Car audio part 2: Okay, long story made short -- my mother went back and bitched up a storm and it turns out they installed the speakers wrong. The fixed them and it was a totally different group there at Circuit City. I still stand by not reccomending them. Now, onto other things.
Today was quite simply hell. I have no other word to describe this lovely Thursday at Target. Let me start by saying I walked in and got lectured by Gabriel (my manager) the second I set foot in the store. He said I was late because the store was already open, but when I went to the time clock (the one piece of time that matters) it read 7:59 and I was to clock on at 8. No, I was on time, they just opened the store early. Strike one. So I hurried back behind guest service and began doing returns for guests that were standing in line. Things go smoothly for about 3 minutes and then a guest tells me that the Registry Kiosk is down. Target promotes the "Club Wedd" and "Lulaby Club" gift registries, which are nothing more than two over-glorified computers with a touch screen. So anyway, in less than 5 minutes, both of the archaic computers are down. I finish off the returns line, and go over there to look at the problem. I asked Gabriel and he said someone was suppose to call Client Support and put in a trouble ticket so that someone would come in to fix it. Having doubts in my mind, I picked up the phone and called. It was no surprise that nobody had ever called. So I spent the next hour and a half helping with returns and fixing the printers. Strikes two and three. I got one of them online, and locked the other one down so that it couldn't be used, and went back to doing returns. By then, Kathy had come back to help with the growing line behind Guest Service, and I was rather thankful for the help.
And that was when the fire alarm went off. Unknown to any of the team members, the maintenance guy was working on the fire alarms and st them off. Even LODs didn't know what to do. I am not sure why even now, but I took control, and spoke out to the guests at the front lanes, urging them to leave their merchandise and exit the store. I then moved over to the food court and helped direct people to the nearest exit. Saundra was just standing around confused, and she was the Food Avenue LOD (leader on duty) and so I told her to go back to the fitting room and check to make sure there were no guests back there. Thankfully there were no tramplings or injuries, so it was realtively easy to get everyone out of the store safely. We then stayed all outside, and we could hear the sickening click of the "IN" doors being locked. It took what seemed like forever, and finally, the doors reopened with the all clear signal. We let the guests back into the store, and things somewhat resumed. I asked what happened, and it turns out that although the alarm was "silenced" it went off anyway. Well, thanks for telling us that we should expect this! BIG strike four.
Bear in mind this is only about 10:15 in the morning, and I still have another 6 hours ahead of me! As you can see, this was indeed a day where something up above (God?) wanted to humor itself at my expense. Oh, and did I mention that I got lectured by Lorrie (another LOD) for not overheading the "Code Red" like we do when we have a fire? She spent about 5 minutes telling me how important it is to get the message out to the entire team. I sat there and waited until she finished her large speech with "the saftey of our team members is more important than anything else." ... It was then that I reminded her that the overhead microphone was back in the fitting room and the Service Desk did not have one anymore. I think Lorrie was silent for about 3 good minutes or so, followed by an "oh" and then she left. On a closing note regarding the fire alarm, the fire department never came. Go figure- strike five.
For the next little bit, things were pretty smooth. I mean, Jill (a Cashier Team Leader) had to go on break, so she gave me the keys and told me to watch the lanes. Simple ehough really, I had done it several times before. Stuff wouldn't stop breaking though. 3 registers went down and I had to move cashiers to a new lane, Judy Carthauser (price change team leader) came up and yelled at me for doing certain returns. That is, until I explained that the guest had a reciept and so I couldn't deny them the return, the registries would not stay working because they seemed to feel the need to crash every other time they printed, and I had to do all the Cashier Team Leader paperwork as well. IN ADDITION TO WATCHING THE FRONT LANES. I see now why they always have to Cashier Team Leaders (CTLs) during the middle hours of the day...it is just so busy! But the other CTL Sharron was in the office with Gabe getting "statused" which is a fancy word for lectured about cashiers on her team who made errors. So where was someone when I needed an LOD? Where was a CTL when I wanted to have my work checked? sigh Strike six.
And then the afternoon hit and we got busy. Not just busy, but I mean swarmed. Lines went out to the clothing department (20+ feet) and I had just passed the keys back to Jill and hopped on a register. Gabe comes by, turns off my light, and says he needs to talk to me. With a hidden sigh, I finish that transaction and turn my register over to Loraine so I can go talk to my LOD. Once we get in the office, Gabe wanted to know why my cashier number (#157X) was showing up on administrative things. I explained that Jill, Sharron, Allison, and Rosemary often have me do things for them so that they don't have to leave the front lanes and can focus where they need to most, on Guest Service. Gabe just ignored that and told me how CTL keys are for CTLs only and how I am not supposed to have them checked out. I told Gabe that I didn't check them out, that I was given them by Jill under the condition I return them when she comes back from lunch. Gabe then started lecturing about responsibility and how Level 1's shouldn't need to do the types of things I was doing. I waited for quite some time...I'd say about 30 minutes before I was finally done speaking. I then asked him calmly, "Is there an error in any of the paperwork?" "No, there isn't, but" he started. "Then do you want me to just let the front lanes be unwatched when you are in the office?" "No, that isn't what I meant Jakob. It's just that we haven't trained you and so if you were to make a mistake, then you would get in trouble." "Gabe, if I made a mistake, and was trained, wouldn't I still get in trouble? Rose and Allison have gone over a lot of the procedures, and I always have them check my work, at least until I am comfortable doing it without asking them." What followed was what I had hoped would be a triumphant silence, instead, Gabe decided to crush that with one small sentence. "Well then, I guess I am going to have to write you up for this." A write up! 1/3 of the way to being FIRED?! For doing something I was told to do?! It was hopeless though, he had me sign, and that was that. When I came from the office, I did my best to hide my reaction. Randi saw through it though, and she asked what happend. I simply said I was written up, and she called Sharron over and made me explain. Next thing I know, Jill is there and I am explaining again, and then Jill left to go talk with Heather, the Store Team Leader, the head honcho, the boss of bosses, the being with the absolute and undisputed and unrivaled say of what happens in this store. Gabe appologised to me later that day, but the damage had been done. Strike seven and strike eight...almost anything involving Gabe is two strikes. Especially this. A WRITE UP?!?!?!
Now, this places us to about 3pm, and I have an hour and a half left. The returns were the typical lot, very few required a CTL to come over and set them straight. For the most part, everything was fine. And then I went to clock off, and I was stopped by...you guessed it, Gabe. The lecture: overtime. Apparently, I had 15 minutes of OT on Sunday. Funny... I neevr had any OT that day. It turns out, accoring to my punches, that I acquired 8 minutes of OT for travel to and from the time clock, which rounds to the next quarter hour. sigh He said I wasn't in trouble but to "be more careful" Right...and leave early? That would bode well with him, either way I would get lectured. Strike eight again, in case the first strike eight wasn't enough.
So I clocked off and came home and started writing this entry. Before I even got a paragraph done, I decided to call Sarah. Call, she answers, and says she has to keep the line clear. I tell her okay, and then she tells me we can't get together tonight or tomorrow. The reason? A friend of her father, his twelve year old son committed suicide. Just like that, no warnings, no anything. I told Sarah to call no matter what, and that I could care less if it was 3am in the morning, just to call my cell phone and I will reply on the spot. We talked for a minute, and that was it. Whimper and strike nine.
That's nine strikes or three outs and that retires the side. Anyone have a "reset" button for today?
In response to "Why do I work here again?":