Back in the Bookstore Again

So, yesterday, the Big Chain Bookstore I worked for last year - the one that would not give me my job back when I finished my tv gig in June - called me up and asked me to please take a shift and added that they want to put me on the schedule again. Temporarily, of course, so that they won't have to give me benefits. That sucks, but I'm looking for a way to make some of my own money to prolong unemployment benefits until I can find a real job, so it's handy. I took the shift last night and pretty promptly remembered why I hated the job in the first place, when some idiot called to find out if the book he placed on hold over the weekend was actually on hold. Now, first, I hate when people do that. Did you put it on hold? Then it's on hold. But there's a new function where people can use the company website to put items on hold in the store, which is, frankly, the stupidest frigging thing any corporate suit in the history of corporate suits could have thought of - at least insofar as things which affect the company employees but matter not one whit to the corporate suits and their jobs go.

Let me tell you right now, folks: if you look up an object on a company website, and it tells you the store has fewer than 3 of that thing, do not expect it to actually be in the store. ESPECIALLY if the website tells you the store has 1 (ONE) in stock. Because trust me when I tell you: it ain't there.

Oh sure, in theory, it's there. But in theory, people who shoot actresses in the head and then confess having done so to their chauffeurs get convicted and sentenced. In theory, when you lie under oath, you get slapped with perjury and at least fined. In theory, when you get drunk, drive your car, and hit someone, the policeman who comes to the scene of the accident and can easily smell the alcohol on your breath from literally six feet away at least writes you a ticket. A lot of shit happens in theory, but not so much of that actually resembles real life. So if the website tells you there's one in stock, get off your lazy ass, walk over to the phone, dial the store, ask the nice clerk who answers it to verify that yes, that one item does actually exist in reality, and have that nice clerk put the thing on hold for you. Don't put it on hold via the website on Saturday, and then call me at 7pm Monday evening and be a dick to me while you ask me to check and see if the thing is on hold.

I love how people will call to find information that THEY need, and then they won't either shut up long enough for you to answer their questions, or shut up long enough to hear the questions you need to have answered before you can progress. He hung up on the manager who was helping him before me three times. By the end of my time with him, all I did was repeat over and over, "I don't know what you want me to tell you, sir." Seriously.

Aside from him, however, the night went pretty smoothly and well. And I'll probably be going back in the mornings, to help stock. 7 - 11a, which means that the first 2 hours, there won't be people in the store at all. Yay!

Anyway, I had more happier stuff to write about, but I got called away, and now it's 4:14am, and I need to sleep. Napoleon will be waking me up in 5 hours.

night all,
katie