The End......at least for now.

My new job is working out EXTREMELY WELL. My bosses seem to be just the right balance of hands-off while still directing. One is a little too concerned about making sure I'm comfortable with every step of the learning/doing process. Perhaps I should explain to her that the way I become comfortable with something is by doing it, even if it IS uncomfortable to start with.

I've had a big hand in the hiring. Being able to interview people with resumes and education is a nice change from high school students with no job experience. I've interviewed some very nice and competent people but also some really weird ones. I'm hiring only good people--no employees whose best quality is that their bodies are warm. I'm also planning on being proactive with hiring to avoid being stuck short-handed at critical times.

I had to sign probably a half-dozen agreements: confidentiality, non-compete, non-disclosure, etc. No non-blogging agreements, HOWEVER…….the nature of the business does require a level of privacy that the old one didn't. If someone did find me out, anything I wrote could severely impact the reputation of the business, perhaps in an irreversible way. In this business, reputation and trustworthiness of the staff are paramount. Even in the short time I've worked here, the owner has been entirely too good to me to risk all the time, money, and effort that she's put into the business over the last months even before opening.

I'd like to continue writing, but I don't see any way to do so without jeopardizing the privacy of our clients. Some of the situations I've already encountered are really private and no one's business, yet I have to know in order to perform the services for our clients. I'm trusted not to reveal the intricate details and problems that led them to need our services in the first place.

While anonymizing things, changing details, etc. could possibly work to protect the identities of the clients, there's still the issue of not disclosing our practices. There are a lot of company-specific terms and abbreviations that I've had to learn, so one mis-written word would make it obvious to those within the business that there was someone among them revealing company secrets and sales techniques. Even if if was in an anonymous way, I could be potentially hurting the business/my boss/a lot of other people with my writing.

So, I guess this is goodbye. I'll continue reading blogs and occasionally commenting, but writing one.....not at this time. I've enjoyed getting to "know" everyone. Have a great holiday!

No homework for me!

I'm at a training conference. My boss gave me notes to review to "help" me with the training. Tonight's homework assignment? Her notes, nearly word for word. Guess who's going out on the (small) town tonight?

Goodbye Party

About half the employees showed up to my goodbye party......the ones who liked me and I liked them. The person hosting the party may have even *forgotten* to invite a couple of employees who should have been fired weeks ago (if Boss had any kind of backbone).

We talked, joked, ate, drank (non-alcoholic drinks only, as the party was IN the store), and generally just had fun together. It's a tradition to do a late-night party for good employees when they leave. It's also a tradition to do bad things to the cars of aforementioned employees. Guess where I parked? RIGHT IN FRONT of the store where a quick glance outside could confirm that my car was SAFE and not being filled with packing peanuts or wrapped in saran wrap or having goofy things written on the windows or being wrapped in streamers or any of the other things that have been done in the past.

Everyone behaved inside the store, too. WOW! We had fun while still being grown-up! No water balloon fights or shaving cream explosions or ice down the shirt or anything along those lines. A nice goodbye. Bittersweet, but nice. Some really creative/cute stuff was written in the card and I received several funny gifts. A hug from Duh Boy, who will be leaving as soon as he confirms another job. We had some good times together.

I can't help thinking that it's Black Friday and they're all working with neurotic customers while I'm enjoying a Th-F paid holiday from New Job. I considered going out in the madness to shop, but my cozy home is so much nicer!

More Customers

My last few days on the job were pretty smooth. However, as always, there were some customer issues.

One customer was upset because I wouldn't refund an item. The item was visibly used but the customer claimed she hadn't even taken it out of the package. Sure. I offered a store credit anyway. She didn't have a receipt and the packaging was over a year old, so I COULD NOT give a refund. That was unacceptable to the woman. Anything other than cash was "disgusting. Isn't there a manager around?" I'm a manager. "Well, then you should be able to refund my money NOW." Not without a receipt. "Who keeps receipts? That's ridiculous. I want to call someone RIGHT NOW!!" I gave her the corporate number and she wanted to use the store phone. I refused. That line is for INCOMING calls. Not letting her use my phone was "disgusting," too.

Another manager with her high maturity level threw something at an employee and it bounced off the employee and grazed a customer. Brilliant. I was next to her when she did it so the woman demanded both of our names. Great....that'll sound real good. "I'm outraged! Your employee THREW SOMETHING AT ME! It HIT ME!" What's the employee's name? "There were two girls, A and B." It just happened to be A's last day....maybe she was getting back at the customer.....let's not ever hire her again. Not that I'm planning on working for them again, but the door is/was open for that, and it's so stupid if the lady lumps me together with the immature manager.

Customers

A woman stormed up to where I was straightening a shelf and whined, "Can't you open another register?" I glanced at the front and the lines were growing so I went to the front to open the register. The woman jumped in front of a couple of people who had been waiting for longer but they weren't paying attention so I went ahead and rang her. She had only one item, which she had a coupon to get free. She failed to read the small print that said "customer is responsible for sales tax." She had NO money on her so had to return to her vehicle and hold up the line still further.

Another woman was on hold for far longer than she should have been…..it was busy, an employee was on break, the nephew's friend was AWOL, and when I finally got around to the phone call (after attending to the customers IN THE STORE first), the woman complained about the wait and then asked her question, "How much are the {mumble mumble mumble}?" The what? "The e-nun-ci-ate eve-ry syl-la-ble. NEVER MIND" {click} So, why did she stay on hold for so long, then?