12:34 a.m. - MON 4/17/01
My new tradition? Celebrate Easter by working in a bookstore
My first day at work was yesterday...

The store was open from noon till six, but they had people come in at nine, to shelve and whatnot ( I got there at quarter-to-nine. When I saw what time they were opening, I thought I'd screwed up, but then other people started showing up, and I was fine ).

I didn't know exactly how the day would go, but I sort of expected I'd do the initial paperwork, maybe a couple hours of shelving, then go home ( I knew they wouldn't have me on the register or answering phones; I know the Borders computer system, but I'm sure I still need to learn to do things the "The Borders Way" ).

At first, John thought he was going to have me shelve in the morning, then when more people came in, do the paperwork and watch "the sexual harassment video" ( I wanted to say, "But I already KNOW how to do that!", then thought better of it ).

But for whatever reason, he decided against that, and I ended up shelving all day, from nine until 5:30 ( In the morning, I shelved the business section with Jeanna--I think that's how it's spelled. It's pronounced "juh-NAY"--and in the afternoon, I shelved the gardening and animal sections by myself ).

Shelving for seven and a half hours is about five or six hours past my comfort zone, but actually, I thought I did ok; It wasn't till maybe the last hour when I found myself looking at the clock every couple minutes, and it wasn't till after five when I started to "slack" a bit. And when John came by late in the afternoon, he seemed pleased with what had been accomplished ( He called me a "shelving machine", which amused me. As I've told anyone who would listen, including John, shelving is NOT my favorite part of the bookstore experience ).

It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't any great thrill either. But I took comfort in the fact that there won't be a lot of "all shelving, all the time" days in my future ( I'm still not completely clear about my "job definition"--Maybe you do the thing you do, "cashier" or "customer service" or whatnot, unless they need you to do something else--but I'm assuming my days will be dominated by "customer service"...whatever THAT is! ).

A couple customers asked me about this or that, because I was on the floor, and my help ranged from "I dunno. I'm new", to "Let me ask someone about that...", to "I think I saw that section somewhere around here...".

It WASN'T pretty.

It seems I've signed up at a bad time in this store's history. Staffing levels have apparently been cut back--which would explain why the store has looked worse than the worst day ever at my old bookstore each time I've been there--the store failed its recent "internal audit", which I guess has unhappy repercussions, and last but not least, there was the big "job description" edict that came down from on high, which left some workers VERY unhappy ( Which is why I have a job right now; Some workers were unhappy enough to QUIT ).

I don't know what this all means to me, but I have some ideas...

It may make this a lonelier place to be than the old bookstore. Jeanna said, as I was leaving yesterday, that with staffing where it is now, you didn't really have time to do anything but run around, and you see fewer of your coworkers during the course of a work week ( Add to that that I'm part time, and it seems like this could end up being just a place where I WORK, if you know what I mean. But ANYWAY...).

It's WAY late, and while I don't have much I have to do tomorrow, there IS the matter of a very important AUDITION ( I'm going to do a test run to the place during the day ), so I should hit the sack.

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