It's back to cold here in Athens. For a few days it warmed up a bit, gave us a break. But bam, freezing again.
Been a fun week. My friend Elton came and stayed with me for a bit. We had a few super-fun nights out (where was my tiara??), and some super-fun nights in watching Family Guy and crappy (read: awesome) movies. One night we went to the grocery store and made a smorgasbord for dinner- ugh, I was so full! I just wish I wouldn't have had to be up early every morning for school, and wouldn't have had to be away at work some nights until 10pm. It's been a while since I've had someone to hang out with more than once a week... alas, he went back to Trasa's today, so it's just me and the cats again.
Got to work the other day... they put up a damn bell by the exit door. "If You Received GREAT Service... Please Ring Bell!". Yeah. One of those. It looks just like the ones you find in fast-food restaurants; the Arby's on the Eastside comes to mind. It makes me want to be mean to people to keep them from ringing it, because the bell is loud and distracting and startles me when it's quiet otherwise. Also, I seriously dislike that type of motivation to do my job. I work in a retail store at the customer service desk. I know I am supposed to be nice to people, blow sunshine and sparkles up their asses, and even wipe it for them if that's what they want. And I guess I do a good enough job that they keep me scheduled there. But I don't need a bell to validate that for me. I find it horribly degrading. It's like giving a treat to a dog when he sits, or putting a gold star on a chart for elementary school children when they're good little conformers. I'm not a fucking performing monkey in a ruffled collar; I'm not willing to jump through flaming hoops for the bell-ring of acceptance and praise. You want to motivate me? You want to raise morale? Try some of these: Schedule enough people at once so that everyone working isn't so stressed and on-edge ( I can't ring up two people, take three credit payments, transfer a call, rent the truck, and take a phone order at the same time). Don't make me beg the not-so-bright, infantile, power-tripping 20-year-old they hired as a supervisor off the street for a bathroom break (You were a shift manager at [fried chicken fast-food place]?? Holy shit, you're the most qualified ever!). Acknowledge the fact that I have 10 years of work history (almost 7 at one employer) and a bachelor's degree and pay me more than $8.82 an hour, or at least pay me more than that 18-year-old with no experience. Or even this: try speaking to us with some respect and not like we're all six years old. Pretend we're not expendable, even if we are. Don't just boss us around and bark orders at us; let us have just a little bit of fun- especially if you're just standing around doing nothing and chatting it up too. Don't allow the public to walk on us and treat us badly because they know that you'll just apologize for our 'poor service' and give them whatever they want to keep them from bitching to Corporate. And lose the frickin' bell.
I thought I had more interesting things to say, but I thought wrong. So be it.
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."
-John Donne
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