"What Do You Want Me To Do About It?"

Since dinner is cooking, I decided to steal a few moments and make a quick post. I just had to.

Today, cashier Jenni told me about a little incident that happened last night. It seems a customer found a virtual shitload of stuff left behind in a cart. Everything was paid for; according to Jenni it was all in bags. So the customer told an associate from lawn and garden about it. Rather than taking the bags up to customer service, the associate simply said, "Just take it. You can have it." Jenni thought that maybe she should let a head or a member of management know about this, since the customer who originally forgot the items might come back for them. I told her that it was probably a very good idea.

About ten minutes later, Jenni told me that she let a head know about it. The head in question was Mary. Mary's reply to Jenni's story was simple: "What do you want me to do about it?"

Uh, how about your damn job? You know, like letting management know about this so they can talk to the moron in L&G so it won't happen again? You know, actually doing some fucking work for once in your pathetic life? But that would require you to actually get up off your lazy ass and do something, now wouldn't it?

I swear to Primus, I work with idiots. And they get fucking stupider each and every damn day.

--Weasel, "I'm so earning that vacation, really, I am...."

(Insert Scream Here)

Honestly, I can only take so much stupid in just one week....

A few days ago I was on the GM self-checks: It was towards the end of my shift, so I was expecting my replacement to show up at any time. Or so I thought.

It took 10 minutes for him to finally show up. Seven of those minutes were spent looking for a damned head cashier. When I finally clocked out for the night, I was a grand total of 13 minutes over. It's not a helluva lot, but it's just enough overtime to get my ass in trouble.

And now we come to tonight. I was on the grocery self-checks tonight and yet again, it was only a few minutes towards the end of my shift. And yet again I was awaiting my replacement. And yet again, my replacement didn't come. Only this time, I actually asked a head if someone was going to come and take my place. According to Mary, someone was on the way and would be there soon.

"Soon" apparently meant ten minutes later. Again, I clocked out late.

This is bullshit. Serious bullshit. My job is at fucking risk every time the damn heads pull this idiocy. The one who loses in this equation is me, not them. I'm thinking that the next time this happens and I'm on self-check, I should just shut the fuckers down and walk the fuck away. I refuse to get fired because of someone else's incompetence.

As I've said many times before, I'm really earning this trip to BotCon.

--Weasel, "Is it May yet?"

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I'm still here; I've just been too blasted wiped to actually post.

It's mostly been work that's been wearing at me, but life in general hasn't helped either. Even the small things seem to irritate me. Prime's done shit that would normally tease a chuckle out of me and all I'll do is roll my eyes. (Sorry 'bout that, big guy.)

But I'm getting better. I'll get to that in a minute. First, I have to vent a little:

* The people who did data entry for my previous store were morons. 'Nuff said.

* We've had yet another spate of firings in the last couple of weeks. At least four people, and possibly more than that, were let go. I knew three of them, the fourth I'm not sure since I never got a name. The reasons vary, but the result is the exact same-- I'm paranoid as hell and trying not to say anything that may piss anyone off.

* The new front end manager is expecting us to "sell" customers on our store credit card. I refuse. Why? Way too damn many people have had their credit frozen. Why in the hell would they even want to try getting another credit card?! In this economy, I seriously doubt anyone would even want another piece of plastic.

* Whoever has been doing the schedule has been sucking a bit less, but they still suck. Although I've been getting two days off in a row more and more, my hours are all over the place. I'll work 8:30 to 5:30 one day and 11 to 8 the next. It's tiring, to say the least.

But things are getting better. We have DairyCon coming in a little over a week. We've also got a couple of nice tax returns coming which will help with BotCon. And of course, we have BotCon coming in May.

Things can only get better.

I Could Really Use a Mental Health Day.... Or 12

It's been a while; my job has been stupid and they're splitting my days off. To say I'm exhausted is putting it mildly. I'm also a bit on the burned-out side.

I could really use a break. A break from people, a break from stupid, a break from work, a break from everything. Primus only knows if it'll come.

Last night was so stuffed full of stupid it wasn't even funny. I'll spare the details but suffice it to say I'm sick of people stealing/throwing away my stuff. It's pissing me off. So fucking stop it already.

I need a vacation. Badly.

90

It's been an interesting few days: I didn't get my last break at work on Monday, I had to play monitor duty on Tuesday and Wednesday and Prime got his pre-reg done.

Thursday was a bitch. The recession hit home. I don't want to elaborate (I can do that later; I'm still pretty freaked out) but we're okay. I'll just say that we dodged one helluva bullet.

I honestly don't know if I can hold out until May anymore. The shit just keeps piling up and my sanity just seems to fray under the strain. I really don't know if I can make it.

--Weasel, "Urge to freak.... rising..."

No Words. Seriously.

Found this little gem via Shakesville and I have to be honest, I can't do it justice. You really need to read this train wreck for yourself.

But this is what pisses me off the fucking most:

3) The fact that her parents talk about "having to do this now," as if a delusional nine-year-old cannot be told no;
(Emphasis mine)

Excuse me? But did you just call a dying girl delusional? A dying child? Delusional?! Where the fuck do you get off?! Trust me asshat, if this were your kid you'd give her whatever the flying fuck she would want. You sure as shit wouldn't call her dying wishes delusional. Yes, she wanted a fricking wedding, but so fucking what? Jesus Christ, I can't believe the amount of arrogance and idiocy I've just read.
Or to put it a better way:

Awesome, we're now concern trolling the dying wishes of a 9 year old.

Yeah, awesome job. Way to look like a total douche.

If this is "true Feminism" then fuck it. I officially jump ship.

92

It begins in earnest: the forms are up!

I just emailed Prime all the necessary info but it was a bit of a sticky situation at first. The desktop computer decided to start running slowly just as Fun Publications updated everything. Great timing there, Delta. :slams head into wall: I'm hoping everything got there on time.

Man, I've never yelled at a computer so loudly in my life.

--Weasel, "Now if my heart rate will just come down..."

95

I was bounced around from register to register today, which was annoying as hell. At first I didn't think much about it, until I took over on register 4. Cathy said that I would only be on there for a minute, then led the previous cashier away. Fifteen minutes later, the cashier came back and opened up on lane one. He didn't look too happy.

When I came back from lunch, I overheard a rather interesting conversation between the other head cashiers. "She's been pulling people in the cash office and reaming them out for no reason," said one.

"That's no way to make friends," said another.

That's when I put two and two together: Cathy's been yanking cashiers aside simply to bitch them out. It has nothing to do with their job performances; it's just Cathy being in a pissy mood.

So not only is she incompetent, she's a rampaging bitch.

I have no idea what the hell her problem is, but it's getting worse. I'm thinking I'm going to be walking on eggshells around the dumb bitch until I go on vacation. If I can make it until May with my sanity in tact, it will be a miracle.

--Weasel, "Maybe I should spike her coffee with some fucking Midol. It could only help."

96

Work is getting worse.

It seems Sean, one of my co-workers, asked for extra change today. So he pulls some cash out of his drawer and waits for the head cashier to come over. He gets his change from Cathy, who then turns around and leaves without taking what Sean owes her. As he put it, she was literally walking away as he turned around with the money in his hands.

To make matters worse, Sean spent the next few hours trying to track Cathy down and had no luck. Out of frustration, he finally flagged down another head cashier. Sean was finally able to pay off what he owed, but the other head told him that if he hadn't, he could have gotten a coaching or worse, been fired.

Sean would have been fired for Cathy's fucking idiocy.

I'm going to be completely and totally blunt here: Cathy is an utterly inept moron who lacks the basic common sense to tie her fucking shoes, let alone handle management responsibilities. She never should have been trained as a head. Hell, she could barely make it as a cashier; she'd snap under the stress. She needs to be fired or transferred to another store immediately. It scares the hell out of me that we have her trying to handle the front end because she either doesn't know what the hell she's doing or she's too busy fucking panicking over stupid bullshit.

They say that the cream of the crop floats to the top. Guess what? Shit floats as well.

--Weasel, counting the days until BotCon and sweet, sweet sanity...

99

On a whim, I went ahead and started picking through my suitcase this morning, checking to see if I had taken care of the clothes I had worn to last year's 'Con. Honestly, I couldn't remember if I had taken them out and washed them or if I had just decided I could wait until later to take care of everything. To my surprise, everything's clean and I'm actually in pretty good shape: The only thing I lack are decent shoes (which I'll get later) and socks.

I'm practically ready right now. A little bit of packing and I'm done. I could almost grab my suitcase and leave right now.

Too bad I can't.

--Weasel, "I'm California Dreamin' even as we speak."

Sending Best Wishes...

(Along with healing thoughts!) To the Culture Ghost. Be merciless and beat the living hell outta this thing.

For Prime

A musical dedication, for Prime.

Prime, you've been the light of my life and the pain in my ass for a long time. And I've loved every moment I've spent with you.

Even More Random Thoughts

It's been a while since I last updated and a lot of things have happened. So now we're doing another obligatory installment of:

Random Thoughts

* It seems that something big has happened at work; the store manager called meetings on Monday and told everybody to come. From what I understand a bunch of the job titles were changed and its going to affect some of the department managers. As to how, I really don't know. And as far as I know, it won't really affect my job but we'll see.

* Our new manager for the front end is a woman named Sammy. Here's hoping she'll be much more competent than Tom. (It wouldn't take much, believe me.)

* Saturday was a very strange day. I was on GM self-checks. I had one woman try to outright steal from us (she would only scan one item and put three in the bag) then we had someone threaten to kill himself. Yeah, it was nuts. I can't help but wonder if it was a full moon that night.

* Our weather has improved lately. We hit the 50s in places yesterday. I wish this would last.

* God, how I wish I could go to Chicago today. This is why. (I'm trying not to throw a fit over here.)

* I was able to catch the teaser trailer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen during the Super Bowl. Another trailer will appear before Friday the Thirteenth. I'll have to wait until it hits the net; I'm not paying full ticket price just to see a trailer.

* In 106 days I'll be at BotCon. I just hope I can hold out until then.

* There's been a pre-order bonus announced for Pokémon Platinum: a Giratina figurine. Supposedly you can get this from Target and Best Buy, but Serebii fails at English so badly it isn't even funny. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled, I guess.

* My store has no new Transformers. It fails on multiple levels.

* Prime's been using my laptop for a few projects, so I've been using the desktop. I've discovered that I don't like the desktop; it's way too fucking slow. God, how I love my little Alexa.

* We took advantage of Circuit City's going out of business sale on Friday. Prime grabbed quite a bit of slag, whereas I got rechargeable batteries for my camera and a lock for Alexa-One. The sad thing? I think that was the first time I had ever gone to that store.

And that does for this week! Tune in next time when I write a bunch of crap that no one really cares about. Until then, this has been...

--The Weasel, "Signing off."

Some Good News

Tom is out the door, as of the 14th of this month. He'll be heading to Green Bay. And believe me, they can have him.

--Weasel, "I hope the door hits him where Primus done split him."

How To Win Friends and Influence People... Or Not

Got a bit of a headache going right now; it wasn't the greatest day at work. One of the heads has been on the rag and that's putting it mildly. Cathy's been snapping at almost everybody lately and usually for very minor things.

She's been doing it more and more often, almost always when Tom is at the front end. We're thinking she's doing this slag to try and impress Tom.

Rumor has it that Cathy is working this position to gain management experience. If she's planning on taking a managerial position somewhere, I weep for her employees. She doesn't have the temperament to be a manager at all.

These past few weeks have more than proved it.

--Weasel, "I don't think I can take much more of this horseshit. I'm losing my mind as it is."

An Update

Was feeling better, now feel like slag. And now Prime has it.
More details later; I'm going to crash out. Again.

--Weasel, "Maybe I'll be over this shit by May. I can only hope."

I'm Alive

More or less.

I've had the cold from hell for the past freakin' week; it started up last Sunday and hasn't let go. I had to call in to work last Tuesday because I felt so damn bad. It isn't just the usual chest/head congestion either: I've had the worst sore throat of my life, which has hung on for the past week. Eating has been almost impossible and talking hasn't been fun to say the least. The only thing that's been keeping me together has been liberal doses of Tylenol cold medication and sleeping in on my days off. (I'm dead sick of sleeping until dark!) So yeah, I haven't been on the 'net worth a damn.

I'm feeling a bit better now so I'm hoping the worst of it is over. I figure if I deal with this shit now, I won't have to deal with it later in the year..... like oh say, around BotCon.

--Weasel, "Pass the Tylenol, dammit. Seems I need another hit."

Merry Christmas

And a happy go to hell.

We're clearing out all of our Cashmas crap, so people are snapping the slag up like there's no tomorrow. And I've been dealing with the usual after season sale bullshit-- wrong prices, missing UPCs, cranky idiots, you name it. But nothing could top the bullshit I dealt with today.

The woman wanted to buy two pre-lit Cashmas trees; one was already in her cart while the other was still in Lawn and Garden. She wanted someone to bring it up. "It's a white tree," she insisted. So I called back to Lawn and Garden, asking them to find a white tree.

They couldn't find it. There were no white trees back there.

When we told her, she replied, "Oh the tree is green, but the lights are white."

It was all I could do not to go House on her. Seriously.
We've had fake Cashmas trees in more colors I could count: Red, blue, black, purple, pink, green and yes, even white. And we're not talking light bulbs, we're talking foliage.

See the problem here?

I would scream, but I'm not too keen on pissing off my throat.

--Weasel, "Is it May yet?"

Like It Can't Get Any Damn Stupider....

I didn't think much of what I saw; one of the heads was wiping down our dry erase board at the podium just as I arrived. It wasn't until later that things got serious. It seems the note on the board read that all cashiers were required to smile. If we didn't we could get coached. Or worse.

We could get fired. For not smiling on the job.

It was either someone's idea of a joke or they were deadly serious about it. And I'm thinking it wasn't a joke.

The news spread like wildfire. No one was happy. Which is probably why the damn thing was erased.

This whole thing leads me to ask: Could management get fired for being stupid as fuck? Cause they seriously need it.

--Weasel, "And I was hoping to use my 'psycho' smile..."

Hotel Hopping, Mark Two

So Fun Pub announced the hotel details for BotCon on New Year's Eve.

The Wednesday through Monday block filled within two hours. We're looking at doing the hotel shuffle. Again. It's shades of 2007.

Small price to pay. Whatever it takes to get to the 'Con, I'll do it.

--Weasel "Now the wait until May.... that'll be a pain in the ass."