working title

So I don’t think being a non- believer sitting amongst churchgoers in a church on sunday is necessarily a bad thing. Dropping the f bomb and the gd might add insult to injury.

2 bud lights, a shot of jack, 2 budweisers, half a pack of american spirits, arrested development and mallrats. Good grief…someone put me to bed!!!!

So after the last of the holiday guests finally exited (my sister left for Florida on Thursday- sadfaces) I was faced with the reality that not only did I have nothing to really look forward to when I came home (all my besties are far away) and that all the anticipation and pressure of my final semester of college are now knocking at my door. Heading into work on Friday I admit I was a bit heavy-hearted, but I don’t think even that could explain the frustration and mini-altercations I have had with one particular manager over this past weekend. 

I would like to say that I get along fairly well with most everyone that I work with, and if I don’t like someone I try to still be personable, but I don’t interact with them for extended periods of time. And as for management, I have been there for two years, and the management staff knows that I am a good worker so when I have a request they usually oblige. Except for one. Let’s call him Mr. Tall Poopy-Pants. I would say something nastier but Mr. Tall Poopy-Pants works just fine. This manager, Mr. TPP (for short), doesn’t know how to talk to someone without being condescending. He takes his position as a manager WAY too seriously and will change descions that other managers have made, without telling anyone else, because it serves himself. He is a child in grown-up clothes, a coward, and an all around loser who is threatened by women who stand up to him and question his descions. He is probably the least popular manager. So naturally he and I conflict.

Friday I go into work and I am happy to learn that I will be working produce for much of my shift. I love the produce section, so whenever I have a chance to work it I am super excited. It’s a fairly large section of the store, and it is the focal point when customers walk in, so the pressure is always on to maintain it and keep it looking good. It is nearly impossible to maintain the produce section by yourself on a busy day, however. You need help, someone who can work independently yet communicate to you what they are doing or what we need. When I start working the section, Mr. TPP has me by myself, but with a trainee. A TRAINEE!!!! I am all about proper training programs but this is seriously not the time. If maybe there was also someone who was a more seasoned employee working then I wouldn’t have been so annoyed but that was not the case. And this particular trainee just wanted to talk. Talk to me, talk to customers, talk talk talk. I seriously don’t have time for this. I need to work as quickly as I can, as efficently as I can. And then Mr. TPP comes back and he says he needs the trainee on register, so I am by myself for what is only supposed to be 30 minutes. That turns into an hour and a half. As Mr. TPP walks away and I say “So, am I going to get any help over here?” He says “Yeah Suzy Q will be coming over and then eventually the trainee will come over here”.  Suzy Q, who is a great worker, doesn’t come for another two hours. So I am left, by myself, answering millions of customer questions, trying to put up this produce. Eventually Suzy Q comes and she is a spectacular help, but I already feel behind schedule. I have an excrutiating migrane and I can start to feel myself getting sick. Hooray.

I come into work on Saturday, and I see that I am mostly on register. But wait- there is no one in the produce section for long periods of time! So Sweet Pea manager (a nice, female manager) works on the schedule with me so that I have more time to help in the produce section. Saturday had a lot more staff in the produce section, so we were all working like crazy to really turn it out and make it shine. The day progresses onward and I finish my supposed “last” hour on register. This is how the altercation occured.

Me: “Hey Mr. TPP, can you take my till out of register 6?”

Mr. TPP: “You are in 6 for two hours.”

Me: “No, I was supposed to be out of 6 at 8 o’clock.”

Mr. TPP: “(with a smartass tone) Well, your in 6”

I walk over to the log and see that Mr. TPP has written, in pen, “6” over the PP (for produce) that Sweet Pea manager and I had figured out. 

Me: “So you changed what Sweet Pea had put on there without telling me?”

Mr. TPP “We only had three registers so I had to add another one.”

Me:”Okay, fine. Just ring for me.”

Now written out, that might not seem to be too much of an altercation. And if Mr. TPP had come to me and said “this is the deal, gotta keep you in register for another hour.” I would have been fine. But it was the fact that Mr. TPP was trying to be sneaky and did not communicate with me the changes that he made that pissed me off. And I’m sure he is going to give me a bad review because this isn’t the first time he and I have clashed. I guess at the end of the day I should feel sorry for him, because I will be the one with my degree, with friends, with a family that loves me and cares about me. And all he will be is a third-string manager of a grocery store. Who drives a mini-van.

whew- that felt good. and now for Women’s Empowerment week!!!! I noticed on hellogiggles a list of famous pioneering women and I was so sad to see my girl, Marie Curie not mentioned. 

Marie Curie was the first person (not woman, PERSON) to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics and chemistry (and I don’t even have one!). She is the most famous female scientist to date. She is a total badass (wikipedia that shii if you don’t believe me!)

I am proud to come from a long line of tough, smart, sassy women. I thank the powers that be everyday for my sister, mother, grandmother and aunts and female cousins. We don’t take shit nobody.