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Up until recently, I was a cart pusher for a huge retail chain. One which I'll not mention because the manager might use this as an excuse to pocket more of the associates' bonus for 'unauthorized work....*mumbles unintelligibly*'.
The worst part of the job is the door people. They don't understand that it takes a few minutes, sometimes, to get from the outlands of the parking lot up to the door to do their precious push-in. Or, bring up carts to push in if it's particularly busy and the only one scheduled.
Also, nobody else inside seems to understand why the cart bay isn't full at all times. The real reason for this is it is the most popular store in Abilene and EVERYBODY shops there, or at least goes there to get a cart to push around for ten minutes before deciding they want McDonalds. Asking for help from the inside to catch up the cart bay is like petitioning a bill to congress. It's passed to the csm's, if you can get a word in edgewise while they're harassing you about the color of the sky, who pass it on to upper management, who then make several pages over the intercom (I'm speculating this last part) if they deem one necessary.
Another thing the CSM's don't realize is that batteries die. They only have a finite charge on them, and when it's the end of the day, sometimes those batteries are dead. Walkie batteries and cart machine batteries. So we have to double up to perform the same amount of work. But does this very simple logic get through the layers and layers of "All cart gatherers are lying underage bastards and are not to be trusted." buffer that they have built up in their head from over-inflated ego from making four more dollars and hour and having the word 'manager' in their title? No. We're just being lazy. And half of us are over 19, and I'm the oldest at 22.
And heaven forbid if they have to come out and push. All that talk about how easy cart gathering is goes out the window when you're pushing that HUGE row of four carts up to the bay from the front of the lot while we're bringing up ten at a time from the aforementioned Outlands. Uphill. Yes, it's very easy, isn't it? But as soon as they're back inside, it's business as usual and we must be grateful for all that work you did pushing up twelve carts total before giving up. Management works harder out here than you do, and we don't even get yelled at as much by them. Why? Because they UNDERSTAND.
But they don't understand that both cart machines need a major overhaul, or just need to be replaced. Or, if you're not going to spend any of that precious money on them, at least get a few more of us out there.
Weather conditions, crap drivers, malfunctioning equipment, useless inside workers, and constant passive/aggressive insult flinging. People wonder why we look so pissed off all the time. Try our job for a week. Your happy-go-lucky outlook on things will change drastically.
More on the customers in the sucky customer board. (will add link later)
The worst part of the job is the door people. They don't understand that it takes a few minutes, sometimes, to get from the outlands of the parking lot up to the door to do their precious push-in. Or, bring up carts to push in if it's particularly busy and the only one scheduled.
Also, nobody else inside seems to understand why the cart bay isn't full at all times. The real reason for this is it is the most popular store in Abilene and EVERYBODY shops there, or at least goes there to get a cart to push around for ten minutes before deciding they want McDonalds. Asking for help from the inside to catch up the cart bay is like petitioning a bill to congress. It's passed to the csm's, if you can get a word in edgewise while they're harassing you about the color of the sky, who pass it on to upper management, who then make several pages over the intercom (I'm speculating this last part) if they deem one necessary.
Another thing the CSM's don't realize is that batteries die. They only have a finite charge on them, and when it's the end of the day, sometimes those batteries are dead. Walkie batteries and cart machine batteries. So we have to double up to perform the same amount of work. But does this very simple logic get through the layers and layers of "All cart gatherers are lying underage bastards and are not to be trusted." buffer that they have built up in their head from over-inflated ego from making four more dollars and hour and having the word 'manager' in their title? No. We're just being lazy. And half of us are over 19, and I'm the oldest at 22.
And heaven forbid if they have to come out and push. All that talk about how easy cart gathering is goes out the window when you're pushing that HUGE row of four carts up to the bay from the front of the lot while we're bringing up ten at a time from the aforementioned Outlands. Uphill. Yes, it's very easy, isn't it? But as soon as they're back inside, it's business as usual and we must be grateful for all that work you did pushing up twelve carts total before giving up. Management works harder out here than you do, and we don't even get yelled at as much by them. Why? Because they UNDERSTAND.
But they don't understand that both cart machines need a major overhaul, or just need to be replaced. Or, if you're not going to spend any of that precious money on them, at least get a few more of us out there.
Weather conditions, crap drivers, malfunctioning equipment, useless inside workers, and constant passive/aggressive insult flinging. People wonder why we look so pissed off all the time. Try our job for a week. Your happy-go-lucky outlook on things will change drastically.
More on the customers in the sucky customer board. (will add link later)
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