My Graveyard

Sure, it took me a couple of weeks after I hit the 6 month mark to make this post- but here we are.
6 months is a fairly magic number at the company- it’s when everyone you work with stops asking you “So, how do you like it?”, when customers recognize you and mark you as a favorite helper (or an unfavorite helper) and when you start accruing paid leave time so you just might be able to get a vacation in at some point without starving to death (after all, who can afford an unpaid vacation?).

There’s been no more word on the Assistant Produce Manager training.  However, the Human Resources Director has named me “Third” of the department, so if the Produce Manager & the Full-Time guy (and assumed Assistant Produce Manager) aren’t around, I’m officially in charge and the person expected to deal with any problems that come up.  I even appear on the “cheat sheet” the office uses to quickly locate who’s working when so they can call up the “in-charge” person to handle those things.
I feel a little odd about that because there’s 2 other Part-Time folks in the department who’ve got seniority over me (well, 3, but one only works 1 day a week; sometimes; so it’s no wonder why he’s not appointed).  One used to be Full-Time and the Assistant Produce Manager; but she’s also pretty unreliable.  OK, really unreliable and getting worse all the time.  The other works a lot less than I do, but I think the fact she speaks ESL is what’s keeping them from making her Third.  If “Third” were a real job title I know she would have a legal recourse to push for it, but it’s really just an inflated way to say you’re the responsible person when no one else is available (though I should ask if I can get “Third Person” on my name badge somewhere).  She probably doesn’t mind all that much anyway, I know she finds the language barrier as daunting as anyone else- probably more so.  She has been trying to learn how to do more in the department though, so I know she’s got the will to do the work (but maybe not the memory retention, don’t ask me how many times she’s asked us how to show her again how to use some of the equipment).  But, honestly, she has been asking me since the second week I worked there “How to do this?” and “Where does that go?”, so she may not be a good candidate for Third, at this time.
In any case, I’m not hung-up on who gets to be the Assistant Produce Manager.  There’s actually a subtle joy to being Third, because you (and everybody else) knows you can do anything (and everything) the Assistant can do; just when the crap hits the fan they look at him to clean it up first.

When the Manager goes on vacation, the Full-Time guy and I basically split the job down the middle.  I do the early morning work, I make the sales program and I change over the signs in the wee hours before we open on the new sale day.  He is responsible for putting the order on and making most of the adjustments (that may not sound like a lot, but ordering to keep the shelves full is a big pain).  I make some of the adjustments, I’m in charge of 3 specific sections all week long and I get to handle them all on his day off (of course, I get the scary “last delivery for the week” day, which has to hold over the weekend).  By default he usually concedes the Organic section to me as well.  Outside of the Manager, I probably have more working knowledge of the Organic & Vegetarian section anyway and it’s a proved fact I eat more of it than anyone else in the department.  I find that sad, really.

Most things at work have been going fine.  Though our sales have been slagging, we’re starting to pick up again.  The seasons are changing and products are changing and people’s wants are changing.  Being the default “Watermelon Cutter” of the department, I’ve noticed the demand for watermelon going through the roof.
You  may ask why I’m the default watermelon cutter.  The easiest answer is because no one else likes cutting the watermelon.  Some people hate it, one or two others just feel they do a really bad job of it.  I admit, I’m pretty proud of my watermelon cutting & wrapping skills (getting plastic wrap to look neat on a chunk of melon isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when you’re one of those people who always has to fight with the static of the wrap) but I’ve got a years of experience and untold numbers of cut watermelon under my belt that speak for why I do a good job of it.  I don’t actually enjoy cutting the watermelon, but I don’t dislike it either and I don’t feel awkward about the job I do of it- so pretty much everyone leaves the watermelon to me.  When my co-workers see me cutting the watermelon and utter “Oh, thank God!” I worry a little bit.  Joke’s on them though- come summertime there will be plenty of instances for everyone to cut & wrap melons of all sorts, so they’d better enjoy slacking off on it while they can!

Probably the biggest bit of news is that we’re getting our remodeling done this May.  Now, mind we’re not getting a full-remodel.  We were slated to get something like $5m in renovations originally (we were going to get lots of new stuff), that got shelved.  We were shelved altogether until fall, but our roof is having issues so they decided they probably ought to do something while they gotta have guys fix that anyway.  We’re now down to something like $1m (maybe less at this point), and it’s probably going to be almost entirely cosmetic.  As an example, the other night they had a guy come in and replace a few tiles on the sales floor.  Obviously, we’re not getting a new floor.  My department is supposed to be getting a lot of renovation though- the Store Director keeps telling me how envious he is we’re supposed to get all new display cases and stuff.  I honestly don’t see why- the last store he worked at had the same equipment we’re supposed to be getting- and he was the Produce Manager of that store at that time.  Silly man.
As far as I know the Meat Department is getting new cases, 4 shelves high instead of the current 2.  That’s a lot more room for product.
We’re supposed to get new displays, and our department is supposed to expand out towards the check out and pull up away from the rear of the store (I totally can’t envision this, but I’ll see it when it’s done).  We’re also supposed to get a more formal Floral Department (right now we just have 2 cases that hold bouquets and plants).  My worry there is we don’t have a real Floral Associate right now and I’m not sure how we’re going to handle staffing a bigger Floral Department without one.  If it’s just cases, we’ll manage, but if they expect us to be making custom arrangements and stuff- we’re going to need more than just someone taking a half-hour to stock & water the section a couple times a week.
The Deli is supposed to branch out to fill where our department moves from, pulling their pre-packaged meats closer to home instead of down by the Meat Department.  Hell if I know what they’re planing to do with those then-empty cases.  Maybe they’ll expand the Seafood Department.  I’m hoping the Deli gets a center for Hot Soup though.  Lots of customers came in during the winter and yelled about how they wanted soup.
I don’t know if the Bakery is getting a makeover, but I hope so.  If you could see the Bakery department at the next closest store and then looked at ours, you’d pray too.  They have real display cases (not folding tables) and they make pastries, real pastries!  Éclairs, tarts, tortes…  Our store would definitely benefit from these services, they look just as nice as the stuff from the fancy Cafe down the street but cost half the price (maybe less).  I make a point to go to the other store once in a while and look at all the little cakes and tarts and treats as they’re beautiful.

OK, so there we are.  That’s all the news after 6 months of work  I’m Third Person, I’m accruing paid leave time (slowly) and we’re getting a face lift in the near future.

I suppose it’s fairly obvious the job must be going well (assuming well equates to I am still employed) because it’s kept me away from my blog for a while now. 
Things are going largely well.  I am still employed.  I get more hours than I thought I would (no complaints there).  I’ve been proven reliable and hard-working (my resume tells them that, but they don’t believe it until they see it).  I’m “the weekend guy”, the only person in the department who works both weekend days each week and I’m also the closer several nights per week.  I’m sure that’s a sign of trusted with responsibility (the kid who’s more or less the Assistant Produce Manager used to be the primary person working closings, but no longer).
The Assistant Produce Manager title is technically still available and as I told some of you I was hoping to grab it up, sure that my quality of work would prove me a good candidate.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to work out now. The kid who was hired full-time and expected to take the role of Assistant Manager is getting groomed for the position (even as we speak).  The Manager of the store (well, he’s actually the “Store Director”; in the same way I’m not an employee, I’m an “Associate”) has been pushing on the Produce Manager to get the kid trained up in all the Assistant’s duties and slap the label on him.  As of last week his insistence has finally taken hold and the kid’s been receiving the training for the job.  The kid will probably never know how on-the-fence the Produce Manager was about handing it to him because I have more experience than he does (both in the area of work and management experience overall) and I get the work done.  But, c’est la vie.  I don’t need a fancy job title (and hell, sometime being able to duck behind someone else who has one is a good thing) to know I’m doing a good job.  I’m a little disappointed, but not in myself.  =)
There’s not too much to the job most of you can’t imagine, I stack fruits and vegetables all day.  Also, cider, nuts, bagged salad, dried fruits and flowers.  You might not know I get to use a mega-industrial bouquet cutter.  It’s basically a horizontal guillotine, able to snap stems off two or three bouquets at a time, depending on the thickness of the stems and your own personal strength.  You might not know I have to sweep and mop the sales floor several times a day (you’d be surprised how dirty that thing gets, grapes are the number one floor grubber-upper).  Seasonally I get to shuck corn (how fun) so people can buy it without husks.  I cut up watermelon, fruits and sometimes even make fruit & veggie platters or fruit baskets (we’re actually moving into that season now.  If any of you want to know what you can get me as an awesome Christmas present this year- don’t order a platter or basket.  Thanks!).  I don’t get to paint the faces on the pre-decorated pumpkins though, they come in like that.  I get to mark down reduced produce, or send things to compost (much better than into the trash) and I pack things up for donation to the local food shelves.  Mostly I shelve things and answer people’s questions (which aren’t even usually about my department.  You’d be surprised how often somebody asks me “Hey, where’s the beer?”, but it’s usually “Where’s the bathroom?”).
The job isn’t so bad, there are bad days (but there are in every job).  There’s a couple of really annoying customers (also at every job), like Flower Lady; who always comes shopping for flowers about an hour before they’re up on the shelves.  You know, if I always went shopping on my lunch break (before noon) and the item I wanted consistently wasn’t out yet, I’d change what time I came in to shop instead of being grouchy at the employees every week because the display wasn’t stocked yet.
Probably the most surprising thing so far has been that somehow the use of courtesy  has dwindled far further than I thought it had.  I’ve ranted about people refusing to use the phrase “Excuse me.” before and I’ve come to expect that I will not hear it anymore.  It’s sad, but I also no longer expect to hear “Please” or “Thank you”.  However, what I’m finding is people are managing to be rude even beyond that.  I often get “GRR! So, are you out of eggplant or what?!” instead of “Where is the eggplant?”.  “Is this all the lettuce you’ve got?!” instead of “Do you have any other lettuce?”.
So there you go, work is work. Largely I’m having a good time, thanks for asking.  =)