Feeling Awesome

 I know I’ve been going on this serious fitness kick for the past couple of weeks, but I cannot say it enough. Getting Trainer Tim in my corner has really changed and improved my whole outlook on life right now. I love my WODs. (Work Out Daily.) I love getting out of work and pushing as hard as I can as fast as I can. And I love the feeling of doing it all and being ready for MORE. Last week I was winded and feeling like I was done after I got my warm-ups done. Now I can pump out my warm-ups like its nobody’s business and launch right into my workout without (hardly) skipping a beat. I love that feeling of improvement. 

Its that feeling of improvement that I’m holding on to and hoisting up over my head. Its that feeling of, "I can DO this, BRING IT." Its that feeling combined with "I’m going to climb that mountain. I’m going to make it!" 

I want to just roll in this feeling of accomplishment. I want to revel in it, knowing that Trainer Tim is going to kick my ass on Monday and push me to my limit again. And it is going to be awesome. 

 

And now, A Story: 

 

So, fitness aside, regular work is kind of craptastic right now. We’re training this New Guy. We’re going to call him Swizzle Stick. (What?) And Swizzle Stick is…. Well. I don’t like him, to put it lightly. The first two weeks, I liked him just fine. Bonnie wanted him to be trained right, so she had him training only with her and myself. (Don’t I feel all warm and special for being picked for such a privilege?) And the first two weeks, he was great. He listened (for the most part) He picked up on things I told him (or so I thought) He wasn’t all serious business (except about things that completely don’t matter.) He was laid back and I was pretty okay with working with him. 

Until we had a One Day Sale.

For the most part, since he started training in our store, it had been slow for business. It was not a busy week by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore, based on how much he cared about seeing cashiers standing around not doing anything after literally all of the busy work has been done, I assumed he would be ready to step up when it got busy. He came from a front end position from another grocery store. He laid claims to knowing our system and how it worked, because they used the same one at his last store. It wasn’t his first time on a register. He lead me to believe that he could handle things. 

How much more mistaken could I have been?

Bonnie had a short shift, Swizzle Stick decided to stay on later and help out the front end because we were (in his words) ‘grossly understaffed.’ Swizzle Stick was in the courtesy booth, I was on register one. I was basically just a cashier that day, who happened to be able to fix whatever problem Swizzle Stick got himself into. NOW. Swizzle Stick, in his infinite wisdom on how to run a front end, decided that he would be best put to use by walking up and down the registers telling the cashiers, "You guys got this! Let’s get these customers outta here! You guys got this!" (Just for full effect, Swizzle Stick is a balding middle aged out of shape white guy with an Italian background, and a New York accent. Who was trying to sound like he was a young black man from ‘da hood.’ Let this image sink in. Cherish it.) 

Sooooo… To put it plainly. This guy basically barked at us to ring faster, while he watched. 

BASICALLY. I gave him barely concealed looks of disdain every time he made the implication that I could be ringing faster, and sent people over to the courtesy booth to be rung out. Frequently. Because there was no way that was going to fly. You have a register. Take some people yourself. Don’t sit there and tell me to ring faster when you aren’t even doing anything. 

After Bonnie had left, cashiers were starting to send in pick-ups to be done. (Taking excess money out of their drawers, putting it into a cash bag, and dropping it in the slot of the office door for the CSM to take care of. CSM for that day = Swizzle Stick.) Instead of…I don’t know- going into the office and doing these pick-ups, he kept telling me that I had to take care of them. 

I’m sorry Swizzle Stick. I am on a register right now. I have ten people in my line. There are at least three people in my line who are going to tear me a new one because we ran out of the chicken that was part of the One Day Sale, and at least one of them looks like they will make an attempt on my life because I can’t give her a raincheck for that item. You are at the desk. You have the keys to the office. You are the cash office person today! Here is a suggestion: Why don’t you go in there do the fucking pick-ups? This is what you are training for, you asshole! Do your fraking job! 

This guy. This person. He is completely useless. There are no words. 

Furthermore. I came into work on Monday morning a little hungover. (Oi. Tequila.) Basically meaning I was cranky for about twenty minutes while I got the first few things done that needed to be done before the doors to the store opened. I ate a yogurt, drank some water, and I was right as rain again. Apparently, him asking me if I was okay first thing in the morning, and me saying, "Yeah, just a little hungover, NBD," gave him the permission he needed to go to the Sexual Harassment course we all needed to take, and tell ALL of the higher-ups that I had come into work Monday morning ‘too hungover to function.’ 

THAT HAPPENED.

I had four people tell me on Wednesday that this Swizzle Stick ran his mouth off about me to the higher-ups. And I don’t just mean like… our store manager. I mean the District Manager. The Head of Security. The Front End Supervisor for ALL THE STORES. I was absolutely mortified that he told them that. 

I was livid. 

And on top of that, he is also telling pretty much all of the cashiers that when he gets transferred to our store (we’re training him to replace the CSM retiring in another store) there are ‘changes that are going to be made‘. So… he’s basically telling everyone that he is taking Bonnie’s job, and we should be expecting people to be fired when he stages his hostile take over. (With the tone that he used, and the way that he said it, I have no doubt that when he said ‘changes would be made,’ he meant that he would be letting people go. No doubt in my mind.)

Swizzle Stick is an arrogant SOB and I really, really do not like him. I am at that point where I am afraid to look at him because I’m pretty sure all anyone is going to see in my face will be raw disdain. And then there will be no avoiding it. Something will come out of my mouth that I will regret. Because while I am training him, I am also training him to be in a position superior to my own position. And there will be nothing left to do but wish the words back in mouth as I am collecting my last paycheck. 

And it irritates me further to know that we’v

e been training him for almost four weeks now. Four weeks. Four. Weeks. And he still cannot make it through the morning paperwork and the deposit without someone there to hold his hand. Four weeks. Want to know how much training I got for when I was training for the office? Three days. Three days. In three days I learned more than what he has learned in three weeks. I DON’T UNDERSTAND. How can you claim to have come from the SAME position from another chain store, with the SAME system, with the SAME everything, and NOT pick up on this in four weeks time? Explain this to me. Because I would really, really, really like to know. 

All you have to do is learn our procedure. If its the SAME SYSTEM you worked with previously, WHY IS THIS TAKING SO FRAKING LONG? 

Words. They fail me now. 

Luckily. Swizzle Stick will be leaving our store for two more weeks of training in another store. Two more days. Two more days, and I won’t have to worry about my primary source of income being in jeopardy because of my mouth and propensity to snark uncontrollably when I don’t like or respect people. 

THE END

Did you enjoy that story? I’ve been keeping that one in for a while. I feel better getting it out. 🙂

Shower, knitting, leftovers for dinner, and ‘The New Guy’ on Netflix. 

Sounds like a good evening. 

ALW