I "volunteer"
You guys. It finally happened. Something I have successfully avoided at my job for literally seventeen Thanksgivings. For the first time ever, I'll be working at a store the two days before Thanksgiving.
And, I would just like to say: uuuuuuUUUUUGGGHGGGGHHHHH.
Okay, seriously, let's get real. I'm sure it will be fine. In the early years, I lived in moderate terror of being forced to do this. Had my job description in 2002 included "occasional work in stores," I literally would never even have applied. And there actually were years when emails were sent out saying that they want every person who works at the office to work at least one shift helping out at stores during the very busy Thanksgiving Week, and I still managed to get out of it. Those emails only went out a few years, maybe a decade ago, and the push for "full office compliance" tapered off.
And, it's not exactly happening this year either. But, there is a key difference this year from previous years: I technically have a new boss. Even though my working relationship with Scott (the Grocery Merchandiser) and even Noah ("Associate Center Store Merchandiser") remains unchanged, as of earlier this year, instead of Scott, it is Eric (Pricing Manager) who approves my time sheet every pay period, and will be doing my evaluations going forward. Scott has never once pressured me into working at a store. But, this morning it was Eric who forwarded me the email Cate had sent out, redoubling requests already sent out by Nancy in HR, asking for help from office staff, complete with link to an Excel sign-up sheet. Eric wrote, Is there a store you’re familiar with helping out at? Could you take a look at the sheet and pick some times that work for you?
Well, fuck.
I wrote back asking, "Is this a requirement now?" but adding that although I had never worked at a store before, I went ahead and signed up for the 12-4 shifts at Columbia City on Tuesday 11/26 and Wednesday 11/27. I prefer not to do full shifts (I mean, shit, I prefer not to do any shift—I did not write that to him) because of POS needs that tend to come up those days at the office. Also, Columbia City seemed to have the most openings among the only four stores in Seattle proper that it was even remotely reasonable for me to go to, given that I don't have a car (the others being Greenlake Village, Fremont, and Ballard—oh wait, I guess Greenlake Aurora could have worked too; make that five). I actually didn't even realize until after I signed up that among all the stores, Columbia City is for sure the easiest for me to get to from the office on transit; I only need Rapid Ride from here to downtown and then transfer to Light Rail—which I can then take straight home to Capitol Hill at the end of the shift.
Actually, and I just realized this just now: Ballard, which literally opened just yesterday, would be easiest for me to bus to from work: the same Rapid Ride D bus, goes straight there—just, in the opposite direction. I still find Columbia City preferable because getting home from Ballard would take nearly an hour on two buses whereas I can catch Light Rail straight from Columbia City to Capitol Hill in about twenty minutes, at most forty if you add walking to and from the Light Rail stops on both ends. Columbia City remains the easiest option when averaging out the commute both there and back.
Anyway. Eric replied, Not a requirement. If you’re up for it, the stores could use our help. He then said he agreed that signing up for a full day would cut into POS assistance. So, there you have it. The end of an era, the start of a new one. "Not a requirement," but kind of in the same way a "suggested donation" is not the price of entry at Fremont Outdoor Cinema. I could still have gotten out of it, but only by acting like a big baby.
As I also noted to him, though, I kind of always knew this day would come eventually. And the idea that I would be terrible facing the public was far truer in 2002 than it is today. I'm not quite as unfriendly as I used to be. In all likelihood, I'll find it a nice change of pace and actually have some fun.
Besides, by next year we'll have a downtown store at which I'll have no real excuses left to avoid helping out at. So, from next year on, when these sign-up sheets get sent out, I'll just sign up for shifts there right quick. That location will be half as far from home as the office is, and I regularly walk home from the office; it's also all of two Light Rail stops from Capitol Hill station. I even already told Scott a couple weeks ago, after he asked if I might be able to help out there for other reasons every once in a while since I live so close, "I suppose." So, to a degree, I already committed to starting to help out at a store on occasion just earlier this year.
I sure do hope the Rainier Square location actually is open by next Thanksgiving. I really am genuinely excited about that store, in a way I never have been about any other opening. Well, the announcement of Madison Valley came close, as that will also be only barely a mile away from home—only in the opposite direction, and also, God knows when the fuck that store will actually open; its originally announced opening date was 2017. Now that the downtown store is set to come far more quickly, Madison Valley dropped off my radar almost completely. The downtown store will literally be all of two blocks out of the way of my normal commute. (It will focus way more than other stores on fresh made foods and perishables for the downtown crowd, however, which means the "center store" shelves my shopping tends to focus on will be much smaller there, and that makes it unlikely it will become my primary shopping store. It will be an easy location for occasional stop-ins that I never can do at all the other stores that are much too far away for quick stop-bys, though.)
Oh. One final note about this. I said I never worked at a store, and that's not entirely true. It is true that I have avoided the added staffing requests at Thanksgiving every year, but I did once work a POS shift, literally one time ever, in 2004. This had been suggested to me as an exercise in learning what POS do and how the many errors I was making at the office affects their jobs. I never felt like I got a huge amount of insight regarding that specifically, but I did still find it illuminating, as I stated in that old LiveJournal entry. That was at the Fremont store, which makes it the single store I ever worked at. It wasn't even quite a full shift, although since I never say in that post that I arrived any later than I normally began work every day, leaving at 2:30 must have meant I worked there about six hours or so. And I still went back to the office afterward, which I won't do when my shifts at Columbia City end at 4:00. Also, I certainly won't be working a POS shift in this case, so it'll still be work I have never done, even if it's only bagging, which is likely what they'll have me doing.
What about last night, then? Another evening at home, this time alone—Shobhit had a rare full day off on Tuesday, and his original schedule had him off work mid-afternoon yesterday, but then that shift was switched to 1:15 - 9:45. That was now the first of four days in a row in which he gets off work at 9:45, and even on Sunday he works until 8:15. I won't be seeing a lot of him for the next week or so.
I did buy a ticket to see The Irishman at Cinerama on Friday, and that's a three-and-a-half-hour movie starting at 8:00. Shobhit offered to come pick me up when it's over, at 11:30 at the earliest. It's going to be available on Netflix shortly after, but it's being released theatrically to qualify for Oscars, and also knowing that Martin Scorsese would still prefer audiences see it in theaters, I want to have the theatrical experience. I see now it will also play at the Crest in North Seattle for far less cost. But, the Cinerama is far closer to home, is the best movie screen in town, and there's another key advantage it has over other movie theatres, especially considering its massive length: there is no question, at all, that I will need to use the bathroom. Probably at least twice. And, at Cinerama, they play the sound from the movie that's playing into the bathroom, and that way I won't miss any important dialogue.
Anyway, back to last night. I made tomato soup, had leftover bread from the night before with it with some cheese added to it, and watched the last four episodes of the front-half eight episodes of season six of BoJack Horseman. Now I wait for the final eight episodes of the series to be released early next year. After that, I retired to the bedroom to work on my annual "2019 in Ten Minutes" video in iMovie. I worked on that for a little over an hour and actually felt like I got a lot done. There is much left to do on it, but I'm probably still way further along on it than I usually am at this point in the year. It's always nice to get ahead!
[posted 12:31 pm]