"Job" Is Not "Life"; "Job" Is, In Fact, Detrimental To "Life"
You know, I feel like I'm complaining about my job a little too much lately - I try to keep my journal(s) primarily fannish - but I am just. At the end of my rope with this.
I'm a "cashier" at a mostly-Oklahoma based ranch/farm/home store called Atwoods. I say "cashier" because there is no actual job description and things I have been/am required to do include, but are not limited to, processing regular customer transactions, processing customer service transactions (returns/exchanges/irate customers), supervising other cashiers, answering phones, training new employees (and not just new cashiers! I trained a dude on floor procedures last month and I have never been assigned to the floor), training long-term employees on new systems, tech support for new systems, assembling merchandise like furniture, toys, and barbeque grills, cleaning ALL the things, store safety walks, clerical work (cutomer records/making new hire packets), merchandising (from facing all the way up to designing displays that will be photgraphed and sent in to corporate), and, of course, customer assistance. To help with customer assistance we cashiers are supposed to familarize ourselves not only with the layout of the store, but with every product we carry. No, I am not joking. I have been told that I should educate myself on farm equipment; no, they have no educational materials; yes, they mean on my own time.
I've worked here just shy of three years (my date-of-hire is November 11). I have vision insurance for $5/month. As a "part-time" employee, I don't qualify for health insurance, sick-leave, or paid vacation. More than ten absences in a year is grounds for termination, unless you managed to get a doctor's note with that insurance they apparently expect to have fallen out of the sky. When I hit two years here, I did qualify for one week's unpaid vacation, that must be scheduled at least two week's in advance, and cannot take place in November or December. As a part-time employee, I have no set work schedule and usually work five days a week, six to nine hours a day, and clock an average of 30 - 36 hours a week. Sometimes I'm scheduled as light as 24 hours, sometimes as many as 43. Shifts can begin anytime after 6:40 am and end anytime before 8:30 pm.
(Next week's schedule, for example, is Sunday - off, Monday - 6:45 to 3:45, Tuesday - 11:30 to close (doors close at 8 unless there are still customers inside, in which case we wait for them to finish and it takes as long as it takes, and then it takes approximately 20 minutes to close everyone out), Wednesday - off, Thursday - 6:45 to 3:45, Friday - 6:45 to 3:45, and Saturday - 10 to 4. Accounting for lunches and end-of-day countdowns, I'll clock about 40 hours.)
I'm paid by the hour, at $8.25/hour. I haven't had a raise in 8+ months, and am making $.25 more than new hires, at this point.
I have to stand the entire shift. Cashiers are the only employees in the store not allowed to eat anything, and we are only allowed to drink water, and even that only when there are no customers around. If a customer comes up to the register with multiple bags of feed (between 15 to 50 pounds per bag, with most right at 40), we are required to lift each bag to check for hidden merchandise.
I go home aching and angry and completely unable to deal with people, 8 days out of 10. My back hurts every day, whether I've worked or not. I can only bear to trade a day without people for a day with friends every couple of months. Increasingly often, I'll go home and just cry because this job makes me so fucking miserable.
I hate it. Customers scream in your face and swear at you and call you a fucking idiot bitch and they are never asked to leave and you are not allowed to walk away or respond any less politely. Management tells you that federal law says we cannot accept returns on merchandise that's had gas and oil in it into the store, you tell a customer that, customer says all sorts of things to you, you call management, and management tells them it's "not a problem at all", so that you look like the problem. I am so fucking sick of having to pretend to laugh at stupid fucking jokes I have heard literally thousands of times (you check a customer's $100-bill, they say they just made it this morning = several times a day, five days a week for 35 months = LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES HAVE I HEARD THIS). I hate having to pretend I'm not offended by their racist jokes and sexist comments, that I'm not creeped out by men older than my grandfather staring at my boobs, asking where I live, am I married, what time do I get off work. I REALLY FUCKING HATE that when a customer tries to bully me into going to church/accepting Jesus/whatever evangelical bullshit they're selling, all that matters is that I not offend THEM. I am fucking furious that company policy is that I am not allowed to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, and that our new store manager is exactly the type of guy that will write me up for not following it (the old store manager let me get away with it).
I hate that Oklahoma is an at-will employment state and so I can be fired for any reason/no reason/things that happen off the clock and away from the store (and one guy actually was, so it's not even theoretical anymore).
EVERY PART OF IT FUCKING SUCKS, OKAY, AND YES, IT COULD BE WORSE, BUT IT COULD BE A FUCK OF A LOT BETTER, TOO.
I'm a "cashier" at a mostly-Oklahoma based ranch/farm/home store called Atwoods. I say "cashier" because there is no actual job description and things I have been/am required to do include, but are not limited to, processing regular customer transactions, processing customer service transactions (returns/exchanges/irate customers), supervising other cashiers, answering phones, training new employees (and not just new cashiers! I trained a dude on floor procedures last month and I have never been assigned to the floor), training long-term employees on new systems, tech support for new systems, assembling merchandise like furniture, toys, and barbeque grills, cleaning ALL the things, store safety walks, clerical work (cutomer records/making new hire packets), merchandising (from facing all the way up to designing displays that will be photgraphed and sent in to corporate), and, of course, customer assistance. To help with customer assistance we cashiers are supposed to familarize ourselves not only with the layout of the store, but with every product we carry. No, I am not joking. I have been told that I should educate myself on farm equipment; no, they have no educational materials; yes, they mean on my own time.
I've worked here just shy of three years (my date-of-hire is November 11). I have vision insurance for $5/month. As a "part-time" employee, I don't qualify for health insurance, sick-leave, or paid vacation. More than ten absences in a year is grounds for termination, unless you managed to get a doctor's note with that insurance they apparently expect to have fallen out of the sky. When I hit two years here, I did qualify for one week's unpaid vacation, that must be scheduled at least two week's in advance, and cannot take place in November or December. As a part-time employee, I have no set work schedule and usually work five days a week, six to nine hours a day, and clock an average of 30 - 36 hours a week. Sometimes I'm scheduled as light as 24 hours, sometimes as many as 43. Shifts can begin anytime after 6:40 am and end anytime before 8:30 pm.
(Next week's schedule, for example, is Sunday - off, Monday - 6:45 to 3:45, Tuesday - 11:30 to close (doors close at 8 unless there are still customers inside, in which case we wait for them to finish and it takes as long as it takes, and then it takes approximately 20 minutes to close everyone out), Wednesday - off, Thursday - 6:45 to 3:45, Friday - 6:45 to 3:45, and Saturday - 10 to 4. Accounting for lunches and end-of-day countdowns, I'll clock about 40 hours.)
I'm paid by the hour, at $8.25/hour. I haven't had a raise in 8+ months, and am making $.25 more than new hires, at this point.
I have to stand the entire shift. Cashiers are the only employees in the store not allowed to eat anything, and we are only allowed to drink water, and even that only when there are no customers around. If a customer comes up to the register with multiple bags of feed (between 15 to 50 pounds per bag, with most right at 40), we are required to lift each bag to check for hidden merchandise.
I go home aching and angry and completely unable to deal with people, 8 days out of 10. My back hurts every day, whether I've worked or not. I can only bear to trade a day without people for a day with friends every couple of months. Increasingly often, I'll go home and just cry because this job makes me so fucking miserable.
I hate it. Customers scream in your face and swear at you and call you a fucking idiot bitch and they are never asked to leave and you are not allowed to walk away or respond any less politely. Management tells you that federal law says we cannot accept returns on merchandise that's had gas and oil in it into the store, you tell a customer that, customer says all sorts of things to you, you call management, and management tells them it's "not a problem at all", so that you look like the problem. I am so fucking sick of having to pretend to laugh at stupid fucking jokes I have heard literally thousands of times (you check a customer's $100-bill, they say they just made it this morning = several times a day, five days a week for 35 months = LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES HAVE I HEARD THIS). I hate having to pretend I'm not offended by their racist jokes and sexist comments, that I'm not creeped out by men older than my grandfather staring at my boobs, asking where I live, am I married, what time do I get off work. I REALLY FUCKING HATE that when a customer tries to bully me into going to church/accepting Jesus/whatever evangelical bullshit they're selling, all that matters is that I not offend THEM. I am fucking furious that company policy is that I am not allowed to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, and that our new store manager is exactly the type of guy that will write me up for not following it (the old store manager let me get away with it).
I hate that Oklahoma is an at-will employment state and so I can be fired for any reason/no reason/things that happen off the clock and away from the store (and one guy actually was, so it's not even theoretical anymore).
EVERY PART OF IT FUCKING SUCKS, OKAY, AND YES, IT COULD BE WORSE, BUT IT COULD BE A FUCK OF A LOT BETTER, TOO.