Growing up I used to wonder why my mother cried at things that
weren't even sad. Now that I'm approximately the same age my mother was
when her children were young and she worked full time I'm starting to
understand why she would cry for no reason. For whatever reason I've
been having a very difficult time transitioning from the mall I used to
work at to the mall I'm at now. I realize it takes time to adjust to a
new location. You meet different people, the stores around me are not
the same, before I could walk around the mall and chat with people I
knew. Recently I've ventured into some other stores but I'm having a
hard time connecting with the people who work there.
From the way I've been
crying you'd think I was performing poorly but actually the opposite is
true. For the month of March I was the top sales associate. Supposedly
my boss likes having me at his store, I've kept in touch with the people
I used to work with, they've said they miss me and the last time I was
at the mall I used to work at I almost started crying when I found out
that the Stride Rite store was closing. My sister watched my kids
while I stopped in to a store I love. I went back the next night after I
realized I wanted more of what I had bought the day before. Chatting
with my friends was just like old times. Now I realize that a good
shopper is going to be popular with the sales staff but I work in retail
and I know that even if customers are good in terms of dollars spent at
your store you don't always like them very much.
The
mall I work at now is very snobby. A
lot of our customers come from old German money. People are tight with
it, much more so than the customer base where I previously worked so
it's really to my credit that my numbers are as good as they are.
Probably the main reason I don't like the new mall is the people I have
to work with on a daily basis. This is a little sad to me but I would
rather work with all the teenage boys I used to manage at the smoothie
shop than the grown women I work with now. One woman in particular is
tough for me to deal with. I can work with people who want to grow but I
can't do much with people who aren't open to
coaching.
Another thing that frustrates me is I feel I'm not
getting the training I need. This week my boss is on vacation. Typically
we have three people on per day during the week. Currently most of
Milwaukee and the surrounding area has off for Spring Break. My children
are off which means I don't get to see much of them and what really
frustrates me is I'm supposed to run the store I'm at with two people
per day. The company I work for has set a very aggressive goal for the
month of April. Since Easter fell on the first Sunday of the month I
lost that as a sales day. My manager is gone, in terms of volume he's
our biggest producer, my paycheck depends on how my store performs and
it really makes me mad when people expect me to meet or beat their
expectations without support staff in place to make it happen.
Yesterday
the woman who was scheduled to work at 5:30 didn't come in until twenty
after six. She never called to let me know she was running late.
Working twenty hours in two days isn't going to break any records but as
the day goes on so do I and it's very hard to be upbeat and positive
when it's just you and a store full of people who deserve your help. The
other day I had a mini breakdown at work. Monday morning there is a
mandatory manager's meeting. We all got yelled at for having such a
crappy March and even though I personally had a good month our store was
down and as a member of management that makes me responsible for our
performance.
When I first started at the new store my boss told
me he wasn't going to coddle people. I believed him but now that I've
been there for a while I can see that he is more lenient than he makes
himself out to be. He lets things slide because he knows that certain
people are going to be lazy. Instead of
dealing with poor attitudes and non-compliance he tries to work harder
himself. That frustrates him, it annoys me and it really ticks me off
when I get into trouble for things that are not my fault that I can't
control. The other day my district manager told me she was thinking
about moving me back to the store I was at formerly. I started crying
and when she asked what was wrong I tried to explain that I needed some
help, support and training and I haven't been getting it from either of
the managers who should have been teaching me how to do my job the way
it's supposed to be done.
Personally I've been through a lot
lately. Jobs are work, they're going to be stressful and I get that.
What people decide to do is up to them. I have been working on a more
proactive approach because I've seen first hand what happens when
managers don't deal with problems that seem small and then rapidly
escalate. Working hard is part of who I am. I take my job fairly
seriously and part of the reason my sales volume is lower than some of
my coworkers is because I would
rather see a customer leave empty handed than with shoes that I know
won't work.
I do need to figure out what it is I want to do for
the rest of my life. Part of me can't believe I'm so good at sales but
my sister says it's because I believe in what I'm selling and I know
what I'm doing. Monday and Tuesday I was ready to walk off the job but
for now I'm going to stay where I'm at not because I love shoes and
being taken advantage of but because for the first time in years my
family is going to qualify for group health insurance. My best guess is
that the cold I had turned into a sinus infection. It's not going to
level me but it makes it hard to sleep because of the constant pain and
pressure inside of my head. This decreases my tolerance for bullshit and
makes everything I do harder than it has to be.
To end this on a
positive note I've lost weight, my car has been getting even better
mileage than it had been and I'm still glad I made the decision to spend
some extra money because that enabled me to get what I want. It hasn't
changed everything but when I leave work I have my car, I can play
whatever music I want to and as the miles trail behind me so do the
worries of my day. The open road has always been a friend to me. I still
have quite a bit of weight to lose but I've been going to the gym and
that's helped immensely. I've gotten some new clothes, people at the
mall I work at notice me even if they don't really know me.
Part
of my job is trying to recruit talent, I'm good at spotting that. I'm
exceptionally good at what I do, I look better than I have in years and I
feel better about myself even if it's not always a consistent theme. I
have beautiful children, a supportive spouse, a loving family and a
place on the internet where I can post what I want without fearing more
than a couple of anonymous downvotes. I have loads of personality, I'm
easy to talk to, I make things fun and if it's not a fun time I can be
empathetic. Leaving the mall I used to work at was hard but I have
customers coming from the other store just to see me and sometimes they
even buy things. I can bring smiles to people's faces just by being
who I am. I have that and for now that's what I'm going to focus
on and attach to.