Goings & Comings

Out with the slightly old, in with the new.

People job hop more than ever these days, but what about retail jobs? Staff should be coming in and going out at the speed of light, right? Nah. It seems about the same as it always was. Retail has kept up with the times by being itself.

There are really two types of employees. There is the type that believes they should get an attendance award every day they show up, and there are those that last a year or more. Some people barely show up, with only most of their body making it into the building. One foot is always firmly outside of the door.

I don’t blame employees for this because I was one of them. Boy, was I one of them. I could really write about dozens of jobs I had for about as long as it takes to get a haircut, but I would have to remember them all.

In recent years I got a job at a deli while I was waiting to get a “real job” elsewhere. The real job came faster than I expected, so the deli job lasted a whopping two weeks. In that short time, I’m proud to say, I was the only employee the manager ever knew who managed to cut his knuckles while shaving ham.

Did you know that you have to disassemble and deep clean the entire machine when that happens? That’s good knowledge to have, especially if you want to buy some shaved ham near me.

I’ve had plenty of characters come and go, but I wanted to write about one of those “over a year” employees leaving. It’s a sad occasion, but you have to recognize their need to grow. Growing usually means leaving.

This is what happens. Customers will ask you questions about future staffing, as if your thought process extends past your absence.

K started as a lark. She was a background character in a comic about Vickie. I liked her and decided that she was walking by because she was interviewing for a job. I was glad she did.

There’s a couple of points here. Plenty of employees do announce their resignation by never coming back. You might even work with someone that you very much wish would quit in this fashion. I’m sorry to say that it’s never those people.

The other point is about knowing when to quit. I never know. I just get so incredibly burned out that I would be shocked at my lack of emotional perception, had the job not completely stripped me of emotions.

There are plenty of people in many professions that shouldn’t be where they are because of burnout. Their peers know it, the customers know it, and they know it, but there’s nowhere else for them to go that has similar pay. The psychological term for this type of employee is trapped.

The zen of Tabby.

I might as well introduce Shelby in this post, because that’s where it headed.

Envision yourself as the new person who is replacing a beloved quitter. Lucky you.

The real-life parallel to this comic is a staff bulletin board that has pictures of Christmas, Halloween, or any other happy time where there are fun photos of remembrance. I recommend taking that bulletin board to the dumpster when nobody is looking.

I believe I covered this customer in a previous post. He’s still out there, wondering if you know the whereabouts of people you never worked with.

I’ve written this down before, but it bears writing down again: Customers don’t read! Hey, I love to read, and even I don’t read. I blame the choice of font. If you want me to take note of some written instructions, it better be a classic sans serif font. Write in all caps. Put it in a word balloon and have a cartoon bunny speaking the instructions. Then I’ll read it. If you add a punchline, I’ll even remember it.

C.Y.A.

Nobody else will do it for you. Nobody wants to do it for you. If they do, that’s just creepy.

Something protective comes out when you get a customer with a bad attitude who is bothering your new employee. You want to shield the new person from such people until you know they aren’t going to quit on you. It would be nice if jerks could sense a training situation and just back off for about three months. Alas, they wouldn’t be jerks if they could do that.