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Posted by Doomsday Forte - 25-12-08 22:22 - 19 comments - Read - Edit
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 | What can I do with an iPod Touch?
Unsure about keeping it
| Well, I ended up with a 16GB iPod Touch as a present this morning. Apart from the shock..I'm left wondering for what exactly I can use it for.
Mind you, I already have an iPod. 30GB Video series, that I was actually considering selling because I got fed up with how you can only put music onto it with iTunes, and I RockBox'ed it and haven't been happier. Now, I've checked and you can't RockBox the Touch so its use is greatly diminished in my eyes. What I really want to know is, are there any redeeming features I may be overlooking that would warrant me keeping it? Of course, music and all are out of the picture unless Apple magically decided that you can have music on the drive and it will pick up on it, but haw, I suppose not. I don't see myself using it for pictures or video, and I don't see much use out of the WiFi aspects, even the Maps thing (unless it truly works "anywhere" which I doubt).
Thanks in advance. |
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Read 943 times - last 19 by comment |
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Posted by Doomsday Forte - 28-07-08 06:46 - 4 comments - Read - Edit
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| | My Life as a Shopper (Jul 28 2008)
Gasp!
| You know, I heard about the clearance at Toys 'R Us and I decided, what the hell, let's go see if it's in-store. It was, for games too. And to my surprise, I found the game I came there to get, Zack and Wiki. I figured, I've heard good things about it, so what was the harm in $10? I decided to look around a bit more, and I found Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria for $19.99. Remembering that I hadn't physically seen it that low ever, and that it was now impossible to find even in the local Gamestops, I decided to pick it up too. $30 for two new-condition games that I at least had interest in certainly wasn't bad either. That and VP2 was the last copy they had from what I could see, so I easily justified my purchase.
I get to the register, and while the guy is ringing up my games, I pull out two $20s from my wallet in preparation for the purchase as I only had three of them on me.
"That'll be $17.xx."
Not wanting to call out this obvious error, I pay with one $20 and walk out with the games in-hand. I check the receipt and apparently both games were like $7.88. A bit of a surprise since both games were marked higher than what I expected to pay, but especially so for VP2 since it wasn't even in the bargain bin or had anything to show it was clearanced. And I got 20% off of both games' clearance price of $9.98 or whatever. Hot damn.
So, I think I'm going to call the store tomorrow and ask if they have any more secret deals like that. =P And yeah, I noticed they had a price checker thing in the store, but I couldn't get it to scan the barcode due to the plastic case they put on all of the games, so I wasn't able to spoil the surprise for myself so to speak. |
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Posted by Doomsday Forte - 19-06-08 13:54 - 6 comments - Read - Edit
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| | My Life as a Cashier (Jun 19 2008)
End the Oppression™.
| I was going to post here the other day about how I wasn't going to quit despite my previous posts, but that drastically changed as of today. So currently, I'm unemployed, having quit my job this morning at around 4:30am, though it didn't go into effect until maybe three hours later.
So here's what happened.
There's a CSM I work with who treats me and the other cashiers like trash. I mean, the kind of boss you'd rather not work for, the kind of guy you'd rather slug and be done with. He would never ask you to do something, he would order you. I had recently taken to referring to him as Captain or whatnot, a militaristic reference given how he runs his ship. Night before last, I found out that he doesn't like me either, therefore I made it my mission to be as big of a thorn in his ass as humanly possible. I unfortunately let that slip tonight, if somewhat.
So I'm helping the cashier on 2 with her bags since she had a customer, and I was going to take the trash so I needed the cardboard boxes anyway. So that CSM comes up to me, wonders what I'm doing. I explain that I thought it'd be nice to help out, and he tells me that I have my job to do and she has hers, therefore I'm out of line. I react badly, since what the fuck am I hurting? Here I am helping this older woman out of the goodness of my heart and I'm getting chewed out for it? So I'm all "okay, let me finish here and I'll get to work." No. That's not good enough, I have to go and do it NOW. And then the best part. He doesn't say anything and he keeps looking at me. Staring, maintaining eye contact.
"You can stop with the eye contact now."
"The eye contact is--*he looks away*"
"Thank you."
I then leave to go take out the trash as I had been previously ordered, my heart pounding furiously in my chest, a rush of adrenaline sweeping through my system. Some time passes.
I get called over for a little meeting with the manager for the night, and of course Mr. CSM is there too. I refer to him as though he isn't there, and I explain myself, end of story go back to work, right? Well, not quite. I slipped up here so this escalated.
Claims are things that we cannot put back on the shelf for whatever reason, be it opened, stolen, or in need of inspection/etc. Considering CSM told me all of my duties as I was helping the cashier on 2 and then had the standoff with him, my memory didn't work out so well. I was supposed to have zoned Aisle 6 and then took out Claims, but I took Claims first. When I came back, we had yet another talk with CSM and manager, with the other CSM who's actually nice there too. So it's determined that I am intentionally acting out of line by doing things in the improper order, so I was to be written up. And there's where I drew the red line.
"By the end of this shift tonight, I will not come back here to work."
Manager talked with me some more and I left to do the rest of my work. Word spreads fast though, already people that weren't nearby were coming up to me about it, and giving me support too, which was very reassuring. I even talked with the manager again one-on-one and explained myself, and she said that I can actually continue to come in, just that I will have to be disciplined or moved to another area or whatever, but I was going to quit by the end of this month since I need to go on this trip and I hadn't had my time off approved, so as to not be fired...yeah.
Rest of the night goes rather seamlessly. Lots of protesting on the part of...well, everyone on the front end that wasn't the CSM, which was further bolstering.  ; And granted, I feel bad about this since they actually liked me and I probably was what kept them going with Chuckles at the helm, but I currently have something in the works now that I hope is going to effect some change. I talked with the manager of the store after my shift, and explained the above, and stated my views and everything: I filed a formal complaint against him. I made damn sure to let her know that that kind of behavior doesn't fly, especially with me. You don't get good results from people who are depressed and come to hate their jobs. And, no one could come forward on the front end because they were scared of retaliation. Not in the type of losing their jobs (which I doubt Mr. CSM had the power to do), but he could easily make their lives even more miserable and that hurts everyone. And, people have to put up with it because they're effectively "stuck" there, as they have to work there or be on the streets. I mean, they have to have a job, Wal-Mart has hired them and are paying, so what's a lot of bullshit? If you were doing all you can to make ends meet, you'd overlook some things if it ensured that your income was secure. You would have to take it in that case; you couldn't leave since it'd be difficult to find work (especially if you had put in many years of work there), and doing anything to make yourself a target is just suicide.
When it comes to someone like me who willingly applied for a job for some extra money, I apparently exist outside of this scope, therefore I have nothing to lose now that I don't have a job. And, I explained this to the store manager too, I didn't come forward earlier because I didn't need another black mark on my resume after what happened at my previous job, so like everyone else, my job security was my priority, but seeing how my resume is relatively safe, I'm free to act out as the "people's voice" in a way, and I have inspired others to come forward too, so hopefully my sacrifice of sorts will do some good. The store, that shift especially, needs it and badly.
Granted, Wal-Mart does have a common image of treating its employees like trash, but it's people like him who perpetrate it which trickles down to the cashiers and stuff which then is seen by the public, hence said image. There ARE good bosses, even CSMs there, but they are regrettably too few and far between. Hell, the CSM I do like is doing and has done a kickass job thus far. She's never ridden me about anything and she's someone I can actually look to as not someone I should follow due to power, but should respect. And I do. Given the bosses and even people with seniority I've dealt with, she ranks the best.
I told the store manager, when she asked me what should be done, that he should be humbled. Firing him might be good for all of us, but with someone as big of an ego as he has, he should be bumped down to cashier or even people greeter (seeing how our people greeter is the one he's the worst to). Firing would be too easy, but I want him to suffer for his actions. And I'm not going to stop until he's put in his place or he's clinging to life at my hands. I'll go as high as the president of the company if I have to.
End the Oppression™.
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Posted by Doomsday Forte - 16-06-08 13:20 - 7 comments - Read - Edit
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| | My Life as a Cashier (Jun 16 2008)
Zoning Training XVIII
| This is the way we zone the lanes
Zone the lanes
Zone the lanes
This is the way we zone the lanes
So early in the morning.
All right, so. I'm going to teach you how to zone the register lanes so you can understand what it is that I'm bitching about this time.
So you have merchandise on the shelves and other nearby locales at the register, yes? This merchandise is the basis of zoning, where you actually take the merchandise and move it to the front of the shelf, making sure the front of the packaging if possible matches flush with the edge of the shelf. This is one of my many job responsibilities as a third shift cashier at Wal-Mart. And depending on which register I work, I can have between seven to nine different lanes to zone. If I happen to work service desk, I have zero to zone, but that's another page and a half of complaints for another day.
So, my CSM (direct superior) comes to me and says that my zoning is once again looking pretty bad. Mind you, the last time she did this, I actually snapped at her since she had taken the trouble of telling me this two times before that one time, making this number four. I snapped last time because she walked me all the way over to the lane, and said "What's wrong with this?" "It's because I've had my hands on everything, isn't that right?" This time though, I managed to partially keep my cool, maybe because my outburst last time came as such a shock. I don't know. Anyway, so she goes to a lane with me and zones it the way she'd expect in terms of quality. Okay, so this is the first thing. When I go to zone, they lanes are usually pretty bad from the hours of people going through before I get there. When I leave, they're a lot better than when I left. Granted, they're not absolutely perfect, but at least stuff isn't lying everywhere and everything looks trashy. Apparently this is all wrong, it HAS to be perfect, nitpickingly so. Which brings me to the second problem I have with all of this. It takes as much as one single customer, not even one who gets checked out at that register, to ruin this glass house of perfection. Day shifters unfortunately are too busy *cough* to go and rezone, so the only hands that touch the merchandise there are usually third-shifters like me. Meaning, we have about 16 hours worth of people or other abuse between each real zoning. It isn't always like this, but...oh yes, it does get bad.
So, here's a little tidbit of my personality for you so that you further understand why I have fury at this moment. I hate having other people waste my time. Best example, a lot of you are in/went to school, yes? How did you feel when you got back a paper or a test and it had a big fat zero on it? Especially if you actually tried hard. For me, that downright pisses me off. And here's why: I spend X amount of time doing task Y for result Z. Like...oh yes, three hours for a Chemistry lab and to do the lab report so I can continue passing the class. There had been a couple of times where I get the lab report back with a big zero on it, despite work shown and mostly correct math. Why? Bad handwriting. Teacher didn't even bother having me attempt to translate or anything. Instead, I wasted about three hours of my time when I essentially could've skipped that day to do obviously better things. No, I did try to make my writing better, but it just wasn't good enough for the teacher. So, I ended up dropping the course so as to not get a failing grade, meaning I'd have to retake the class anyway (as I was already to begin with, but I actually GOT points on those previous labs), meaning even further wasted time.
Here's the correlation between that and my current situation. Being told that "it doesn't even looked like you zoned" is a slap to the face to me. That's exactly like getting a zero on that paper or whatever you actually worked on. I actually told her as such, that I don't dick around and just pretend to zone, I do my fucking work and that's final. Yeah, so I played around with a basketball today and was playing with the fan too, want me to pay you back for the $0.25 of company time I apparently wasted? I didn't say that part though. =P That's a keeper for later. So I went back and zoned, didn't say a word after that. Built and built my ire and bile though. Knowing that I could've left the lanes as shitty as they were when I came in and have gotten the same result is just gravy.
Oh yeah, I forgot the best part. Apparently, if the CSMs or a manager has a problem with my zoning again from now on, I'm going to be written up for it. Written up. For doing my job (not well enough)?! Hahaha, yeah. I mean, Jesus Christ I'm actually trying here, and all I have to show for it is a number of lectures and a threat of something that's going to go on my permanent record? Thanks a lot, really, that's just swell of you all. It's really too bad that I'm going to be quitting anytime between tomorrow and the end of July. If they so much as try to reign me in, I'm pulling off my badge and walking out of there. I about put my hand up there today to rip it off, but I somehow managed not to.
I currently have requested time off from the end of June through the 5th of July as my parents are off work that week and we're currently going to California to visit my sister since she hasn't been home since Christmas, and August before that. I want to say it's been about two weeks now since I've requested for the time off, yet I'm still shown as my requests being "new" meaning no one has even looked at them yet. And seeing how I leave in exactly two weeks, I don't really have much choice here seeing how I have to go on this flight. Well, I mean, I could not go at the expense of the room and flight and the fact that I wouldn't see my sister again for who knows how long, but...nah. So, if they decide not to let me go on the trip, I'm going to quit and just not come back, which will then benefit me in two ways: Firstly, no more work and I can enjoy the last summer of my life for one more month, and secondly quitting looks infinitely better on a resume than being fired, and I already have one of those just destroying it.
I haven't touched on how badly the two elderly people I work with are treated, but it's enough to make me loathe the management even more than I had to begin with. Why, the people greeter even helped out on the near register for chores and stuff, which is admittedly a big help, but now she's forced to be in a corner by the door to watch for people leaving, despite the fact that I can apparently easily do the very same thing from a few lanes down when she's not there. Funny. And, she's already gotten in trouble for talking to me while I'm working despite the fact that I can easily do two things at once. Wait, yes, I just rubbed my stomach and patted my head at the same time, thus proving my point. The other is a cashier and she takes to the work even worse than I do. Doesn't help that she might have cancer (and is withholding this information because the management will make her take a leave of absence until who knows when, which means the front end is going to be understaffed and she'll be getting zero pay) and she's said she's been to the emergency room more times since she's started working here than she has in her entire life before then. Of course, standing for around eight hours a night for five to ten nights in a row doesn't do any body good. What I don't understand is that a lower-class supermarket just down the road has their cashiers sitting at the registers, yet we're the ones that have to stand (and oh may the mercy of God be upon you if they catch you sitting!)?
No wonder employee morale is so low on the front end. |
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Posted by Doomsday Forte - 27-05-08 23:55 - 20 comments - Read - Edit
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| | I hate my job.
Or, My Life as a Cashier
| May 6th, 2008: Accepted a behest to return to Wal-Mart for work.
...
May 26th, 2008
10PM: Started shift in good spirits, immediately put on register to cover for someone leaving.
11PM: Started to notice the heat/humidity, water reserves began to drain.
11:30PM: Took first break, rested for 15 minutes.
1AM: Went to lunch.
1AM: Heard about the additions to work for cashiers from co-workers, morale dropped severely.
2AM: Put to work in the grocery section zoning the aisles.
6AM: Returned to the front of the store, and finding no register to run, goes to the Clearance section to "zone" and waste time. Takes second break due to no one else giving it out.
7AM: Returned home wearily, after cutting out of work five minutes early.
Okay, so how often do people seriously want to quit their work after about six months of not being there? I'm sure it's not a whole lot, since people usually take time to adjust, but last night just so hardcore pissed me off. Oh yeah, I work third shift (by choice) so I'm obviously crazy too.
It was fine until they sent me to lunch early (since I'm used to going at 2am since that's about middle for me in terms of my schedule) and it was around then that I heard about the additional responsibilities of the cashiers, and it wasn't good news. It's bad enough that we do more than ring up stuff, but enough is enough. Let's see, this is what the list was before they added a few more things:
Ring stuff up when you have customers.
Wipe down the registers and the conveyor belt.
Take out the trash from each register.
Put new bags on each register.
Zone the lanes (zoning is where you pull the merchandise to the front of the shelf, making it all flush with the edge).
Now, we have...
Zone the soda and stuff in the coolers.
Separate the plastic clothes hangers and bag them separately from the trash.
Zone the softlines (area a small distance away from the registers, the clothes and stuff like that).
Mark bills larger than $20 because we got a fake $20 once and it's not like the markers even work to begin with.
Keep signed in from midnight to 2, then from 5-7 as the higher-ups don't think cashiers are doing anything.
Yeah. Mind you, I have to do all of this stuff on top of having customers, and depending on which register I work, I could either have an easy or hard time of doing it all, minus the new stuff so now I don't know what to expect. I'm not sure how badly chewed out I can be for not getting it done, but knowing some of my superiors...Oh yeah, the best part about that is that nepotism really comes into play here. Eat out of the manager's hand and you're set for life. Don't, and you're on my side. =P
And there's one of the Customer Service Managers (CSM) that was a co-worker of mine as little as a year ago. He was a cashier too and when I came back for Christmas, he was a CSM. And a rat bastard of one too. The kind that would constantly keep you busy without any downtime at all. I hear he's a pretty shitty CSM too so if he doesn't lose his job before I absolutely snap, I'll Falcon Punch him in the face as hard as I can. He deserves that much if for treating the other cashiers like dirt.
My main gripes with my work is that I'm still not used to standing around for around eight hours total a night. I'm a college student so I'm naturally on my ass in class or in my room. =P I think my shoes don't do much good either since by the time I come home I can barely walk as it is. We have pads to stand on which don't do a whole lot since they're hard rubber and have no give. And they're so narrow that you're standing staggered which promotes leg pain. The customers aren't really bad, I suppose. You have a few bad ones but they're rare. Taking out the trash is sometimes bad because day-shifters like to drink cappuccino stuff or whatever and all of that inside of a small trash bag...egh. And the hangers are rage-inducing. You know those hard plastic hangers at stores? Imagine putting those in a trash bag that would probably tear if you sneezed at it hard enough. Doesn't help that people aren't very good at separating the trash and hangers despite the fact that there are now two whole trash cans for this very reason!
Zoning is probably the one thing I hate the most. It's just so futile. We're supposed to make the merchandise look good and attractive, and that can be easily ruined by as many as a few customers or one careless customer with a runaway cart. We're now supposed to go back through the lanes and rezone if necessary, despite the fact that people have no reason to go through the closed lanes since you can't check out in them.
I don't know. I've noticed so many of these improvements and stuff are for the customer, but what for the workers? A paycheck? I get paid every two weeks, and I have no idea when I'll be getting my first check here. It's a little hard to say that payment is what I'm working for seeing how infrequently I get paid. Would it be better if it was a weekly pay? Yes. Daily pay? I'd probably keep a lid on it if it was that much! I have no love for my work or any passion at all, and I seriously don't see much point apart from ringing people up. If that were my job in total, I'd be much happier. It's just the extra stuff I have to do that really pisses me off because it's not a part of being a cashier, or so I thought anyway.
It could also be the fact that I'm working such unnatural hours. I've spent the past week or so screwing up my sleeping pattern to get used to the schedule, but that's not even the problem. I hate most of the people I work with, I hate the work, and I pretty much hate the place too. So why work there? I got fired from my first job two summers ago, and Wal-Mart was the only place to accept me, so I'm kinda stuck. But, I don't need to be there like everyone else. I'm just a kid working to get some extra money over the summer. I'm not there because I have bills to pay or a family to provide for. That may be why or how everyone else is able to stand it all.
So many limitations and "fun" is an alien concept there. I'm honestly the happiest when I'm ringing people up and they're not completely silent. It doesn't help that most of the time I'm cut off from other people apart from customers and I used to get plagued with a lot of idle time. Now that I've found something productive to do during that time, they say that they're going to keep us busy constantly!
I'm not lazy. I'm actually sore right now from the work I did last night (having to zone the grocery section for four hours was not fun by the way) and I'm complaining because I'm not happy. But it's not like I can really express these concerns to anyone of importance. It's expected of me to do this stuff! If I don't like it, tough, I can leave or get fired. Which, to be honest, quitting looks very lucrative right now. Just that no one else would probably hire me, especially right now (as with jumpman's topic about how people don't want to hire summer help) so I'm stuck.
I'm also depressed. I mean, okay, hard work would make anyone feel bad but it's so many factors that make me unhappy. And to be honest, happiness is something that I put pretty high up on the shelf. I derive very little enjoyment from what I do, and that in turn causes me to do worse work. No one else enjoys their job either, so it's not like I can be inspired by others. It's not a very positive work environment, and I'm not surprised more people have left already, but like I said, they're probably stuck there because they need the pay, and they're too old/underskilled to go elsewhere.
I said I was going to be there until August, but even now it seems like I may be fed up with this by June. We'll see. |
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