The
theme of this week's Thursday Diary entry is change. I'm about to
experience a change in my own personal career path (not a huge one,
mind you, but still a change), and along with that change in career
comes a change in how I look at the world, and the people in it.
Don't worry though...I've been “declawed”, and I'll be
nice...mostly.
April
11, 2013
I've
decided to be a little bit different when it comes to today's
Thursday Diary. Normally, I would be typing this entry in blue font
to try and mimic the printing style that I normally use when I write
in a notebook or a journal with a pen and paper.
Today,
I'm using green.
And
yes, there is a reason behind my choosing green as the colour for
today. I figure that since I'm going to be spending the next three
months or so in an area where I'll be helping people exercise their
green thumbs, I thought green would be an appropriate choice.
By
now, most of my closest friends and co-workers know this news
already, but for the rest of you out there, I thought I would share
with you my news.
For
the last seven years, I've been working at a retail store in the
grocery department. While I've worked at least one shift in every
area of the grocery side (excluding deli and bakery), my specialty is
dairy and frozen foods. I can help you tell the difference between
lactose-free and sugar-free ice cream. I can help you tell the
difference between homogenized and skim milk. I can provide you with
coffee creamer in eight different flavours including Vanilla Toffee
Caramel, Irish Crème, and Mint Chocolate Truffle.
Heck,
I'll even help you find chocolate milk, marble cheese, and containers
of “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter”...three items that always
drive me closer to insanity the moment they go on sale.
Well,
beginning next Saturday, I'll be saying goodbye to the milk, cheese,
butter, eggs, yogurt, and orange juice, and trading in my cooler
jacket for a pair of shorts, because I'm heading outside.
I'm
movin' on out...to the West Side...to the deluxe soil compound
nearby,
Oh
yeah, I'm movin' on out...to the West Side. To the Garden Centre
post outside!
(Well,
okay, it's not quite as good as the iconic Jefferson's theme song,
but it works for the time being. And, no, that is NOT a picture of my store...but it is a reasonable facsimile for the real thing.)
I'm
going to be honest with all of you though. Going out to the seasonal
department after spending seven years stocking groceries is going to
be an initial shock to me at first.
My
original area of the store was always climate-controlled and I got so
used to being in that area that I could walk into the walk-in cooler
(which hovers around the 0 C/32 F mark) in just my short-sleeved
T-shirt...
...and
pants...I always wear pants at work! Get your minds out of the
gutter, people.
My
new area will be one that is almost entirely outdoors, which means
that I will likely face the following; extreme heat and coldness,
sunshine, rain, fog, sleet, strong winds, thunder and lightning, and
considering how weird April has been lately, we might even get frost,
snow, and ice rain on top of that!
And,
you know what I say? Bring it on!
You
know, I'm going to confess something to all of you. Some of you may
already know this about me, but others will not. When I first
started at my current workplace, I didn't always work in the food
department. I started off in a position that was called “store
standards”. The official description of the job was to make sure
that the store ran efficiently and that we kept up the standards of
customer service, as well as the appearance of the store itself.
What
the job description REALLY was, was essentially grunt work.
This
is only a prediction here, but I'm sure most people out there would
NOT enjoy a job where they have to brave the elements to collect
shopping carts from outside, or clean up any spill that might occur
in the store (which unfortunately involves bodily fluids on the rare
occasion), or make sure that the bathrooms were always sparkling and
shiny, or cramming giant television sets into a Mitsubishi, Volvo, or
even a SmartCar.
Yet
for the first year I worked at the store, that's exactly what I did.
And, what a thankless job it could be at times. You basically had to
run around the store doing grueling, back-breaking work, where the
only reward was that you got to do more grueling, back-breaking work
outside in the parking lot. If you were lucky, you might get a thank
you from a gracious customer instead of a complaint because their car
was too tiny for me to shove a giant barbecue inside the back seat.
Still,
no matter what I did, I gave it my all, even though there were some
days in which I wanted to either walk off the job entirely, or pass
out from dehydration/exhaustion/frustration/any adjective ending in
-tion. And, that hard work paid off because I was moved to the food
department after a year on the job...where I've remained ever since.
Well,
at least until April 20th when I begin the next chapter in
life.
Even
though it's only a temporary move, I'm looking at the seasonal area
as a new challenge for me. In many ways, working out in the Garden
Centre area has some similarities to store standards in that I'm
going to be outside most of the time. In all honestly, I've a
feeling that I'll be doing a lot of slugging and lugging out there
loading up bags of black earth, cedar trees and patio sets into
people's vehicles...but I'm okay with that. A lot has happened over
the last eight years, and the Garden Centre job will allow me to work
my muscles while getting a tan in the process.
Hey,
if anything, it might give me the opportunity to lose those 35 pounds
I gained after my 2011 surgery. No, seriously! One of the pitfalls
to working the dairy/frozen department was doing price changes on
items that would tempt me like fattening ice cream and high-calorie
sugary snacks. Going out to the Garden Centre will eliminate those
temptations for me! Out of sight, out of mind, right? Because let's
face it...the last time I ate dirt, I was two and a half...and even
then I didn't develop an insatiable appetite for it.
I'm
also fairly optimistic about venturing to the Garden Centre this year
because I happen to know most of the people who will be working
outside with me there, and as far as I'm concerned, they're a good
group of folks. The main thing that I'm all about is teamwork.
There's no way that I'm going to be able to lift up a 300 pound patio
set all by myself. I'm going to need people to help me!
Fortunately, I don't see that as much of a problem, as many of the
people that I know are team players.
Of
course, there are going to be some challenges that I'll have to face
while I am out there. I know absolutely nothing about gardening, and
I'm positive that any house plant that I've ever owned, I brutally
murdered. I don't know the difference between a geranium and a
chrysanthemum, I have no idea how often one is supposed to water a
plant, and I really couldn't tell you which fertilizer would work the
best when planting azaleas.
(Though,
I suppose knowing how to spell azalea and chrysanthemum is half the
battle, right?)
And,
I should admit this before I continue on with this blog entry. I've
filled in for Garden Centre shifts for a one-off, and the last time I
was out there, I accidentally chopped off a garden nymph's head while
I was pricing them. So, if the department managers of the Garden
Centre are reading this right now, you may want to keep me away from
the statues for the first week.
And,
of course, there's always the possibility of having to get cash
training so I can serve customers out in the Garden Centre area.
I've been petrified to learn how to use a cash register since I
started at my job, and I've managed to avoid the registers for eight
and a half years...and I'm kind of secretly hoping I can keep
avoiding them for the time being because I know that I would be awful
on them. But, if the opportunity presents itself, I'll bite the
bullet.
After
all, when I first started on the food side, I never thought that I
would feel comfortable using our electronic pricing guns (also known
as a Telxon or Gemini), but now I can do price changes and count
requests like a pro. I thought I would have a nervous breakdown the
day that I began doing orders for the department, and now I can do
them without any worry (though admittedly, ordering organic milk is
always a crapshoot for me).
So,
if I learned those new skills by swapping departments, there's no
reason why I can't learn other skills in other areas of the store.
It'll help me update my resume with more information, and make me a
more well-rounded person in the process. And, while I will admit
that I will probably need a couple of weeks to get familiar with a
new area, I think that if people are patient enough with me and will
work with me, it'll be easy peasy.
And,
that's the most important thing of all. I need people to work with
me to help me understand how things work and who are willing to show
me. And, most of all, I want people to have a positive attitude with
me. A lot of the frustration that I experienced in my job in the
past has been related to the “Nucleus of Negativity” I spoke
about two weeks ago in this very space. When people are generally in
a good mood, and are optimistic about how things are going, it rubs
off on others, and if others are happy, there's a good chance that
I'll be happy too.
On
the flipside, if I'm in an area where everyone is in a bad mood, and
where everyone is super-stressed, and where everyone around me does
more complaining than anything else, then that too will rub off on
me.
What
can I say? When it comes to feelings and emotions, I'm like a
sponge.
Of
course, I'm not saying that anything like this has happened in any of
the departments I worked in. I still have warm fuzzies for my dairy
and frozen peeps, and I have love for the people who I have worked
with in some of the other food departments I worked in as a
substitute.
Even
on store standards I had people who...well...actually, come to think
of it, most of the people on that job kind of screwed me over, which
lead to my wanting out of store standards in the first place. Okay,
bad example!
The
point is that I'm really looking forward to the change. I think that
while I will be out of my comfort zone for the first few days, I'm
sure that nobody will leave me completely stranded either. It'll
take time, but I have full confidence that I will embrace my new role
in my new department in a matter of days.
And,
if not, I have other options on the backburner! But, those will have
to remain hidden for another time.
Hey,
a diary's gotta have a FEW secrets, right?
I
start over there April 20...I'll let you all know how it's going in
the April 25 entry, all right?
TO
BE CONTINUED...
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