New job, better life

Its been three months to the day since I started my new job. It has been such a blessing! Better hours,  better pay, and I go home every day feeling like I made at least one person's day better.  I work full time, and still work a few nights a week at my part-time job.  It's busy, but I feel so much more appreciated in just these last three months than I have in the past four years.

While no longer working conventional retail, as an optical assistant I still technically work retail. It is a much slower paced environment,  with more  reasonable expectations.

My job is sometimes difficult. Having to learn a completely different set of job skills has been trying but so rewarding.

And I cannot evenbeing to tell you how lovely it is to not have to stress about Black Friday. I still will be working, however, because of my part time job commitment,  but there they do not decide that all employees are required to work twelve or more hours.

And while I'm thinking about Black Friday, I just have to take a moment to rant.  I recently found out that Best Buy is not allowing their employees a Thanksgiving day. Best Buy is opening for their Black Friday sales on 3:00PM on Thanksgiving afternoon.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Are sales really so important that you are killing a holiday for them?

I mean, come on!

Loyalty not rewarded

Retail.  I have worked for the same company for almost five years. In those five years, I have attempted to get promoted about five times, starting three years ago. The first few times, I wasn't really bummed about not recieving said promotion,  because there were still so many things I needed to learn. However, in the last year, I have attempted to get a certain position. Twice.  And both times, I have been told I lack one thing or another. It didn't matter that, aside from the management part, I've been doing the job for the better part of three years (I have been doing markdowns since I was hired as a temp five years ago, and signage on-and-off for three years, steadily for two years).

The most recent pass over on this management position was about 4 months ago.  They did as they always do, posted the position and have a signup for interviews.  Right up until the last day, I was the only one interviewing for the position with any significant experience with the job.  On the last day it was up, one of our merchandisers decided that she was going to interview for this position too.  And as soon as all the rest of us on the list saw she had written her name too, we all knew it was superfluous to interview any of us; we were ALL that certain that she would get the position.

And inevitably, she did.  They did the first round of interviews, and I had felt that mine went swimmingly.  The managers decided to do second interviews with only two of us, and the girl who signed up on the last day (who, might I add, at the time she interviewed had been with the company only seven months, was barely 18, drinks alcohol heavily and smokes pot heavily.  Real pillar of the community) was bragging that she had a second interview.  And for a few days, she was the only one who knew she had a second interview.  They eventually got around to telling me that they wanted me for a second interview.

I felt that this interview also went well.  I had all the experience necessary for the position, where the other girl had absolutely none.  As a merchandiser, part of her job was to move the signs with the correct product so it was always signed correctly.  I always did signage in the departments she moved the product for and she couldn't move signs correctly to save her life.  I thought that experience and loyalty would be big benefits in my favor.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

About a week after we had second interviews, they pulled everyone into the office separately to "pow-wow" with them about their interviews. They never clearly stated in mine that I hadn't gotten the job.  It was so unclear to me that I asked the store manager when they were making the decision.  Later that day, I received a very condescending phone call from our assistant store manager, saying that I must not have understood that I didn't get the job.  The tone, together with the words, angered me.  Not once was it said, "You didn't get it."  Instead I received "We don't think that you were very confident in yourself" and "We don't think you have enough experience".  (Excuse me, does five years of experience in one thing and three in the whole of it not count as experience?)  I suppose in my interviews, I could have bragged myself up more; but I have a hard time doing so, and I thought that my knowledge and experience would help.  Clearly, not.

They made a big to-do about the girl who got the job.  But everyone else who interviewed for the job felt like the wrong choice had been made.  I was told one day by the assistant manager that people were wondering why I didn't get it, when I've been with the company for so long.  She plainly stated to my face, "It doesn't matter how long someone has been with a company if there is someone more qualified for the job."

How is no experience more qualified than my five years?

I was so furious about being passed over again that I actively started looking for a new job.  It was hard, because I love what I do, I love customer service, and I love the people I work with.  However, as much as I loved what I did there, I realized that if they were so willing to pass up me and my experience for someone with no experience (and they know about her underage drinking, at the very least) then I had reached as far as they were going to let me grow within that company and it was more than time for me to find a new job.

Note:  At this point, I was working part time for two companies:  the one I was so frustrated with, and one that the store manager loves me.

I remember reading something that really hit me close to home while I was looking for a job.  I don't know who it is quoting, but it says "Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated."

I couldn't have read that at a better time.  And now, just 4 months after feeling so angry and frustrated with my job, I am employed full time, starting in just a few days.  I cannot even being to express my relief when I gave my notice.

A weight lifted from my shoulders.

Here's to learning new things.

New opportunities.

New growth.

And one of the times I can clearly see how God has blessed me.  It could not have come at a more perfect time, could not have been any better.

I am blessed.

Retail No More!

I did it, y'all! I finally quit my retail job! Final day is Thursday!  I cannot ever express fully the relief I felt after putting in my two weeks. No more black Fridays,  no more screaming children and babies.

On Friday,  I start  new job. It a new adventure in an optical shop.  There are so many new things to learn, I can't wait to start.

So to the job I have dispised for the last two years, SUCK IT!! You took advantage of my knowledge and abilities while refusing to promote me. You treated me like I was the problem, that I didn't have the qualifications.

I am so grateful for the new opportunity.  I once read "Go where you are celebrated,  not tolerated".  I may not be quite to the point of being celebrated at the new job, but it is infinitely better than where I was.

Squeaker shoes

Someone became very wealthy with the invention of the squeaker shoes.   For those who do not know what they are this site sells them and explains them on the homepage.  If you don't feel like linking, basically, these are regular toddler sized shoes, but with one fundamental change:  They SQUEAK as the child walks.  Very loudly, supposedly to make it easier for a parent to keep track of their child.

I was thinking about these today at work, where several children came in wearing them (although thankfully not all at the same time).  While I think the product is an interesting idea, a thought occurred to me today.  If you are a parent and you need shoes that squeak to find your child, you aren't paying close enough attention to your child.

I have said before I'm not a parent, and therefore am not really qualified to make too much of a judgement.  However, I feel that if a child wanders away enough times that a parent justifies the purchase of special shoes just to be able to find their child, clearly there is something wrong with the picture.  As I have said before, there is nothing so important in a retail environment that a parent should have to pay that little attention to their child.

Call me old fashioned, but when I was a kid, if I wandered off and got lost, I didn't get to go shopping with my mom.  I had to stay right with her or be in the cart, and if I walked by her and she couldn't find me, I was in serious trouble.  I learned very quickly not to leave my mother's side.

Then there are the parents who do not pay attention to what their child is doing, even if they are in sight of the parent.  Today, for example.  The store I work at has toys near the registers.  There are balls, plush toys, candy; so many distractions.  There was a little girl, couldn't have been more than three years old.  She found the bin of balls, and was clearly thrilled.  I was working in our fitting rooms when I wasn't needed at the registers.  This little girl's mom was on one side of the waist-high wall that has all the toys and candy displayed, and the little girl was by the balls.  One by one, this little girl picked up the balls and bounced them away from her.  A call over the walkie had me headed up towards the registers, and I didn't even make it out of the fitting room before nearly tripping on several of the balls this little girl tossed around.  She made no effort to chase them, feeling content to merely bounce one and reach for another.

There was a woman keeping an eye on this little girl; not a relative or a family friend.  Just a random woman in line.  The mother was so preoccupied with whatever was going on at the register she was at that she was not even watching her own daughter.  As the mother finished her transaction, she walked back around to the other side, saying to the woman, "Thank you for wrangling my children."  The mother then tried to get her daughter to follow her (rather unsuccessfully, might I add) and made her way back towards the kids department, calling for her daughter to follow her as she walked.  She paused for a moment in the fitting rooms to answer her cell phone, still calling for her daughter (who, coincidentally, was wearing squeaker shoes).

I don't remember the daughter actually following the mother, who couldn't seem to be bothered to watch her own child.  Nor did the mother help pick up the balls the daughter threw.  Not one.  The daughter put a few away, but the majority of them were put away by employees and other customers.  I could not believe it.

I understand being busy and having things to do.  But I feel as though you should never be so busy that you don't teach your child to pick up a mess they make (or to not make a mess in the store to begin with) or help them clean up.

Sometimes, I feel so frustrated with the way other people raise their children.  I know everyone is different, but it feels as though common sense and courtesy are leaving our culture faster than they can be taught.

Please be kind and considerate shoppers.  Teach your children courtesy.  Teach them to be considerate of others.  The world will thank you for it later.