Albertson's Day From Hell
Jun. 13th, 2005 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylI just finished the day from hell at work, and now you, my lucky friends (I see you over there), get to read all about it.
It started off badly when I overslept because somehow my clock radio station went to static, and soothing background white noise has never been terribly effective at waking me. I snorted myself awake by pure luck at 4:32, time to get to the store but NOT time to take a shower first; this is especially crucial because I skipped my shower yesterday so I could get 3 hours of sleep between jobs instead of 2-1/2, trusting that I would get to take one this morning. The only thing worse than starting work at 5 am is doing so showerless, sweaty, clammy, eck. To me it is the worst feeling in the world, body wise.
From there the day started going downhill rapidly. We were severely understaffed for the Albertson's, the largest one in our district, which our scheduling manager stubbornly refuses to believe is any bigger than the others, having never actually set foot in it herself. We had 4 power counters and the rest were just warm bodies. The rest of the day crew had to do a Kmart out of town. Our store took 14 HOURS to finish. The Kmart took about half that long, which we learned right at the end and which slapped a big stamp of irony on the whole day.
The supervisor threw me into the pharmacy to count. I don't mind counting pharmacies, except for the fact that I only get to do them when I'm a last resort and usually alone (they are normally done with 2 people). Nothing starts the day right like telling a pharmacist (this one particularly uptight and grumpy) he's only getting half the crew he expects. It would be nice to do a pharmacy once in awhile when I don't feel like I need to count my ass off and when I'm not afraid to even take a bathroom break for fear of the guy snapping.
Then into grocery for the remaining 9 grueling hours. Albertson's ads repeat a lot in the course of a day. Don't believe me, go hang out in one for just 3 or 4 hours and you'll see. So it seemed unusually cruel to me to have to listen approximately every 17 minutes to a comeback of the old Oreo jingle rhapsodizing about my favorite drink in the whole wide world. You know the one, "Oh, oh, oh, ice cold milk and an Oreo cookie, they forever go together in a classic combination..." Being 9 hours away from anything ice cold, and as I mentioned very sweaty and clammy, this was exquisite torment.
But the point when I knew that this hell was devised with me in mind came when I counted the seasonal side and found, back behind the desk fans and beachwear, a lone, perfectly intact, Cadbury Creme Egg™. It wasn't even all oozing and sticky like they get at the end of the season. Oh, now COME ON. What are the freakin' odds, a full 2-1/2 months after the last Easter candy sells out and my heart breaks a little for another year??? I held it aloft, gazing at it, and almost wept from the deliberate, calculating cruelty of the universe...and then totally hid that sucker back behind the fans to come buy it later. I did go back for it, using the self-scan checkout so I didn't have to answer a lot of stupid questions from a clerk. I shuffled out to my car with it, shielding it from the sun, my darling, my precioussssssss....
Not to be totally negative, there are good things about working 14 hours. Like...you get to avoid both rush hours in traffic. And that's it. That's the only good thing about it.
14 freakin' hours. Most of us made it to the end, that much stronger for not giving up. It made us brothers in arms, at least until the next round of backstabbing starts up again. It's stores like this that become the stuff of inventory legend, the ones that we come back to in 6 months or a year, after the bloody stumps of our feet have healed, and look back and laugh and say to each other, "Hey, remember last time we did this store...?" Yeah, good times.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a well-earned reward to enjoy. "Oh, oh, oh, ice cold milk and a Cadbury Creme Egg™..."
OMG I almost forgot!!! T-minus 16-18 hours (depending on arrival of installation man) to cable modem!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It started off badly when I overslept because somehow my clock radio station went to static, and soothing background white noise has never been terribly effective at waking me. I snorted myself awake by pure luck at 4:32, time to get to the store but NOT time to take a shower first; this is especially crucial because I skipped my shower yesterday so I could get 3 hours of sleep between jobs instead of 2-1/2, trusting that I would get to take one this morning. The only thing worse than starting work at 5 am is doing so showerless, sweaty, clammy, eck. To me it is the worst feeling in the world, body wise.
From there the day started going downhill rapidly. We were severely understaffed for the Albertson's, the largest one in our district, which our scheduling manager stubbornly refuses to believe is any bigger than the others, having never actually set foot in it herself. We had 4 power counters and the rest were just warm bodies. The rest of the day crew had to do a Kmart out of town. Our store took 14 HOURS to finish. The Kmart took about half that long, which we learned right at the end and which slapped a big stamp of irony on the whole day.
The supervisor threw me into the pharmacy to count. I don't mind counting pharmacies, except for the fact that I only get to do them when I'm a last resort and usually alone (they are normally done with 2 people). Nothing starts the day right like telling a pharmacist (this one particularly uptight and grumpy) he's only getting half the crew he expects. It would be nice to do a pharmacy once in awhile when I don't feel like I need to count my ass off and when I'm not afraid to even take a bathroom break for fear of the guy snapping.
Then into grocery for the remaining 9 grueling hours. Albertson's ads repeat a lot in the course of a day. Don't believe me, go hang out in one for just 3 or 4 hours and you'll see. So it seemed unusually cruel to me to have to listen approximately every 17 minutes to a comeback of the old Oreo jingle rhapsodizing about my favorite drink in the whole wide world. You know the one, "Oh, oh, oh, ice cold milk and an Oreo cookie, they forever go together in a classic combination..." Being 9 hours away from anything ice cold, and as I mentioned very sweaty and clammy, this was exquisite torment.
But the point when I knew that this hell was devised with me in mind came when I counted the seasonal side and found, back behind the desk fans and beachwear, a lone, perfectly intact, Cadbury Creme Egg™. It wasn't even all oozing and sticky like they get at the end of the season. Oh, now COME ON. What are the freakin' odds, a full 2-1/2 months after the last Easter candy sells out and my heart breaks a little for another year??? I held it aloft, gazing at it, and almost wept from the deliberate, calculating cruelty of the universe...and then totally hid that sucker back behind the fans to come buy it later. I did go back for it, using the self-scan checkout so I didn't have to answer a lot of stupid questions from a clerk. I shuffled out to my car with it, shielding it from the sun, my darling, my precioussssssss....
Not to be totally negative, there are good things about working 14 hours. Like...you get to avoid both rush hours in traffic. And that's it. That's the only good thing about it.
14 freakin' hours. Most of us made it to the end, that much stronger for not giving up. It made us brothers in arms, at least until the next round of backstabbing starts up again. It's stores like this that become the stuff of inventory legend, the ones that we come back to in 6 months or a year, after the bloody stumps of our feet have healed, and look back and laugh and say to each other, "Hey, remember last time we did this store...?" Yeah, good times.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a well-earned reward to enjoy. "Oh, oh, oh, ice cold milk and a Cadbury Creme Egg™..."
OMG I almost forgot!!! T-minus 16-18 hours (depending on arrival of installation man) to cable modem!!!!!!!!!!!!!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 02:49 am (UTC)I am very excited for your new cable modem! *bouncy* But I am also apprehensive. My fingers, etc. are crossed that it works as it should.
*foot rubbies*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 03:26 am (UTC)Oh, it will work as it should. Mark my words....
no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 03:29 am (UTC)