in which i really love my job
Oct. 22nd, 2008 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ontologySo, my first day on the job, which was absolutely splendid. I met Victoria at the library, we caught up, discussed NaNo and research (amusingly, the entire DuBois chapter of NaNo -- being Victoria, Jonathan, and myself -- has got vampires figured into their stories), and knocked about town until we both had to leave for various duties. Except I realised, after having bicycled for fifteen minutes and then just about to turn onto the road for the mall, that I was an hour early. Oh dear. Well, better early than late, anyway; I poked into a few stores, and then sat down on the bench nearest Waldenbooks, took out the little white bag full of Hockman's chocolates I had just bought downtown, and a book, and read for the next half an hour. Not a bad preperation for job training at a bookstore, I suppose. Only, I had all of my library books with me, because I had checked out several (all hardcovers, naturally), and -- well, my shoulders were not having fun. Neither was the door which I was given to hang it on at Waldenbooks, come to think of it. (It had hooks and everything, I mean, it wasn't just some door I slung my bag over, but gorblimey, I was a little worried.)
So: my manager, Jim, gave me over to the woman who would be training me that evening -- her name is Jalyn, and she makes cakes for fun, with fondant and glitter icing, and is married with at least two very young children. She was very friendly and helpful, and first showed me how to do jobs, then set me to doing easier ones as busywork, and finally had me doing more difficult jobs -- such as running the register -- with her looking on to assist when necessary. I think I spent the largest portion of my time looking books up on the computer to find where in the store they were meant to go, and then shelving them. I really enjoyed this -- the rhythm of it, the bit where I got to handle books. I seemed to shelve a lot of a) romance novels, b) self-help books, and c) science-fiction/fantasy. Often a combination of the three -- well, romance and fantasy, anyway. Now I am picturing a romance-fantasy-self-help book and it is amusing me altogether more than it ought.
Working the register was fun, too, though the most frustrating of the jobs, because there are so many steps. I have to punch in an employee identification number every time, and then I had to ask the customer if they had a Borders Rewards Card, and if they did, I'd scan that, punch some more buttons, then scan in their books, and sometimes I had to punch more buttons if their books were on sale, and if they didn't have a Borders Rewards Card I had to ask if they wanted one, and if they did want one, set all of that up -- so much to remember! I was terribly slow at first, but my customers were patient and friendly; I really didn't have a bad customer all night, not even one who looked sulky or anything. (Just you wait until the holiday season, I tell myself.) And near the end of the night, when I was finally getting the rhythm of the cash register, I started to be a bit in love with that, too.
However, my favourite part is probably the ladders. Because secretly I am really only about seven years old. Yes, we have ladders. Books there aren't room for on the shelves are stored on high shelves above the shelves, so if you run out of copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for example, you can check up on the shelves before having to go into the stockroom and see if it's in there somewhere. So you have these fabulous moveable ladders to do this with. LADDERS ON WHEELS. THAT YOU PULL OUT AND
THEN CLIMB. I have a not-so-secret desire to sneak into the store on off-hours and careen around the bookstore on a ladder, but this is not a dream that is likely to be realised, so, as I told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
barefoottomboy, I will probably have to buy my own bookstore and supply it liberally with wheeled ladders.
Even better than the ladders, however, was the fact that I was instrumental in making the night of a pair of little boys -- somewhere in the region of ten years old -- who came with their mother looking for the fifth book in a series, with great urgency. It was not on the shelf. I was in the same aisle, shelving some books, and noted their distress. "I bet we have more in the back," I said, and alerted Jalyn to the dilemma. This was when I found out about the shelves with the ladders leading up to them. (Why I have never really noticed these shelves in all of my years of Waldenbooks-haunting, I don't know. But there you go.) So I was granted the honour of climbing the ladder and fetching down the desired book, which I then presented to the very excited boys and their very pleased mother. Really, it was the splendidest thing that happened all evening, seeing children so excited about a book, and getting to be the hero, and everything. Furthermore I remember being in that postion -- no, self, don't be silly, I am often in that position. Uniting a fellow booklover with an awaited book is a fantastic pleasure indeed.
So, I think I did very well, my first day. It felt more like work than training, but I loved the work, even all of the button-pushing (it had a certain aesthetic pleasure), and the walking back and forth. I remained cheerful and helpful for the duration -- it helped that I was rapturously happy -- did not complain about work, was patient about learning, connected with the customers, asked for more work when I finished a project. I'm still nervous about working the register and closing up at night, but we'll deal with that when we come to it, yeah? I'm meant to call in on Tuesday for a further schedule, and as previously mentioned, officially start at the kiosk on the fourth. And I'm kind of counting the days.
So: my manager, Jim, gave me over to the woman who would be training me that evening -- her name is Jalyn, and she makes cakes for fun, with fondant and glitter icing, and is married with at least two very young children. She was very friendly and helpful, and first showed me how to do jobs, then set me to doing easier ones as busywork, and finally had me doing more difficult jobs -- such as running the register -- with her looking on to assist when necessary. I think I spent the largest portion of my time looking books up on the computer to find where in the store they were meant to go, and then shelving them. I really enjoyed this -- the rhythm of it, the bit where I got to handle books. I seemed to shelve a lot of a) romance novels, b) self-help books, and c) science-fiction/fantasy. Often a combination of the three -- well, romance and fantasy, anyway. Now I am picturing a romance-fantasy-self-help book and it is amusing me altogether more than it ought.
Working the register was fun, too, though the most frustrating of the jobs, because there are so many steps. I have to punch in an employee identification number every time, and then I had to ask the customer if they had a Borders Rewards Card, and if they did, I'd scan that, punch some more buttons, then scan in their books, and sometimes I had to punch more buttons if their books were on sale, and if they didn't have a Borders Rewards Card I had to ask if they wanted one, and if they did want one, set all of that up -- so much to remember! I was terribly slow at first, but my customers were patient and friendly; I really didn't have a bad customer all night, not even one who looked sulky or anything. (Just you wait until the holiday season, I tell myself.) And near the end of the night, when I was finally getting the rhythm of the cash register, I started to be a bit in love with that, too.
However, my favourite part is probably the ladders. Because secretly I am really only about seven years old. Yes, we have ladders. Books there aren't room for on the shelves are stored on high shelves above the shelves, so if you run out of copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for example, you can check up on the shelves before having to go into the stockroom and see if it's in there somewhere. So you have these fabulous moveable ladders to do this with. LADDERS ON WHEELS. THAT YOU PULL OUT AND
THEN CLIMB. I have a not-so-secret desire to sneak into the store on off-hours and careen around the bookstore on a ladder, but this is not a dream that is likely to be realised, so, as I told
barefoottomboy, I will probably have to buy my own bookstore and supply it liberally with wheeled ladders. Even better than the ladders, however, was the fact that I was instrumental in making the night of a pair of little boys -- somewhere in the region of ten years old -- who came with their mother looking for the fifth book in a series, with great urgency. It was not on the shelf. I was in the same aisle, shelving some books, and noted their distress. "I bet we have more in the back," I said, and alerted Jalyn to the dilemma. This was when I found out about the shelves with the ladders leading up to them. (Why I have never really noticed these shelves in all of my years of Waldenbooks-haunting, I don't know. But there you go.) So I was granted the honour of climbing the ladder and fetching down the desired book, which I then presented to the very excited boys and their very pleased mother. Really, it was the splendidest thing that happened all evening, seeing children so excited about a book, and getting to be the hero, and everything. Furthermore I remember being in that postion -- no, self, don't be silly, I am often in that position. Uniting a fellow booklover with an awaited book is a fantastic pleasure indeed.
So, I think I did very well, my first day. It felt more like work than training, but I loved the work, even all of the button-pushing (it had a certain aesthetic pleasure), and the walking back and forth. I remained cheerful and helpful for the duration -- it helped that I was rapturously happy -- did not complain about work, was patient about learning, connected with the customers, asked for more work when I finished a project. I'm still nervous about working the register and closing up at night, but we'll deal with that when we come to it, yeah? I'm meant to call in on Tuesday for a further schedule, and as previously mentioned, officially start at the kiosk on the fourth. And I'm kind of counting the days.
