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Everything is awesome!
Following up to my "Fingers crossed" thread in Bragging Base, here's a report on my first real week.
Monday and Tuesday (mostly Monday) was orientation. Some stuff we knew already (mom also got hired there as a part-time cheesemonger), some of it was new. One of the interesting things was after the overview of coworker interactions and what constitutes harassment when mom asked about how to react if customers try to get physically violent. The trainer was clearly unprepared/had no idea that was even a thing and ducked the question, but I could see a large number of us in the room had dealt with such in our 'past lives' and wanted to know exactly what was and wasn't okay in terms of customer behavior. Even though the market has something of a reputation as upscale and 'expensive', being in the tourist destination that we are it seems likely to happen to someone someday.
The "listen to understand" part of the service manifesto was also a bit odd. A lot of SCs just stubbornly refuse to be understood...and some you just don't want to understand why they are having a bad day (which I think is what that was getting at). The few times I tried that on a difficult customer when I was young and naive ended in disaster.
Part of yesterday and all of today was shelving stock. After wasting about 15 minutes yesterday waiting for one of the managers to dig through pallets, find a certain brand and check in each case one at a time then give it to me to run to the shelf (one at a time), I came up with the idea of breaking down the pallets by making a pile for each brand--product labels facing forward--that could then be checked off all at once. Turns out the grocery manager liked that so much that it's now the way to do it and it definitely saves time; we shelve what's been checked off while he checks the rest and the manifests are sorted by brand anyway. If we run out of room to make piles, just check in what's there and carry on.
I've already found so much stuff that I want to take home and try right NAO. We have 30 different distinct shapes of pasta, god knows how many candies/cookies, and stuff I've never heard of (nettle risotto?).
I also got to try some of the house-made pizza crust (OMG is that stuff addictive) and peek into the mozzarella-making...I got to taste some that had already been formed and chilled, as well as fresh curd in various stages of being worked. Next week we're going to get some official product training which includes tasting about 100 different kinds of olive oil (and that starts "homework" where we pick one interesting product and research it).
This place is SO much different than the store. Everyone wants to help everyone else (I carted and unpacked huge cheese wheels for a bit because they needed a body and my manager was checking stuff in so he said go help if I wanted). If a manager tells someone they're doing a good job you can tell they mean it.
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Apparently my 14-day notice at hell either never got to the right person or got brushed off (if it was even looked at); Shithead was calling me yesterday and today when he knew beforehand I couldn't work. I plan to hand in a final notice this weekend...with the commute during rush hour, there's no way I can make both jobs work. It also makes zero sense for me to hang on to a toxic job when this offer is done and dusted--I didn't think they would give me FT hours as quickly as they did (not that I'm complaining; I dislike being bored/standing around and with this job I definitely won't be).
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I just realized that even though I've been slinging stock and running my ass off 9-5 for the past four days I'm not tired, my shoulder isn't bothering me like it was and my back doesn't hurt. Coincidence, or was the hell store affecting me physically? Tonight I walked home (probably a good 20 minutes) not because I wanted to save T fare but just because
Monday and Tuesday (mostly Monday) was orientation. Some stuff we knew already (mom also got hired there as a part-time cheesemonger), some of it was new. One of the interesting things was after the overview of coworker interactions and what constitutes harassment when mom asked about how to react if customers try to get physically violent. The trainer was clearly unprepared/had no idea that was even a thing and ducked the question, but I could see a large number of us in the room had dealt with such in our 'past lives' and wanted to know exactly what was and wasn't okay in terms of customer behavior. Even though the market has something of a reputation as upscale and 'expensive', being in the tourist destination that we are it seems likely to happen to someone someday.
The "listen to understand" part of the service manifesto was also a bit odd. A lot of SCs just stubbornly refuse to be understood...and some you just don't want to understand why they are having a bad day (which I think is what that was getting at). The few times I tried that on a difficult customer when I was young and naive ended in disaster.
Part of yesterday and all of today was shelving stock. After wasting about 15 minutes yesterday waiting for one of the managers to dig through pallets, find a certain brand and check in each case one at a time then give it to me to run to the shelf (one at a time), I came up with the idea of breaking down the pallets by making a pile for each brand--product labels facing forward--that could then be checked off all at once. Turns out the grocery manager liked that so much that it's now the way to do it and it definitely saves time; we shelve what's been checked off while he checks the rest and the manifests are sorted by brand anyway. If we run out of room to make piles, just check in what's there and carry on.
I've already found so much stuff that I want to take home and try right NAO. We have 30 different distinct shapes of pasta, god knows how many candies/cookies, and stuff I've never heard of (nettle risotto?).
I also got to try some of the house-made pizza crust (OMG is that stuff addictive) and peek into the mozzarella-making...I got to taste some that had already been formed and chilled, as well as fresh curd in various stages of being worked. Next week we're going to get some official product training which includes tasting about 100 different kinds of olive oil (and that starts "homework" where we pick one interesting product and research it).
This place is SO much different than the store. Everyone wants to help everyone else (I carted and unpacked huge cheese wheels for a bit because they needed a body and my manager was checking stuff in so he said go help if I wanted). If a manager tells someone they're doing a good job you can tell they mean it.
---------------------------
Apparently my 14-day notice at hell either never got to the right person or got brushed off (if it was even looked at); Shithead was calling me yesterday and today when he knew beforehand I couldn't work. I plan to hand in a final notice this weekend...with the commute during rush hour, there's no way I can make both jobs work. It also makes zero sense for me to hang on to a toxic job when this offer is done and dusted--I didn't think they would give me FT hours as quickly as they did (not that I'm complaining; I dislike being bored/standing around and with this job I definitely won't be).
--------------
I just realized that even though I've been slinging stock and running my ass off 9-5 for the past four days I'm not tired, my shoulder isn't bothering me like it was and my back doesn't hurt. Coincidence, or was the hell store affecting me physically? Tonight I walked home (probably a good 20 minutes) not because I wanted to save T fare but just because
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