues!

Just Believe