What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

Current song stuck in my head: Fake Wings from .hack//Sign

Today was busy. And frustrating. But mostly frustrating. Here's why.

For the first two hours, I ran from register to register, taking over for other cashiers when they took their breaks. No big deal, at least not until this afternoon. At one o'clock, I was sent to register 5.

*Insert groan here*

Register 5 is the busiest register in the store. It's the first full-service check-out past the self-checks. Since so many people hate the self-checks, they walk straight to five. So I had a line all day long. Making matter worse? I didn't have functional equipment. My PIN pad wasn't working; it wouldn't read any credit or debit cards. So the customers would run their cards multiple times, get frustrated and I'd have to slide the card through the magnetic reader on my side of the register. A transaction that should have been completed in under a minute took at least three and a half minutes. It doesn't sound like a long time but to a waiting customer it's an eternity. It felt even longer to me.

Yeah, I was frustrated, to put it mildly. But it gets even better.

The CSMs know that our PIN pad is faulty on register 5. Our store manager does not. Why? The CSMs haven't told him.

There is a total lack of communication in my store and it is now affecting my job. Register 5 needs to be fixed immediately but our manager doesn't have a clue about it. No one's told him. I'm also willing to bet that he doesn't know about the other malfunctioning registers in the store, like number 16 which doesn't have a working stylus. I'm frustrated, the customers get angry and nothing is being done about it.

And unfortunately, unlike so many others who work in my store, I actually give a damn. I want things to get better, or at least be somewhat bearable in the building. I'm sick of it, sick of the utter lack of communication, sick of the faulty PIN pads, sick of management being so clueless about how bad things really are there. I come home from work so irritated that I have to spend an hour upstairs with the cat on my lap to calm myself down. It shouldn't be this way, but until a few other employees actually start caring, things won't change.

And that honestly depresses the hell out of me. But it doesn't surprise me in the least.

--Weasel, "I'm tired, frustrated and trying not to slam my head into a wall. Wish me luck."

...and I just died a little inside...

Current song stuck in my head: Key of the Twilight from .hack//Sign

Yes, you're reading that correctly, if you clicked the link in the title: Prince Fielder has signed with the Tigers.

I could cry. Seriously. Not even joking. I really wanted Prince to stay.

Ah well, those are the breaks. Good luck, Prince. It was fun seeing you hit for the Crew. Best of luck with your new team.

--Weasel, "Not going to cry, not going to cry, not going to... too late."

Son of the Return of the Revenge of the Dark of the Random Thoughts

Been a while since I've done one of these guys; I may be a little rusty so bear with me.

Current song stuck in my head: In Between by Linkin Park

* The holidays are over. No more crowds. Now all we have to worry about is the Super Bowl. If Green Bay makes it, my store will be a ghost town.

* So the locale for BotCon 2012 was announced and we're going back to Texas. I can hear Prime booing and hissing in the background as I type this, but I seriously wanted to go back to California. It's nice there. Ah well, maybe next year.

* I'm still trying to Masuda Method myself a shiny Golett and I am failing massively. I've hatched 725 eggs and haven't seen my little Guardian. Yes, I have the name picked out for "him"; do not ask. Before you ask just what I'm doing with all the hatchlings, uh... I kinda don't keep them. I turn off the power so I'm not forced to release any of them. Yes, I'm a total wuss but I refuse to abandon something so cute! (I can't help it; the the little bugger is adorable.) Even worse? I'll have to restart the whole process again as I want a shiny Golurk and Guardian will not be evolving. Oh no, I'm completely not insane over here...

* We've had a grand total of maybe an inch and a half of snow this season. Either we're not going to get a whole lot, or we're going to get slammed with three blizzards in a freaking row in the middle of February. But no, no real white Christmas over here. Not awesome.

* On the 29th, Prime and I will be heading to Brewers on Deck. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. (Autographs and players and swag and all things baseball!)

* I have an extra day off this week. Seems the home office said we couldn't go over forty hours and our holiday pay counted as part of our scheduled time so I got myself a third day off. Not complaining about it, believe me.

* Prime, being the awesome wonderful guy he is, got me Bubble Power™ She-Ra® and Swiftwind™ for Christmas. I haven't squealed so much in a very long time. (The eight-year-old in me was very happy, trust me.)

* We have a Ninja blender in our kitchen now. So we can make smoothies and milkshakes and mixed drinks galore. Now I need to figure out just how to make a Mocha Frap like Starbucks and life will be officially awesome.

And that's about it. Tune in next time when I decide to root around the wrinkles of my brain stem and slap together more random crap like this. Until then, this has been...

--Weasel, "Over and out."