Retail Hell... part whatever....

I’m not sure that I can properly put into words how much I hate MY life.

I am stupid and because I’m stupid I’m stuck in retail hell.

The dip into truly hellish conditions started on Monday (Sorry Evan have to bring the rest up to speed). We were told last week that our Regional Manager, our Boss’ Boss, would be coming this Monday. So when I came in on Monday at 8:30 AM, I was amazed to find the place a pigsty. The manager had been off the past two weeks- and Kenny Boy and Asst Lm were in charge on Sunday. Kenny left early because he was sick (but the receiver has decided that Kenny left just in time for kick off). Kenny was due on Monday at the same time I was- but was a No Call/ No Show. Now that is a fire able offense, or so we’ve been told. The Manager in Training was pissed. He hates Kenny Boy and Lm, and wished that the Regional Manager had stopped at OUR store first… so that the regional manager could’ve seen the mess that the store was left in.
I told this to Evan on Monday, and Evan wished that Kenny got fired… I told Evan that I most likely had a better chance of ME getting fired then Kenny.
But sadly that wasn’t the end of things.

So my manager asks me today if ‘anything’ happened while he was away. I thought and made sure to tell him a) that we didn’t know of an event that was happening and thus didn’t have the staff scheduled for it. I didn’t SAY it was Ken’s fault… Just wanted him to know this had happened… and for the manager to draw his own conclusions, which he didn’t. I also told him that Kenny had told me that I am NO LONGER allowed to count in drawers. Now Ken’s reasoning is that drawers have been off too much and so we need to limit who touches the drawers. However as I’ve talked with MiT (Manager in Training), we have BOTH noticed that drawers are occasionally off WHEN WE OPEN. For the drawer to be off in the morning- that means the person who closed didn’t count it properly. So- Kenny can’t count, and I don’t want to get blamed for his not being able to count. But that’s it… I didn’t narc on Kenny and Lm because they hadn’t really done anything while the manager was away that they didn’t do normally. So Kenny remains safe and I stay quiet.

That said, the Receiver, like most of the store, hates Kenny Boy… And when he was doing the daily schedule today, he found something ‘odd’ on the WEEKLY schedule. Kenny Boy was scheduled for FORTY EIGHT HOURS this week. Now it should be mentioned that that included the time and ½ Kenny gets on Sunday- but still too many hours. So the Receiver checked the printed weekly schedule and found out that to like ‘make up’ hours Kenny decided to come in on a ‘real’ day off, Tuesday, to make up for not working Monday. The Receiver gets hoping MAD, as he doesn’t like the idea that Kenny Boy can come and go as he pleases- he finds everything he can find about Kenny and confronts the manager with it. Like the fact that the computers are currently LOCKED for internet access so the only people who can surf the web are the managers, who have WARNED us that using the computer for email is a fire able offense… So if WE can’t get to the internets, how is it that GMAIL is in the web browser history?

So at 5:20 pm (and was scheduled until 5:30), my manager pulls me off the floor. He then asks me what I think of Ken. I’m like what? And he tells me how some people are talking smack about Ken so he wants to know MY opinion.

And this is why I KNOW I’m stupid and thus doomed to remain in retail hell.

I told my manager that Ken spends too much time on the computer. That on the Saturday previous, he made everyone ELSE clean up while he remained on the computer. And that Kenny just doesn’t pull his weight.
Manager had a counter point to EACH of my points. And as I listened to him, I realized how fucked I was. My manager cares more about Kenny then he does about me… He didn’t REALLY want my opinion, he never wants my opinion- he wants a yes man… like Kenny. Nothing I said mattered… because I am a worker drone, and HE’S the boss. My manager doesn’t LISTEN to criticism and I should’ve learnt that lesson.

I’ve been drinking because I had beer in the fridge… So I’m not as bad as I was when I got my check from the game store (I was very ranty there)… Heck at this point I’d like to be doing something then re-hashing the day, but I want to blog it.
Trying to figure out preemptively if I want to call in sick tomorrow- At first I thought I should TOTALLY go in so that I can try to get the manager on track by telling him to talk to the MiT- but I don’t think he’ll value MiT’s opinions any more then mine; and then I thought I’d go tomorrow but call in sick Friday- because the manager is OFF Friday and thus I won’t have any protection from Kenny… but looking at the schedule I realize I have more ‘overlap’ tomorrow with Kenny then( all but a ½ hour, more if our lunches don’t synch up) vs. Friday( where I have 4 hours or so with him).

I need to leave the gift store and see no way of doing it without either quitting and then calling the regional manager- or looking for another crap retail job… and perhaps take a pay cut. I know that I didn’t pursue a job at a book store as I would’ve had like a dollar cut an hour and I felt- how can I take a pay cut and still work retail. I’d end up on the wrong foot at the new job- hating that I was making LESS money, but.
God.
I have to stop now and finish my sports bottle of BEER.