August 16, 2009
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Slave Labor, It’s a job…
The curse of malfunctioning equipment is upon me. It seems, whenever I am stress and/or exhausted, electrical devices breakdown around me. The dryer just died this week, taking out a circuit breaker with it. We’ve been line drying our stuff, though that’s problematic with my allergies. I also sucked the life out of my IPod in a matter of three hours the other day. It simply stopped working as I sat listening to it on break, though I had only taken it off of the dock that morning and it should have had a full charge. And speaking of the dock, the bass/treble has gone kablooey. My music is oddly muted now, and I have no money for a new one. For almost two weeks, the interior lights in my car were not working before miraculously snapping back on last week. The security light had been on for a month before fixing itself at about the same time as the interior lights. Now there’s something wonky with my car stereo. It’s hard to describe aside from the fact that only half the display lights up and where it used to stop playing as soon as I opened my car door to get out, now it continues to play until I actually turn it off. All I would need is to leave it playing to drain my battery while at work. Last night when I drove home, all the streetlights on my side of the road were out.
I haven’t destroyed my computer yet, thank goodness.
I’m taking a personal day tomorrow to go apply at a security company to be a dispatcher. Oddly enough, I had just been talking to my mother about seeing about getting a job like this and she had said there was a place nearby that she drove past on certain days. I looked in the paper when we got home from grocery shopping, and there it was, the exact place she had mentioned. It’s about as far away from the house as my current job, but far less traffic since it’s not a mall. I can live with that. Maybe even graveyard shift… That’d be nice.
I called my boss and blamed it all on my sister. I said that she was preggers (true) and has a bad cold (true) and that she plans to go to the doctor tomorrow (lie) and so I have to watch my nephew (lie). I don’t think she would have been so understanding if I had told her the truth. lol But I have really had it with that place. Last night was nightmarish. Weird customers… this one guy who comes in all the time and mutters under his breath while reading home magazines… (muttering yeah, baby yeah in a gravelly voice… CREEEEEEEEEEPY) and another lady who’s mother died last year and her sister is trying to take the “entire estate.” I got her whole life story, not that I wanted it. She dug out a pocket full of tacky jewelry that she plans to sell because she can’t find a job and she “pissed away the $6000″ she receive as her part of the inheritance. I feel for her, but why was she telling me this? And there’s the possibility that a vice president might visit at some point soon, so an email was sent around with a list of things that might irk the man. First on the list was to make sure the hinges of the front door were not rusty, and if they were, to scour and oil them.
Scrub the rusty hinges. SCRUB THE RUSTY HINGES?
You have got to be kidding me. My manager has had her father in repainting the walls so that the huge holes and slashes evident in the thirteen year old paint job from when the store first opened would be less noticeable. But rusty hinges? Please. I’m sorry. Remodel the store, give us more hours to get all the regular crap done so we can maybe get to inane items like scrubbing rusty hinges (and dusting the top of the DVD fixtures which no one can even see, let alone reach)… don’t make a list of asinine chores that we have no time for between our regular tasks and cramming product (that we won’t even read because it’s just that bad) down the customers’ throats. Hey, there’s a quota. It’s certainly not by choice!
Good news is though… everyone has been telling me I take things too personally. That’s why I get migraines and stomach problems… because I have too much integrity and so when something isn’t done to my satisfaction, (I don’t get to complete a task in the time or to the degree I’d like) I take it personally. Well fine. I just won’t care about my job at all any more. I’ll just be like every other worker in America, right? Positive work ethic? Nope, guess I don’t need to care about my job to do it. Who cares if I was raised to believe that anything worth doing was worth doing right. I decided all this yesterday and guess what? My stomach didn’t hurt at all while I was at work. So I just have to stop caring in order to do my job. Seems to me I might as well not be there at all if that’s the case. Don’t you agree? At this point, I’ve basically talked myself out of my job. It’s no longer an issue of getting my work done. Now it’s an issue of caring if I get my work done, which I don’t. Apparently none of the other stores can be bothered to get their crap done in a timely manner, but we’re almost always on time. Despite that, I still get harangued by the management to do things their way, when my way is obviously working better than their way. So… I just won’t worry about getting things done on time any more. I’ll do it their way.
Sounds like a plan…
Man I hope I get this security dispatch job tomorrow. At this point, I don’t think I should be working with the general public any more. Working security appeals to me. I like the idea of helping protect people. My current job… I feel like a useless lump of human waste. Well, you know… that’s how they treat me so it’s not a surprise that’s how I feel.
I was thinking of writing a book and calling it “Life in the Trenches: how corporate America killed retail; a memoir.” Does anyone know how I would go about seeing what percentage of the holiday suicide rate is composed of retail workers? Because I really do think it’s probably a very large proportion. and the public, which is composed of an inordinate number of retail schmucks like myself, should be aware of the health risk of allowing corporate America to rule the roost. I am convinced I have post traumatic stress syndrome. I wouldn’t be surprised if many people in retail do.
Comments (13)
The whole electronics thing does the same to me when I’m stressed. I even have lights that are suppose to come on at night come on when I walk by them and I’m stressed… during the day. It is kind of strange.
It’s sad when work ethics have to fall by the wayside in order to protect ones health. I sincerely hope that you get the dispatch job tomorrow. Your current workplace doesn’t deserve you.
As for your book… I love the idea. I found these:
PTSD in Workers’ Compensation
Facts about suicide
I’m still trying to find a link about retail worker suicides. I was surprised to see that suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among the entire
population and that they actually recognized our country as being an industrialized nation. And another site stated that suicide was higher in religions (such as Christianity) where their code of suicide was a big sin. I’ll keep looking for you about the retail workers.
I wouldn’t be surprised either. I consider myself a tough cookie. I teach 150 12yr olds for goodness sake! Yet, I worked 2 days at Bath and Body Works in college, in November, and I nearly slit my wrists right in the store. Stayed just long enough to use my discount on a couple sticks of mentha lip-shine and left lol.
Most importantly, it’s sad you have to break your work ethic to stay sane but you are totally right. It is too exhausting to sit around CARING about how it’s done when the rest just show up for the paycheck. I admit, I was actually one that worked FASTER and more efficiently when there were longer lines to get them out faster where colleagues worked at the same pace because why shouldn’t they? They don’t get paid any more. *Sigh* I understand you taking a back seat to get out of there and I wish you the best of luck with this security position. Please update us!
i’m pretty sure you are right on all accounts. if you need any stories from ww just ask and i am positive i can come up with some! you know i helped take down a ring of shop lifters this past year and all that was acknowledge was a letter. i saved the companies so much money with the help of my nemesis and that was it. no recognition from my store manager or anyone else except this little note. i even have pictures of all the stuff these guys got caught with. they stole things from at least 6 states. big deal. fbi involved and everything. *grumble*
oh and yeah now it seems they’ve turned my job into a maid service instead of a stocker which was what i thought i was suppose to be. evidentally your job title changes as they see fit.
A note on the ipod: depending on how old the ipod is and how many times you’ve charged it, the battery in it can actually die even though its a rechargeable battery. The batteries in it are only good for so many charges. Instead of buying a new one, Apple has a program where you can send the ipod to them and they will install a new battery but I’m not really sure how much that costs.
As for your book idea, I think it’s a good one!
@Broom_Service - Technically, I guess I don’t have PTSD. Outside of being lynched in highschool, I haven’t had any “traumas” at work. But there should be a term to describe the suffering caused by unrelenting high stress in the workplace.
I did find a study which looks more official than some of the “urban legend” type articles that say one or another occupation is high in terms of the suicide rate. Apparently, miners have the
highest risk of suicide Next were business and repair services,
professional and related services, and
wholesale and retail trade. Then, I guess, everyone else. The study didn’t break it up any further than this, so I assume that these groups have the highest rates.
@geekygreenie - I wouldn’t mind teaching, but I’d rather teach at college level. At least most of the students want to be there, or at least paid to be there. lol Whether I find a new job or not, I will need to quit by the end of October. I know with certainty that I cannot work another holiday at the mall. I’ll have a nervous breakdown. It will not be pretty.
@NightlyDreams - Corporations suck. Any group that reduces you to a number is bound to be indifferent to your contributions, no matter how much money you save them. I’ll let you know if I need any stories. I could probably walk into any store in any city and get my fill of horror stories.
@TheCheshireGrins - I don’t know. I brought it home and stuck it back on the dock and haven’t had any problems with it since.
@harmony0stars - just an offer
@harmony0stars - I did come across a site that called it Bullying in the Workplace. Maybe that’s a term?
That’s what I get from the article too. I wish that the article on the study was more in depth.
Did you e-mail my dad?
I think not caring might be the ticket. How sad, huh?
As for the iPod, they don’t replace the battery, they just send you a new iPod for about $70. And it takes like a month. Or you could take it to an Apple store and have the geeks take a look at it.
@heidenkind - No, I don’t know that I’m really qualified for the position. The most I know about boats is that they float on water. lol It makes me feel funny about contacting him when there’s probably someone more qualified than me. I don’t want to feel like he gave me the job just because we’re friends.
My IPod works just fine now. I just sucked the battery dry the other day. Now my car started dinging and has the check engine soon light on. :-/
@harmony0stars - They don’t expect you to know anything about boats. I’ve never even been in a boat. They tell you the basics about them in training, and that’s all you really need to know. Besides which, the boat owners are the ones who are supposed to know about their boats; if you don’t know where something is, you just ask them. Most boats are pretty simple, though.
My dad isn’t the type of person who would hire anyone just based on the fact that they’re one of my friends. And even if he was, he wouldn’t be in charge of hiring you–that would be the senior ranger. I just thought if you were interested in working for parks you could ask him about it and he could give you an idea of what it’s all about and if it would be something you would like. But I understand if you don’t want to apply there.
I seriously smell a bestseller.