Deja Vu
Today should have been a relatively low key day. The doctors had their patients and neither of my parents were one of them. Instead I had a retail flashback. It's interesting.
It was my first day the auxillary boutique. After shopping there every so often, the manager liked me enough to ask me to volunteer. I thought it would be a good way for me to get my feet wet volunteering wise. I phoned first because when I went in because on Friday it was packed. It had been so long since I worked outside of the home, I'd forgotten that it would be busy. I did have fun. L. was great. I put merchandise on the floor. I sweated like a pig and got dehydrated. I loved every minute of it.
As well, I designed some display cases for them. This time my ass is taking pictures if I do artistic stuff for anyone. Then all hell broke loose. Bigwigs came into the store and informed L., who is salaried, that she was fired on the spot. They meant business. She hugged her co-workers and even me. Her parting words to me were " Don't let what happened to me affect your opinion. This is a good organization." My heart went out to her. I totally KNEW what was going on in her head. It spooked me how it quickly it all went down. In an instant she was gone.
After she was escorted out of the store, the rest of us were just stunned to silence.
If God speaks in whispers I received the message loud and clear. Thou shall stayeth the helleth out of retail management. I got chills about it. When I was fired from my last job, I wasn't given the luxury of saying goodbye to my staff. I was basically threathened that any attempt to contact them would mean forfeiture of my final paycheck. I had no idea how my leaving affected everyone left behind. Life goes on. I'll never forget her.
Then I stopped at the local health food store to pick up Fred some shampoo. I inherited his scalp condition but not the longevity of his hair color. I had quite a interesting conversation with the owner. I had to share what happened with her. She explained to me how she had graduated from a very prestigious university without naming name and admittied in a former life was a teacher. Her opinion bottomline, retail is hell. There will always be a some kind of customers who will never give the salesclerk behind the counter the respect they deserve when they walk through the door. She said,"There are those customers who will always think that we're pond scum." Being open on holidays and weekends is certainly no cake walk let me tell you. I relayed a story about B.J. and I.
One year during the holidays, B.J. and I went to the late show. We got out around 11:30pm. There was a national chain bookstore nearby and it was still opened for business. B.J. mentioned something about how early it was and whether I wanted to do something else. Instead of answering him, I commented how badly I felt about those salesclerks and managers who would have to stay probably long after midnight cleaning and prepping the store so that the morning crew could be ready to go. Then he said, "You know I would have thought to had occurred to me until you mentioned it". No doubt scout.
In other news, he said, "Wanted to say hi/bye before bed". The thought of that made me smile.
It was my first day the auxillary boutique. After shopping there every so often, the manager liked me enough to ask me to volunteer. I thought it would be a good way for me to get my feet wet volunteering wise. I phoned first because when I went in because on Friday it was packed. It had been so long since I worked outside of the home, I'd forgotten that it would be busy. I did have fun. L. was great. I put merchandise on the floor. I sweated like a pig and got dehydrated. I loved every minute of it.
As well, I designed some display cases for them. This time my ass is taking pictures if I do artistic stuff for anyone. Then all hell broke loose. Bigwigs came into the store and informed L., who is salaried, that she was fired on the spot. They meant business. She hugged her co-workers and even me. Her parting words to me were " Don't let what happened to me affect your opinion. This is a good organization." My heart went out to her. I totally KNEW what was going on in her head. It spooked me how it quickly it all went down. In an instant she was gone.
After she was escorted out of the store, the rest of us were just stunned to silence.
If God speaks in whispers I received the message loud and clear. Thou shall stayeth the helleth out of retail management. I got chills about it. When I was fired from my last job, I wasn't given the luxury of saying goodbye to my staff. I was basically threathened that any attempt to contact them would mean forfeiture of my final paycheck. I had no idea how my leaving affected everyone left behind. Life goes on. I'll never forget her.
Then I stopped at the local health food store to pick up Fred some shampoo. I inherited his scalp condition but not the longevity of his hair color. I had quite a interesting conversation with the owner. I had to share what happened with her. She explained to me how she had graduated from a very prestigious university without naming name and admittied in a former life was a teacher. Her opinion bottomline, retail is hell. There will always be a some kind of customers who will never give the salesclerk behind the counter the respect they deserve when they walk through the door. She said,"There are those customers who will always think that we're pond scum." Being open on holidays and weekends is certainly no cake walk let me tell you. I relayed a story about B.J. and I.
One year during the holidays, B.J. and I went to the late show. We got out around 11:30pm. There was a national chain bookstore nearby and it was still opened for business. B.J. mentioned something about how early it was and whether I wanted to do something else. Instead of answering him, I commented how badly I felt about those salesclerks and managers who would have to stay probably long after midnight cleaning and prepping the store so that the morning crew could be ready to go. Then he said, "You know I would have thought to had occurred to me until you mentioned it". No doubt scout.
In other news, he said, "Wanted to say hi/bye before bed". The thought of that made me smile.
posted by Starla Spaulding @ 10:32 PM
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