random work stuff

not to say i do nothing but work, because that would imply that i get enough hours, but i have to admit that unless you care about what i ate for dinner or you want to hear about the fight my parents had about our broken a/c blower, or that my dog is cute but the housebreaking is still very much a work in non-progress, etc., i've got nothing to tell you.

so yesterday (wednesday) night, i was working with our newest cashier. it was her second day. when i went on break i had to stop by the frame shop just to tell the framing manager how much i like the new cashier. (this was relevant because the cashier's sister works in framing.) i was like, "i had to walk her through a return once as a reminder, but that's it. and she's had two more returns since then, and she hasn't had any problems!" and the manager was like, "i know, it was the same way training her sister. isn't it great?"

granted, she hasn't learned tax exempts yet, or how to sign people up for classes, and i don't think she knows all the void functions. she probably hasn't checked a gift card balance or done a split tender yet, but still, i'm very confident in this one. after all, there's plenty of stuff on those registers that i've had to show people who've worked there longer than me how to do.

she probably thinks i'm insane, though, because i must have seemed entirely too happy that she shows some aptitude for preforming simple tasks. at one point i told her that if they have any more relative who need jobs, they should come work with us. not to say that most of our new hires are idiots, after all this isn't the deli, but i find myself helping the rest of the new people a lot more, and they aren't as new.

it can't help the situation that the night before my back-up cashier was a girl who i'm not sure how she still has a job there. i'm not sure exactly how long she's been there, but i remember her head brushing christmas stockings hung above the registers and we haven't quite reached that point in the seasonal cycle this year. and yet faced with a cart of about 18 items that needed to be put back, she picked up around 4 of them and said, "i know where these go." i then proceeded to hand her the items while rattling off locations. you know, "32, wedding, wedding, cake decorating, halloween grid,..." honestly, the girl is useless enough that our manager pulled the old 'no hours' number on her for a while, to the point i think she worked one day in three months, but now we seem to be hurting for cashiers so she's getting some hours again, and it's almost as bad as having new hires, since she knows about as much.

i'm not sure what the deal is with the lack of cashiers all of a sudden. i don't remember more than maybe one person quitting, and the only one i can think of who seems to have disappeared off the schedule without me knowing they left is our high school boy of indeterminate orientation, and yet suddenly we only have 3 cashiers who've been there more than a month and a half, including tall girl who doesn't know her head from a hole in the ground. now, part of that is because i'm not a cashier anymore, and apparently (as of the schedule that came out yesterday) neither is the girl who's been picking up a little slack in the FES department because of my cash office days, but still.

speaking of, i'm not overjoyed at that particular new development. not that i begrudge her the job, although i'm not sure she's 100% qualified, but neither are any of the others. the issue i have with it is that i have 3 days off next week. doesn't sound so bad, does it? except the 4 days i work are only 4-5.5 hour days. 19 hour weeks is not going to cut it. i'm planning to wait until the next schedule comes out, but if i'm still down to only 4 days, i'm going to have to talk to the manager, because i'm not giving up hours to a high schooler who doesn't do my job as well as i do.

anyway, that was a long enough rant about work. in other news, i bought pretty new red shoes the other day, and i'm really enjoying the new ken burns documentary about WWII.