So friends...tonight ends a work week or 64 hours in total. No really, 64 freakin hours. My fingers are numb, my feet are so swollen its not even funny, my back hurts beyond belief, holy shit just kill me now!!!
Truly though, I am not the only one. Yesterday a manager cut off part of her finger on a rolling sales rack. Two days before that, a stock room associate got a sensor pin through her knee cap, two women threw-up as the stomach flu is going around, one woman fell off a ladder and I am bruised from toes to thighs because of the amount of boxes I am moving around. Thats right friends, we sacrifice our bodies, our health, our well being in order to "move with a sense of urgency", and to truly "connect with and inspire our customers".
Here, I must pause to give credit where credit is due. I have worked in retail for years, I have never in my life met a group of more dedicated and self less individuals. I can imagine no one being more dedicated to their fellow slaves...uh..I mean workers than those in retail. The women who had the stomach flu literally wore masks to work and worked an 8 hour days to cut down on the amount of work for their co-workers. I stayed for 12 hours today so that another worker could go home because she was sick. The amount of shipment, processing and replenishment work is insane, there is way more work than workers! We never have enough time, people or freedom to do the work required of us. Each box of shipment has a time attached to it, and if we can't make that box time enough times in a row, our hours are cut, or worse we get fired. We the working poor of America give everything for the consumer to be instantly gratified.
But never fear!!! I have a solution! Its Meth! Thats right METH!!! This is a great idea and heres why....
1. We can so move with a sense of urgency!!!
2. We can be up all night working, and not get tired or slow down around the dreaded 2am slump!
3. We can work all night, then get up the next day and be at work by 9am with no complaints!
4. Meth is cheap! Lord knows we can't afford expensive drugs like cocaine on our wages..
5. We can get as O.C.D. as corporate is about ridiculously minute details that really don't matter at all, and
we won't question it!
6. We can use the paranoia to ramp up our sales quota...after all "THEY" really are watching.
7. We won't gain weight...as a matter of fact, we may even loose it to stay presentable for the sales floor!
8. We won't complain about being sick, we won't even know when we are!
DAMN! I am a genius!
Seriously though in retail, I have seen some of the hardest working people ever. At a large department store I used to work for, I have seen managers hook up their own I.V.'s in their pic lines in dressing rooms, people with 2nd and 3rd degree burns from steamers stay for their full shifts, I have seen people super glue their cuts closed because they can't afford to leave early to get stitches and they don't want to bleed on the customers merchandise. I have seen people break bones, throw their backs out, return too soon after surgery, pull their own teeth and the list goes on and on....Why you may ask? Because we have to. Because we need this job. Because it is so hard to get another one and we can't risk our families getting by on less than we are now. Because in short, we are less than human. We are treated this way by so many, that for us it becomes truth.
We have no access to health care, fair wages, unions, and the high end goods which we just about kill ourselves for the upper class to enjoy. Those very people who look down their noses, who ruin displays, who drop things and never give a second thought to who has to put them away....those who treat us so shabbily....we sacrifice all that we have.
In the end, meth may not be the best choice. How about a glass of whiskey and a lortab? Don't mind if I do...
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Hours? What Hours?
Hello Dear Friends and Readers! On with the show! No kool-aid today for me yet, still have to share my latest adventures!
Hooray for modern technology, or not. Okay, so get this...My paycheck comes on a debit card. I have to go through several computer links to get direct deposit and even then, they still want me to use this card that proudly displays the logo for the company that I work for, including a very bright signature color. This is presumably so when I am trying to buy groceries, some fellow wage warrior can see this and happily exclaim.."You work for ----------, I love their......" hence securing another loyal customer. Ahh, the marketing never ends! So why do I bring this up? Because you are still required to pick up your pay stub that is mailed directly to this company with in 48 hours or face the scorn of an overworked manager. I know this because on my first day of training I was in a very uncomfortable position being some how in the middle of a conversation that had to do with this very issue. Holy crap close the office door would you?
Moving on, my schedule is supposed to be easily available to see on line, except for that it isn't. When I went in to get my schedule I am delighted to see yet another 5 hour call in shift that may or may not pan out. SO now, once again I am in the position of having to call my other job and try to find shift coverage for a shift at the first job that I may or may not even work. Its complicated. But my dilemma here is this, if I get coverage for my other job, call in and then can't work, I just lost money. If I don't find coverage for my other job and I do call in and I end up working I risk a write-up warning. I can only get three of these before I am "let-go".
The question now seems to be, which job do I try and be totally focused on? The one that pays me less but respects me more, but can't offer me the hours or health care I need? Or do I sell out completely and throw myself on the mercy of the fickle consumer who may or may not provide the company with enough profits to allow me to work? My problem is I can't give up the hours at either job because I need both of them unless the corporate job sees fit to throw the management bone my way. That tasty management bone is what I really need, but how long do I wait and how much money can I stand to loose being fully available to them?
With my schedule being only out a week in advance,(company policy) this makes it very difficult to schedule my life around the ever changing whim of the consumer.
Ohhh...that tasty management bone, the one dripping with full time hours, crunchy medical benefits and meaty job security.....
It would seem easy to just quit the one job and bow at the alter of the corporate gods, but just can't make it without the stability of guaranteed hours. So I have been wondering why exactly do corporations run like this? Is it so when their employees get to work they are so happy and grateful that they will do anything just to be there? Is it so they won't question the time limit they have for every task? Is it so they will take whatever abuse is thrown their way by customers? Is it so they will happily reset the floor and shelves a hundred times a day without complaint? Is it so they are so happy with the idea of hours...dare I say even extra hours that working until 3am is an honor? It does make a person wonder.
Meanwhile....moving on.....
Did I ever tell you that I am the oldest person working there? It is awesome to take "coaching" from girls that are young enough to be my daughter. Not humiliating at all. Oh wait, it is. I should have known something was up when I had a "group" interview, in which I was seated in the back storage room with 5 other people, all of whom were younger than me by 16 years at least. This interview style is being used by more companies these days not only to expedite the hiring process, but to see who stands out. So your competition begins right away. Before you even get a second interview, you are forced into a situation that in the best of circumstances is uncomfortable, in the worst...is down right manipulative. Is this system set up like the hours system, to make you feel honored to even have a call back? Sitting around with your competition, trying to outshine them in the interview is an awful desperate situation. But more and more that is what America is coming to. An awful, desperate situation in which a person will do anything they have to to be considered for employment.
But there are perks! Yes indeed! Especially for management. Full time hours, medical, dental, vacation time,
sick pay! This sounds like Heaven to me! I am going to sell out, prostrate myself, smile and do what ever I am told just to get these shiny jewels of civilization....these gems of viable humanity....the very nectar of validity and worth!!!! Hell yes Friends..I am going to bend over so far that all I can see are my knees! I am going to do it while moving with a sense of urgency, with a smile, with knowledge of our product, and with whatever else I am "coached" to do! Why? Why would you do this you might ask? Well I will tell you why...I have not been able to go to the dentist in over 10 years, I have to pay over $120 to go to an InstaCare just to get antibiotics, because I have needed surgery that I can't pay for for 3 years now, because my medications are paid for out of pocket and I am on a 4 month waiting list just to see a doctor. I have to drive all the way to Logan to attend a free clinic to try and get my prescriptions refilled..(hopefully). So HELLO KNEES!!!!
In the meantime, I am going to help as many people as I can, try to make some one elses day and to keep my eyes on the prize! I am going to find positive things to say about everyone I work with, I am going to keep a bright and cheerful attitude, and I am going to enjoy my employee discount. Keep Your Eyes On The Prize!!!
And if that prize never comes? Kool-aid baby, kool-aid. Signing off for today with much gratitude for those who read this.
Hooray for modern technology, or not. Okay, so get this...My paycheck comes on a debit card. I have to go through several computer links to get direct deposit and even then, they still want me to use this card that proudly displays the logo for the company that I work for, including a very bright signature color. This is presumably so when I am trying to buy groceries, some fellow wage warrior can see this and happily exclaim.."You work for ----------, I love their......" hence securing another loyal customer. Ahh, the marketing never ends! So why do I bring this up? Because you are still required to pick up your pay stub that is mailed directly to this company with in 48 hours or face the scorn of an overworked manager. I know this because on my first day of training I was in a very uncomfortable position being some how in the middle of a conversation that had to do with this very issue. Holy crap close the office door would you?
Moving on, my schedule is supposed to be easily available to see on line, except for that it isn't. When I went in to get my schedule I am delighted to see yet another 5 hour call in shift that may or may not pan out. SO now, once again I am in the position of having to call my other job and try to find shift coverage for a shift at the first job that I may or may not even work. Its complicated. But my dilemma here is this, if I get coverage for my other job, call in and then can't work, I just lost money. If I don't find coverage for my other job and I do call in and I end up working I risk a write-up warning. I can only get three of these before I am "let-go".
The question now seems to be, which job do I try and be totally focused on? The one that pays me less but respects me more, but can't offer me the hours or health care I need? Or do I sell out completely and throw myself on the mercy of the fickle consumer who may or may not provide the company with enough profits to allow me to work? My problem is I can't give up the hours at either job because I need both of them unless the corporate job sees fit to throw the management bone my way. That tasty management bone is what I really need, but how long do I wait and how much money can I stand to loose being fully available to them?
With my schedule being only out a week in advance,(company policy) this makes it very difficult to schedule my life around the ever changing whim of the consumer.
Ohhh...that tasty management bone, the one dripping with full time hours, crunchy medical benefits and meaty job security.....
It would seem easy to just quit the one job and bow at the alter of the corporate gods, but just can't make it without the stability of guaranteed hours. So I have been wondering why exactly do corporations run like this? Is it so when their employees get to work they are so happy and grateful that they will do anything just to be there? Is it so they won't question the time limit they have for every task? Is it so they will take whatever abuse is thrown their way by customers? Is it so they will happily reset the floor and shelves a hundred times a day without complaint? Is it so they are so happy with the idea of hours...dare I say even extra hours that working until 3am is an honor? It does make a person wonder.
Meanwhile....moving on.....
Did I ever tell you that I am the oldest person working there? It is awesome to take "coaching" from girls that are young enough to be my daughter. Not humiliating at all. Oh wait, it is. I should have known something was up when I had a "group" interview, in which I was seated in the back storage room with 5 other people, all of whom were younger than me by 16 years at least. This interview style is being used by more companies these days not only to expedite the hiring process, but to see who stands out. So your competition begins right away. Before you even get a second interview, you are forced into a situation that in the best of circumstances is uncomfortable, in the worst...is down right manipulative. Is this system set up like the hours system, to make you feel honored to even have a call back? Sitting around with your competition, trying to outshine them in the interview is an awful desperate situation. But more and more that is what America is coming to. An awful, desperate situation in which a person will do anything they have to to be considered for employment.
But there are perks! Yes indeed! Especially for management. Full time hours, medical, dental, vacation time,
sick pay! This sounds like Heaven to me! I am going to sell out, prostrate myself, smile and do what ever I am told just to get these shiny jewels of civilization....these gems of viable humanity....the very nectar of validity and worth!!!! Hell yes Friends..I am going to bend over so far that all I can see are my knees! I am going to do it while moving with a sense of urgency, with a smile, with knowledge of our product, and with whatever else I am "coached" to do! Why? Why would you do this you might ask? Well I will tell you why...I have not been able to go to the dentist in over 10 years, I have to pay over $120 to go to an InstaCare just to get antibiotics, because I have needed surgery that I can't pay for for 3 years now, because my medications are paid for out of pocket and I am on a 4 month waiting list just to see a doctor. I have to drive all the way to Logan to attend a free clinic to try and get my prescriptions refilled..(hopefully). So HELLO KNEES!!!!
In the meantime, I am going to help as many people as I can, try to make some one elses day and to keep my eyes on the prize! I am going to find positive things to say about everyone I work with, I am going to keep a bright and cheerful attitude, and I am going to enjoy my employee discount. Keep Your Eyes On The Prize!!!
And if that prize never comes? Kool-aid baby, kool-aid. Signing off for today with much gratitude for those who read this.
Monday, May 23, 2011
I bet you had no idea...
So, I have finally joined the blogging world in hopes of retaining what little sanity I have left. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time and decided that today is a great day to start. I had planned on posting my adventures in the retail world, and the daily struggles of the working class in America. In addition to this, I am also going to be recording daily life in case I need to go for the kool-aid early. Read on dear friends.... you probably won't blame me. ;)
I work for an upscale womens specialty boutique, I have to be very careful what I say as I have been informed that what ever I post on the internet can be looked at any time by corporate "Big Brother". While I am not too worried about this, Lord knows I need my $9 an hour! I have been asked to sign a release form giving permission to my employers to look at my face book page anytime they want. Civil rights? What civil rights? You mean the ones stating that you have the right to privacy and free speech? Nope, not in wage working America. Needless to say, I have not signed it and was told that not signing it means I would not have a job. Thank the corporate gods for pilling so much work on us and our managers that no one has remembered to push this issue. I just won't do it, I can't sign it. What I do on my own time is my business.
Actually, this company that I work for is not a "bad" company to work for overall. It's just that those of us who work retail for whatever reason are subject to more than just crabby customers and busy holiday seasons. We are subject to pressures from corporate, our own managers, visual managers, customer service managers, credit card companies, and of course competitive co-workers, and customers. It is a never ending cycle of hurry up and get it done and do it right and smile and don't ask questions and work as fast as you can at all times and have your make up and hair always done, never sit down, and be degraded by well off women who see you not as a human being, but as her personal servant for the time she is on the store.
My position in the store is process shipment, tag shipment, stock and replenish shipment. It is also my job to "recover the floor", move the floor in accordance with what ever corporate wants us to do which has resulted in working until 3:30am. Since I am still relatively new here, I am told that 3:30 is not as late as it has been. Oh good. It is also my job to do inventory, to learn ridiculously nit-picky and exacting standards for stocking, back stocking and displays. It is also my job, though not in my job description to clean bathrooms, sweep floors, pick up customers garbage, chewed gum, empty drink containers and mop up after spills. I also get to go around the store after customers and put everything back the way it is standardized, even when I get there at 6am to create the "perfect display". Now mind you, all items are available in plain sight under the display, but no, people insist on taking apart the display to get what they want, and in most cases drop it somewhere else in the store.
Well, you might say, that is your job. Some of this is my job. But cleaning up after someone elses kid who pulls down a display is NOT my job. It is the job of the parent to watch and dare I say PARENT their child. It is not my job to scrub human fecal matter off of toilet seats, to scrub puke up off the floor when a mother drags her child out for that all important shopping trip when the child is ill, it is not my job to be exposed to bodily fluids in a dressing room because someone decided to use our merchandise as a sanitary napkin. BUT GUESS WHAT??? We still get to do this. Oh, did I mention it was a big deal to not make minimum wage?
I am also expected to, work as fast as possible, "with a sense of urgency", at all times to make sure that the company only pays for the bare minimum amount of hours possible to increase overall profit. In fact, the only full time benefited positions available in this and most other companies is management, which we are all scrambling towards because none of us can make it without two or more jobs. We also have on call shifts that are determined by how much we sell. If its not enough, you don't work. So then you try to fit in hours at your other job/jobs and get a write up or warning if you are not available if and when they decide you are needed. Here is the best part, I am so grateful to even have a job and it took me so long even to find this one that I am willing, more than willing to put up with all of this, and do it while being "friendly, approachable, knowledgeable, helpful, and accomodating."
I can not afford to make waves, get in trouble, or to point out when a person has worked over 12 hours without a break. I need this job so bad right now, as do most of my co-workers, that I put up with what ever I have to just to chase that carrot of hope...that if I keep working really hard I just might make management and get full time with benefits.
Here is the other weird thing. I actually really like helping customers for the most part. I like being able to help someone feel better about their body, to find the perfect gift, and to make someones day by being friendly and decent with them. I really like that. As we all know, everything has a price. Nothing is free in this world and we all pay for what we are, what we do and how we live. I would just like to point out here that sometimes the debt to income ratio is way out of balance.
Corporate America knows this, they train their management to use specific language, to use specific terms to keep us all working hard, keep our heads down and just move forward in the hopes that we too, someday might be treated as human beings of value.
So for now, that is exactly what I am going to do. I will submit to "bag checks", credit checks, clean up after others and hopefully get to help a few people during the day. I will submit to being "less than" in order to get ahead. I will do this for the sake of paying my rent and feeding my family. I will do this because this is what the working class people of this Country do. We give. We are available to the upper class by being unavailable to our own children. We clean up your messes, so that you don't have to be bothered. We take your orders, we cook your food, we clean your clothes, we take your measurements, we wait on you hand and foot in dressing rooms to be sure that you have exactly what you need. We make on average between $7.75 and $10 and hour. Most of us have no insurance, no job security and are not allowed to join unions. We stand on concrete floors all day, we are not allowed to sit down on the job, we are not allowed to use the phone, but we are here.
For many of us this kind of life is our only option, because of illness, divorce, unfavorable turns of luck, abuse, neglect....all these things add up to the positions we are in. Again, I am so happy and grateful to even have a job, I feel almost guilty for writing the reality of what my job is. Again, I gladly submit myself to all this and more for the off chance of getting ahead. But truth is truth and I am going to say what it is. Even if no one else does.
The next time you depend on someone else for your meal, your clothes, your hotel rooms, think about them not in terms of your servants, but as human beings. I bet you had no idea......
I work for an upscale womens specialty boutique, I have to be very careful what I say as I have been informed that what ever I post on the internet can be looked at any time by corporate "Big Brother". While I am not too worried about this, Lord knows I need my $9 an hour! I have been asked to sign a release form giving permission to my employers to look at my face book page anytime they want. Civil rights? What civil rights? You mean the ones stating that you have the right to privacy and free speech? Nope, not in wage working America. Needless to say, I have not signed it and was told that not signing it means I would not have a job. Thank the corporate gods for pilling so much work on us and our managers that no one has remembered to push this issue. I just won't do it, I can't sign it. What I do on my own time is my business.
Actually, this company that I work for is not a "bad" company to work for overall. It's just that those of us who work retail for whatever reason are subject to more than just crabby customers and busy holiday seasons. We are subject to pressures from corporate, our own managers, visual managers, customer service managers, credit card companies, and of course competitive co-workers, and customers. It is a never ending cycle of hurry up and get it done and do it right and smile and don't ask questions and work as fast as you can at all times and have your make up and hair always done, never sit down, and be degraded by well off women who see you not as a human being, but as her personal servant for the time she is on the store.
My position in the store is process shipment, tag shipment, stock and replenish shipment. It is also my job to "recover the floor", move the floor in accordance with what ever corporate wants us to do which has resulted in working until 3:30am. Since I am still relatively new here, I am told that 3:30 is not as late as it has been. Oh good. It is also my job to do inventory, to learn ridiculously nit-picky and exacting standards for stocking, back stocking and displays. It is also my job, though not in my job description to clean bathrooms, sweep floors, pick up customers garbage, chewed gum, empty drink containers and mop up after spills. I also get to go around the store after customers and put everything back the way it is standardized, even when I get there at 6am to create the "perfect display". Now mind you, all items are available in plain sight under the display, but no, people insist on taking apart the display to get what they want, and in most cases drop it somewhere else in the store.
Well, you might say, that is your job. Some of this is my job. But cleaning up after someone elses kid who pulls down a display is NOT my job. It is the job of the parent to watch and dare I say PARENT their child. It is not my job to scrub human fecal matter off of toilet seats, to scrub puke up off the floor when a mother drags her child out for that all important shopping trip when the child is ill, it is not my job to be exposed to bodily fluids in a dressing room because someone decided to use our merchandise as a sanitary napkin. BUT GUESS WHAT??? We still get to do this. Oh, did I mention it was a big deal to not make minimum wage?
I am also expected to, work as fast as possible, "with a sense of urgency", at all times to make sure that the company only pays for the bare minimum amount of hours possible to increase overall profit. In fact, the only full time benefited positions available in this and most other companies is management, which we are all scrambling towards because none of us can make it without two or more jobs. We also have on call shifts that are determined by how much we sell. If its not enough, you don't work. So then you try to fit in hours at your other job/jobs and get a write up or warning if you are not available if and when they decide you are needed. Here is the best part, I am so grateful to even have a job and it took me so long even to find this one that I am willing, more than willing to put up with all of this, and do it while being "friendly, approachable, knowledgeable, helpful, and accomodating."
I can not afford to make waves, get in trouble, or to point out when a person has worked over 12 hours without a break. I need this job so bad right now, as do most of my co-workers, that I put up with what ever I have to just to chase that carrot of hope...that if I keep working really hard I just might make management and get full time with benefits.
Here is the other weird thing. I actually really like helping customers for the most part. I like being able to help someone feel better about their body, to find the perfect gift, and to make someones day by being friendly and decent with them. I really like that. As we all know, everything has a price. Nothing is free in this world and we all pay for what we are, what we do and how we live. I would just like to point out here that sometimes the debt to income ratio is way out of balance.
Corporate America knows this, they train their management to use specific language, to use specific terms to keep us all working hard, keep our heads down and just move forward in the hopes that we too, someday might be treated as human beings of value.
So for now, that is exactly what I am going to do. I will submit to "bag checks", credit checks, clean up after others and hopefully get to help a few people during the day. I will submit to being "less than" in order to get ahead. I will do this for the sake of paying my rent and feeding my family. I will do this because this is what the working class people of this Country do. We give. We are available to the upper class by being unavailable to our own children. We clean up your messes, so that you don't have to be bothered. We take your orders, we cook your food, we clean your clothes, we take your measurements, we wait on you hand and foot in dressing rooms to be sure that you have exactly what you need. We make on average between $7.75 and $10 and hour. Most of us have no insurance, no job security and are not allowed to join unions. We stand on concrete floors all day, we are not allowed to sit down on the job, we are not allowed to use the phone, but we are here.
For many of us this kind of life is our only option, because of illness, divorce, unfavorable turns of luck, abuse, neglect....all these things add up to the positions we are in. Again, I am so happy and grateful to even have a job, I feel almost guilty for writing the reality of what my job is. Again, I gladly submit myself to all this and more for the off chance of getting ahead. But truth is truth and I am going to say what it is. Even if no one else does.
The next time you depend on someone else for your meal, your clothes, your hotel rooms, think about them not in terms of your servants, but as human beings. I bet you had no idea......
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