I really wanted to . . .

One Day at a Time

I really wanted to drink tonight. The desire only lasted for a few seconds. I told it to go the fuck away, reminded myself of how miserable it made things, and the desire left.

I had what can safely be described as one of my worst days ever at work (Thursday). It was one of those days where Murphy’s Law was in full force. It was not only unusually busy for a Thursday, but we were quite understaffed. It was just me and Mike all evening. I spent two hours on a phone contract. The customer(s) (they were a gang of four people) originally said they wanted 4 phones (FOUR!_WTF?) on two different accounts, so two phones (lines) on each account. So I got all four out of the case. I sat them on the desk to put in the IMEI and serial numbers one at a time. During this process we ran into a few glitches. First, they seemed to not be able to make up their mind WHAT they wanted. Next, they decided they didn’t want to do one of the accounts because the credit check require a $200 deposit per line. They finally decided on one account with two lines, two blackberry bolds, so I got started. Long story short, I had to call T-mobile. Their customer service is shitty so things moved real slow. Customers got agitated, one of the guys started teasing me (not mean really, just, looking back on it, I think he was purposefully distracting me). Meanwhile, I’m panicking because I have LITTLE to NO help in electronics, other customers need help while I’m doing the contract, damn. Between their impatient words, their joking around, and other customers needing help and having little help, I got quite flustered. I panic and get nervous easily. I really need to work on this. When I finally finished up with them two hours later and cleaned up, I realized there was a phone missing. I had sold two of the four on the desk, and put one back in the case. Where the FUCK was the fourth one? I checked the case, maybe I had put it back before I had started? No. The log book says four in stock, we only have three. Me and Mike check all around the desk, the case, the floor, even the aisles all around later when we zoned up for the night. Nothing. They stole it. And it was partly my fault because I had sat them on the desk (I thought they were getting all four and I had to put in the number one at a time). Flustered, frustrated, nervous, and focused intently on nothing but the contract, they must have swiped it. I reported the incident to my manager and our LP guy will start the investigation tomorrow. He’ll be reviewing the camera footage. I went ahead and made them aware so they wouldn’t come at me later thinking I had been hiding or covering up something. Worst case I will probably get written up. I’m worried about it but what can I do? A couple of lessons here: 1) Stay calm and AWARE no matter what kind of shit they throw at you (easier said than done), and 2) Next time you plan to sell more than one phone, keep all phones behind desk instead of ON the desk. Jeez.

This was one of many things. Larry’s going to love it when he comes in at 7AM and sees I did NOTHING with the pallet of freight in the back. Left a note explaining I couldn’t get to it and why. I guess they’ll have two things to hit me with when I come in on Saturday afternoon (off Friday).

Speaking of Murphy’s law, what got me thinking this was just the hectic nature to the day. This was not my only incident, but simply the worst one. Couldn’t get any work done. Too many customers with crazy, strange requests. Whatever happened to simply shopping, paying, and getting the hell out? What’s up with the stupid questions? You want me to open this and make sure it works before you pay money? No, can’t do. Sorry. Also, I’m not a technical trouble shooter for all your computer virus problems. Call tech support. Jeez. Oh, and as if I hadn’t had enough already, when I went to Arby’s for lunch (LATE lunch because I couldn’t go until I finished with the contract), there was this old man (probably drunk or high, the whites of his eyes were blood red) in front of me in line, and he was giving the girl behind the counter a hard time. I’ve had enough of this shit at work, I didn’t want to see it on my lunch break.

Glad I’m off tomorrow.

I wonder if I got fired, would I drink then? Hopefully not.

This happens very rarely, but it happens. And every time I just put the thought out of my head almost as fast as it came. You can’t start negotiating with the thought, because pretty soon negotiation turns into rationalization.

So, Mike went home tonight and enjoyed his three beers (he told me he had them waiting in the fridge for when he got home). And me, I didn’t drink. I won’t.

BTW, three beers wouldn’t be enough for me. Three bottles of chardonnay would have been more like it.

-AR

PS:  Because of this miserable day, I have been searching my ass off for a better job tonight.  But I’m qualified for nothing.  Yes, I’m qualified by education for some things, but not by experience, certifications, and all this other shit they want you to have.  Also, I wish I had majored in computer programming or computer engineering.  There are jobs coming out of ears, eyes, mouths, anuses, and generally every orifice you can imagine, for such jobs.  Search for engineering jobs, get like 100 hits, but 80 of them have something to do with computers, and I can’t program worth shit.  My degree is chemical, not systems, not computer, not networking, not even mechanical or electrical, but chemical engineering.  I should have done computer.  Too late now.  Where am I going to get $30,000 to go back to school to get a degree I can actually use, and one that I enjoy?

PPS:  I really don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep because of this.  4AM.  Not asleep yet.  Shit.