Okay, out of my non-angst ridden hole I have for a blog here, I thought I would take a time-out and tell you what has been annoying me in my life lately:
At work, we changed “Management”. It now went back to the parents of Brenda B. and in-laws of Mitch B. They sold it to Dorthy D. and Jerry D.
So anyways, the “Management” has been really annoying to work with, all the way down to the way she handles the folding of the boxes on her shift.
“No Yolanea, you have to do it THIS way.”
That is her permanent phrase of the day.
Two days ago she gave me a billion things to do before I left. So I had precisely 3 hours to complete all of the stuff that she wanted me to complete.
1. Dust the glass shelving
2. Put out the merchandise
3. Price all Merchandise
4. Move all Patriotic Stuff into Patriotic Section
Now, I know you’re probably thinking “Oh gheeze, that isn’t much to do.”
But it is.
We had just received a large quantity of merchandise the previous day (8 Boxes!), and Dorthy left it ALL for me to do.
So anyways, I didn’t get it all done; in fact, I left all of the merchandise to do for the next day. The only thing I did do with the merchandise was I priced the Christmas Bows that we got - and even with those I only had time to get a half-box of them done.
Also, I had to battle with a few choice customers that day, and a particular woman came in at precisely 5:00PM (When we close), saying “Oh it will only be just a minute” and leaving 15 minutes later.
Either way - I come back in for my last day, and what happens when I walk in the door?
“Yolanea, could you please help that customer? I also need you to re-arrange all of the balloons - they are way to high anyways - and arrange them according to an order I’ve set down: Birthday numbers, General, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Miscellaneous. I also need you to open the mother’s day balloons which have flowers on them, the ones with a flowering can on them, the father’s day balloons which have the words written in loopy handwriting, and the father’s day ones that have a hammer and what looks like a chisel on the balloon. You got all of that?”
Dorthy reels all of this off at like 100 MPH, and all the while I’m standing there, mouth agape, blubbering insanity words like “Urgh ba-ba…gooth - arrange?” I finally stammer out, looking at her bluntly.
At this time, Jerry walks up, eyeing me like an over-reactive toddler. Dorthy is waiting patiently for more words to flow from my mouth.
Dorthy continues her speech as if I hadn’t said anything.
“Also, we (she eyes Jerry) noticed that you didn’t do everything I asked for yesterday. We were just curious as to why…”
“Oh! Well I didn’t get everything done because I had a lot of customers after you left - I even had someone come in at 5:00!” I eagerly said, wanting to correct her story before I got fired.
This time Jerry chimed in.
“Well you know, we set high standards for our employees here now, and we will not accept any less from you even though you have been working under previous owners.”
I just stared at him; I looked back to Dorthy. They were both wearing the same look. “We’re skeptical.”
I was just like:
“No, there really was a load of customers, you can check the register, I had some lady come in and want balloons blown up yesterday too!”
Jerry just shook his head, patted me on the shoulder and said, “Just do your job kiddo.”
Kiddo? High standards? What were they playing at? I thought they liked me!
Anyways, I turned to Dorthy and just noticed that she had been writing down what she had just told me about the balloons.
So after about 45 minutes of re-arranging the balloons and cursing the in-laws under my breath, I’m finished. Dorthy and Jerry are still there. So, being the role-model employee like I am, I go in the back to where Dorthy is re-arranging Mitch’s desk and saying things under her breath in rapid succession.
I let out a tiny cough, and she jumps as if I had yelled at her to turn around.
“I’m finished!” I say in my sweetest I-love-my-job voice. Dorthy just grunts in reply, quickly shoves some papers under yet another stack, and huffs out of the back room, saying dis-jointed words like
“Should have never…don’t know what…stupid Dorthy…can’t see why…”
Now I was getting suspicious. I showed her my beautiful artwork, and she turns slowly to me.
“What?” I say, my face falling in exasperation.
“Well, see how it isn’t all lined up like these?” She shows me the ‘perfect’ row of balloons that she did.
“What do you mean?” I say, getting more and more confused.
“You need to use all the same peg. See, these pegs are different from those pegs. (She motions to each ‘different’ peg) I would appreciate it if you would please redo this with all the same peg.” She then goes in the back, and I swear she was smiling.
I was gonna’ blow.
“Okay Dorthy, HAVE IT YOUR WAY!” I yell to her retreating back. She comes out shortly with all the ’same’ pegs and tells me calmly to fix it, again.
I hate that woman.
So I fixed them all to the same peg, swearing up and down that when they left I wouldn’t do ANYTHING for the rest of the day.
Well, Dorthy and Jerry left shortly after that, telling me to do about 100 other things before I closed for my final day, including to put my keys in the drop-box before I walked out.
I kept my promise, and after they left shortly after the balloon expedition, I went into the backroom and read for the rest of the day.
Good times.
As it ends up, I don’t think I’m going back there for breaks or during summer if they are going to work me to the bone at minimum wage. It’s a rip-off and it’s unconstitutional I tell ya’!
Maybe I can get a job at the Library or something…
Maybe.
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Also, I think that this is the longest entry to date so far, and I’m sorry to those of you who will actually read this. :-)
