Playing Nice with the Other Kids...

I hated my job today and I really didn't like myself so much while I was doing it.

Our company's stock is not doing very well right now so "they" are tightening things up...the controllables. This theorectically is a good thing. One of the fixes is the hangers that we give away. We usually give out the really nice hangers that we use in the store. Previously, we had gone to "give away" hangers...thick plastic things that our customers didn't like....they wanted the good stuff. So after complaint calls (which is a no-no in Chicoland), we ditched the give away hangers...literally. Our store alone THREW OUT at least five boxes. (Do the math...we have over five hundred stores). We went back to giving away the good hangers...to the tune of (I swear I read this in an e-mail) $3.12 million. So now we are back to the ugly hangers and there will be calls AGAIN...and happiness will reign throughout the land.

We are also on a two-two-two schedule...which means that there are two people covering the floor on any given shift. Theorectically, another sound practice...except we are trained in "MAPS" (Most Amazing Personal Service)and do our best to deliver and our customers expect it. If there are five or six customers in the store and only two of us...once again do the math. There are people to attend to and counsel with, find stuff for, cashier, clean out dressing rooms, rehang the clothes and put them away, all the while giving "her" the best shopping experience she has ever had. (In between all of this fun, there are markdowns to be done and windows to be changed and whatever other stuff can be thought up to boost the bottom line). I do think someone at headquarters watched that damn "Enjoli" comnercial from the late seventies one too many times..."I can bring home the bacon...fry it up in a pan"...blahblahblah.

I value compassion and being nice, or as I refer to it...playing nice with the other kids. We should all try to that even if we haven't had our naps. Today I so felt like I just wanted to scream at people..."You don't need that! You don't even want that and you're just going to bring it back along with pants you spilled bleach on and you will call defective because they have spots on them (HAPPENED...REALLY!!!) Those pants are way too tight and your ass looks like a barn (even though you want me to tell otherwise) and some stuff you just ain't gonna find here even though you want us to so you can use (and we will) your expired 50% coupon from December 2007because you have it in your hand." I usually can deal with this on a daily basis in a fairly rational and pleasant manner....at least I hope so.

Today, not so much. We had a woman in the store carrying an armload of clothes. Each of us approached her and asked if she needed a dressing room and we were all rebuffed...sternly. She finally goes into a room and there were at least 12 other customers in the store...once again, today's theme...do the math. When she left after buying one item (cool...that's all she wanted) Mary called me over to the dressing room she had used. All three rods had at least 10 hangers with stuff on them and on the floor was a pile a foot and half high...the important point of this sentence is ON THE FLOOR. Not on the bench, ON THE FLOOR.

I felt incensed. It may be irrational. I know I work in a service industry and that is my job... to wait and serve. I truly do want people to come in our store and feel good and be happy when they leave, whether they have purchased something or not. We do our best to be respectful to our customers and of them. Why can't our customers do the same for us? It is not the majority of people who are like this and it does seem to run in streams...

This week, we in Chicoland know what it is to be salmon.