#i'm technically giving a company that does all that attention or not. it's Fun drawing them though...

[solarizedbug]

i'm so boredddddddddd

[fuck-customers]

I'm sorry this isn't exactly what this blog is for, but I was hoping it could slide. I have something at work that I'd like the opinions of mods and followers, if possible please.

I was wondering if I should ask for/pursue a promotion to store lead, as several people in my life, including friends, family, and a very persistent (annoying) coworker, have been pressuring me to do so. But I have several cons and pros about it. And since all the people in my life are blindly telling me to apply to be a lead, they won't listen to what my concerns are and say that I'm just being stubborn and difficult without listening to why I'm hesitating. So here's why

Pros:

•it would look good on my resume

•get paid $2 more per hour

•I'd get paid for training. Yay

•it may force me to get better at responsibility, as I'd be in charge of keys and codes

•I'd get slightly more hours per week (more on that below)

•I would get to freely move around the store as I'm doing my tasks vs. being trapped at the register area as I've currently been, which is great for me personally, because I hate being trapped at one station

•I may be able to fix some things around the store that have been driving me nuts as a result of being free to move around (such as changing the godawful music)

•it would probably be a needed confidence booster

•I have several ideas of things we could and should be doing that would greatly improve the store and maybe my manager would actually listen to a lead vs. a regular employee, as she currently refuses to listen to my suggestions (which, for the record, are things like "hey maybe we should put price tags on the products" not only does she refuse to listen, she actively goes out of her way to undo the work I do and tear down price tags/signs)

Cons:

•store leads ≠ full time and current leads get the same amount of hours that I do, give or take 3 hours or so (for example, this current week I have 9 hours, the lead who has been pressuring me to become a lead has 10 hours, and other leads have between 10-15 hours) I would already be a lead if it was a full-time position, but that will not happen. I'd even consider it if there was a significant increase in hours while still being part-time. 1-3 hours more is not an increase in my opinion

•the store is severely understaffed by design and leads have to do several tasks alone at once, such as: run the service department alone, unlock anything customers need throughout the store, fill online orders, backup the cashier when needed (the only other employee in the store) get yelled at by angry customers who demand a manager and do a daily checklist from the store manager that consists of 20 or so tasks to do in a 3 hour shift.

•store leads have nearly all of the responsibilities of the store manager, except they can't hire or fire anyone and they get paid less than half of what the store manager gets paid while having to do all of the same tasks, minus the fun ones (hiring/firing people)

•there are many signs that the company may shut down in the near future, but the company and my store manager are pretending like everything is fine and refuse to discuss it with employees

•leads are also expected to go to the bank for cash deposits for the store/to get change, etc. and I do not have my own car or license (which is not something I want to mention to my manager, as I'm required to have reliable transportation to work there, I just don't have to specify whose transportation it is) and that is a job requirement of a lead that I straight up cannot do. And the public transport in my city is lackluster and taking the bus to and from the bank would easily be an hour long trip or more, when it takes someone with their own car 15-20 minutes.

•I have a very bad memory and I am not confident that I could remember all of the procedures and passcodes that managers are required to remember. I could technically write it down, but I don't want to draw attention to my terrible memory, as I've been successfully hiding it for years. Nor am I confident that I could be responsible for keys and not lose them. And realistically, I'd lose the book/accidentally delete the notes app I made notes on.

•I've been able to hide it for now, since as a regular employee, I am not watched very closely, but I cut a LOT of corners and there are several store policies that I think are extremely stupid and I either straight up don't follow them or have workarounds for them. Obviously as a lead, I'd have to stop doing that, but some of these policies strongly go against my morals. This is just a whining bulletpoint lol

•I'm not great under pressure, and I'm even worse when someone is yelling/swearing at me or talking down to me. I've seen leads get talked to like they're trash by customers and they have been able to successfully stay calm and collected. In situations where I have been yelled at or talked down to, I call a manager to back me up, but that doesn't work if I am the manager. And I don't mean that I'll cry, because in some situations, that may help. No. I mean that my natural response to stress, especially someone yelling at me, is to fight back. I will cuss them out, yell back and I have been known to physically attack. Not at work, obviously, but that's because up until now, I've been able to push aggressive customers off onto my managers. I've also successfully hidden my anger issues from management and coworkers to the point where they think I am always happy and never get mad. It helps to have someone to back me up/deflect off of, but if I am the backup, no one can defend me.

•There are several things wrong with the store that are completely out of the control of any of us employees at the physical location and are the fault of corporate, but customers blame the employees personally and as a lead, I'd have to answer for the fuckups of corporate that I genuinely cannot answer for. (Such as return policies and inventory inaccuracies)

•My manager is very shitty at communicating with her team. I've personally witnessed several incidents that were caused by her not properly communicating with her leads and I don't want to wind up in a position where I'm responsible for resolving the conflict she caused by not communicating. Also

•I have nearly zero respect for my manager. I think she is an absolute moron, but I've been able to hide it as I don't have to work/interact with her very often. As a lead, I'd have to work with her more and it may slip.

•I don't wear a nametag. I very strongly believe that nametags are a great danger to the employees, especially employees like myself who have a very uncommon name with a very uncommon spelling. Yet as a manager, I'd have to "lead by example" and wear a nametag. I would ideally wear a fake name or have several fake nametags to rotate, but my coworkers obviously know my name and would call it out.

•I'd have to double-check on this one, but I think leads, as members of management, are required to watch potential shoplifters and confront/track them down. I'm not sure if this is a requirement of a lead or if the particular leads at my store are going way beyond their job requirements/have been coached incorrectly by the store manager. I know I, as a regular employee, am not required to chase after thieves and I actively refuse to confront/chase thieves for my own safety. But I am not sure if that would change with becoming a lead. My work does not have a security guard.

•I have several ideas of things we could and should do to improve the store, but my manager is very arrogant and refuses to listen to constructive criticism or constructive feedback in any form. It would drive me insane to have to keep doing things the wrong/difficult way just because she won't listen to suggestions. And this isn't just an assumption by me. I have personally suggested things that she blatantly ignored and so have other leads.

Posted by admin Rodney

[bunnygirl678]

with my birthday coming up i'm feeling reflective;

i'm about to end my 20s and enter my 30s, looking back a ton has happened in 10 years, every decade i set goals (okay maybe i did it at 10 and again at 20, obvs bbs can't do shit) my goals for my 20s were;

graduate ✔️

get married ✔️

have a baby ✔️

make senior accountant (originally this was for public accounting, but i did one busy season and decided i would rather keep my sanity) my current company does not have the title senior accountant, but my title is accountant and i'm top, doing quite a bit of cfo/comptroller style work so i'm counting this as a win ✔️

Run a half-marathon (I was up to 10ks, then got pregnant and was told to stop running and working out, after that i really didn't have the time or whatever to get back into running until this year which i was doing well until i started getting sick)✖️

Only one of these things are things that I could actually control (graduate lol) but i managed to bag the rest of them i still managed to get married even if it ended in the big D (and I don't mean Dallas)

For my 30s I want to focus more on things that I control.

Learn a new language-I'm thinking Japanese and French, I really want to be able to understand them, not necessarily speak or write, but that would be bonus, i'd also like to learn more, and refresh my spanish skills back to where they were when i turned 20 lol

Learn art or at least keep up with it- i've written about wanting to learn how to draw multiple times, but now i'm actually doing it, i enjoy being creative, i'm always working on a craft, but now i'm really putting the effort into art, i know it's something you have to keep up with so here's to daily practice even if it's a quick small doodle

keep writing- used to i wanted to write the epic novel that would be remembered for centuries, but as i've gotten older i realized i just wanted attention, now that i'm older and not living with my parents i've accepted the fact that i'm not interested in writing outside of fanfics and the occasional technical piece, i don't need to be remembered and any writing i do should be for fun (or for research purposes)

understand my health better- after i got a pulmonary embolism at 17 then another at 19 i sort of just got used to being on blood thinners, right before my 20th i changed my diet to oil-free vegan then just vegan, i was really feeling good and i think it was all of the fresh ingredients, so i'd like to go back to that, i'm cutting out wheat again, and dairy temporarily, but also this year i was diagnosed with adhd so understanding it is a goal, i remember in college when i was running and eating healthy all the time i was suffering less so i'd like to get back to that, and then as always getting my allergy issues under control, i think the main thing here is just finding out what works and what doesn't, and accepting giving up certain things that cause problems

run a half-marathon- i love running, i started again this year, i missed it a lot, now that i'm getting older i need to make sure to improve my physical health, the thing about training with running is it is also good to cross train, so add in weights, flexibility and so on, i was running best when i weight trained and did yoga, so going to hopefully pick those back up

Get back into sewing- in college i used to sew all a lot of my own clothes, i constantly got compliments on my stuff, i still sew now and then but it's mostly mending or random crafts, i'd like to get back into clothes, as well as tailoring (really redoing) thrifted clothes, which is where i buy something a size too big and practice my sewing skills by reworking the clothes into something cute, it reuses clothes and is a lot cheaper than buying fabric, i'd also like to work with silk, i don't buy silk clothes a lot, but i've found my skin reacts better to it but it's so expensive, a lot cheaper to just buy fabric

attend more festivals/activities- i really enjoy getting out into the community and doing things, seeing things, my exhusband was (and still is) a homebody, he also would complain when I went to things, always wanting me at home with him, so now that we're not together i'd like to start attending things in the community again

pick piano back up/learn a new instrument (violin??)- i used to play the piano and sing in the church choir in high school, unfortunately i can't sing anymore, at least not without having to yawn and take in more air I lost my ability to sing for long periods after my first pulmonary embolism, but now i'd really like to expand my brain by learning violin something i always wanted to learn but never had the ability to as a kid, but as an adult i can, picking piano back up and teaching my kid too

pay off debt/use credit sparingly- we had some financial troubles back a few years ago, and i racked my credit cards up, i've been slowly paying them, but i'd like to pay it all off and really only use in an emergency

be a good mom- self explanatory

My birthday is only 9 days after new year so i always feel like new years and a new age are pretty closely intertwined, so i guess here is to my 30s, i hope i make fewer shitty decisions lmao