The Not Happy Thread

CD Rom.

 

Old CD drives do. My old one used to drive me nuts because it wouldn't stay shut unless I held it shut until it gave up trying to open.

 

I'll have to try and find a cheap Blu-ray player.

 

I do not know if you read my post?

Me: Disc drives do not open. CD drives do.
You: Old CD drives do.
Me:

 

Just home from my husband's follow-up to his throat scan appointment about 20 minutes ago. No firm diagnosis yet, but it's not looking good. The consultant called me in to the room at the end of my husband's appointment to tell me that the 'throat ulcer' is 'serious.' Within the next 2 weeks my husband will be going into hospital to be operated on, and get a biopsy. We'll take things from there.

Scary stuff. You think you're immune ...but you're not.

 

Bugger.

 

Best wishes to you both. I hope they're able to take care of the problem.

 

Very sorry to hear that Jan. I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

 

I was apparently turned down for two of the personal loans for school so now I'm barely going to get by. I'll have to try and live off of about $100 month in food with is about half the amount a person gets on food stamps. And his the thing, a person can't get food stamps as a student unless you ALSO work 20 hours or do 20 hours school work credit. No wonder the U.S. colleges are behind other countries, they don't allow you to focus on work.

 

They're all cheap these days, less than $100.

 

Oh dear! Fingers crossed for you. Remember a lot of the possibilities are treatable even if serious. Feel free to PM me if you want anything medical interpreted.

 

I found a CD/DVD burner that is only $14 with instant rebate and free shipping.

 

I'll be thinking about you and hoping every thing goes well.

 

I hope things go well. *hugs*

 

Thanks for the good wishes, everybody, and especially to @GingerCoffee for the offer of medical interpretation—we may need it. I appreciate all the support from the forum. Thanks.

 

Ugh. I don't like this at all.

Thinking about you guys. Keep us updated.

 

That really sucks. I still live at home, and when I was studying I got some kind of government assistance, because my parents don't get an income. My father hasn't been able to work for almost 20 years, because he has chronic fatigue syndrome, and so I averagely got about 400-500 euros every month. That was plenty to pay for my studies, to buy anything I personally needed, and to give the rest of it to my parents. Of course, they check on you regularly to make sure you're actually studying and you're doing some effort to get good grades, but that's not more than normal.

I hope you'll find a way to get by!

 

Thanks @jannert and @KaTrian ! I have been talking to my assistant manager (my immediate supervisor) and he doesn't think I'm doing a bad job. He agrees I've been dealt a rough hand with my department because everything tends to fall back on my shoulders. He also see how hard I work every day. When the store manager walked my department last, he said my dept. is not meeting expectations and I absolutely HAVE TO get there. The company is no longer going to tolerate DM's not producing the expected goals. Then he went through his whole little speech on exactly what the expectations are and basically told me things that I already knew and could have told him. What he did not do was ask me what is preventing me from reaching our desired goals - which is something he does on walks through most other departments. He know's I'm not stupid. I just don't think he's aware of how keenly aware I am of the goings-on in my department.

If he had asked, I could have told him if sales were up or down, how my dept. was trending compared to last year and compared to the store, what my best and worst categories were (and my strategies for trying to boost sales), and what obstacles I am facing WITHOUT using the typical excuse, "well the overnights didn't do blah blah blah." I could have also shown him the hr by hr routine I developed for my dept. to run smoothly and meet expectations, as well as my by day plan to get my dept. caught up on freight, returns, and mods, including exactly who is to do what on which days, by which time and a plan B if someone is not here AND suggested ways that the front end and overnight team can help WITHOUT impeding their schedules.

He talks about how retail is not luck. Where we perform is where we get sales. I could add to that, where my attention goes is where things look good. The clip strips look good all over the store, but that's because I've been working them every day trying to clear rocket carts for the next shift and keep my back room under control. My battery sales are UP, but I work batteries every day, ensuring all the homes are faced out, zoned, and priced. The candy sales are up and down as are gift cards, however, this time last year, my department had candy featured not just at the check outs, but in other main allies, and gift cards had a much larger facing at every checkout (now here is one black destination cube that people can't seem to find as easily). Clip strips are selling well, but they are down a few percent. I'm willing to bet that it is because this time last year, they didn't have an 82 DM and clipstrips were hung basically in any open place, whereas now I'm very strict about adhering to company guidelines.

So I know what I'm doing, but when it comes to being able to show off what all I can do, I feel like I drew the short straw because most of my day is spent doing the simple things that other people could do. I am really considering finding another job, or perhaps transferring to another store (there are tons of walmarts here). I still expect things to be challenging (I mean it's work) but not Impossible. I mean I never even present my issues to management without at least one potential solution. and still nothing gets accomplished. And they wonder why so many people jumped ship when the new store opened. (ironically right by my apt.) I'm just too stubborn to let go until I prove that I can get the desired results. I can drive sales with the time to merchandise better. I can cut shrink with the time to count merchandise and protect high dollar items. I can maintain clean, in stock, and zoned, if I'm not doing three people's roles. Really this department isn't hard to run. It's just the lack of role clarity across the three shifts and the "oh Andrae can handle it" attitude people have when they don't want to deal with it.

In my opinion, ff it is an overnight cashier's job to put away the front end returns. They shouldn't be able to tell me, "oh I didn't get to it because I didn't have time to sort them." As I see it. That is the job they are expected to do so that when I come in at 7 AM, I can do the job I'm expected to do. If I do my job well, that is in turn less that rolls over to them and vice versa. But they don't think that way. In my opinion if the front end ZS says the cashiers CSMs will work the candy so that I can knock out my returns, I will get the returns done because that's the expectation, I shouldn't come back at the end of the day with all the candy just sitting there. That's when the store manager comes to me and says, "why did the candy not get worked? this is why we're losing sales." Two which I have to say I'll do the candy instead, next time. At that point my hands are tied. Working the candy same day, is non-negotiable. so either they do it or I do. and usually that means i do, even if I'm staying 2 hrs late.

Ha ha this was longer than expected. But I'm sure you see my point. I've got more talent than is showing in the results. I maintain a positive attitude and present solutions and not problems and try to find a way to make things work despite the lack of resources (time or people). And I know I'm not crazy. When I took over my dept. everyone else said good luck and asked if I really knew what I was getting into. Nobody wants this job. I think it's because of the "that's our last priority" attitude. I mean the checkouts even got written out of the remodel, but the Store manager still wants me to install the new shelves, but no one wants to help me develop a realistic, executable plan to get them done in a timely manner. ha ha. I can't and won't take personal responsibility for their f*** ups any more.

 

You know you're doing your best. They want to be idiots, they are going to lose you. Make up your mind right now that you are going to look for another job, starting tomorrow. Don't put up with this stress. It's a bad company. I refuse to shop at ASDA here in the UK because they are a Walmart company, and I've known for years that they treat their employees like shit. Apply a few other places and see what happens. You will feel less stressed knowing you're taking hold of the situation and turning it to your own advantage. And you WILL enjoy telling them to shove the job where the sun doesn't shine, once you've landed another one.

 

omg quit staring at the camera! Is that your real eye color or are you using some kind of photo shop? If it is real your eyes are gorgeous.

It look that even with me getting turned down for those extra loans I may have read something wrong and I will still be getting enough money to pay for my expenses on a shoe string budget and be able to get a cheap car $2,000 for next semester. We'll see here in about a week when I get the money.

*Fingers CrosseD*

 

Oh, that's good to hear! I'm not rich enough to start sending food packets to people that might need them.

It has got a filter over it, so I suppose I was slightly cheating... this is the original:

 

Cheater cheater bo beater banana fanna foe feter me my moe meter CHEATER!

 

Oh, and just dropped $400 on school books. That was the USED prices.

A cool thing my professor taught me. If you want to find the cheapest prices for books on the net, go to isbnsearch.org. All you do is enter the ISBN# and it will give a list of new prices, used prices, and even 'rental' prices of a book is printed in eformat.

 

I'm just happy I have eyes.

Schoolbooks can be crazy expensive. I spent hundreds of euros in my first year on books I probably will never open again.

 

You know, you're right. But I guess I really shouldn't complain, because I'm not quite ready to let go yet. perhaps its pride, perhaps it's confidence. But I know the goals are attainable. I know my department should be simple. And if I go, I want to go knowing that I didn't give up, but rather turned an impossible situation into a profitable one. From a profit standpoint, m department is hugely important because the markup on most of that merchandise is so high (e.g. anywhere between 35% and 80%). As a store, we aren't reaping the potential benefits because things aren't selling like they should.

On the one hand it is largely due to too many out of stocks. I agree with the philosophy that when it comes to impulse, seeing is buying. If it is on the shelf with a price, the chances of someone buying it are better. The challenge to impulse is that it is all in presentation and customer desire. They weren't looking for it to begin with, but they saw it and wanted it. On the other hand, some things sell better than others in certain places (hence clip strip). We've got to find better ways of getting merchandise to the customers. Apparently, we've always had an issue with batteries, which are currently my top profit and top sellers. Maybe we need more than 3 destinations where people can find them. Gift cards, our highest markup yet at like 99% (making them almost all profit), sell really really well, but not as well as last year because we don't have as many, maybe we need to make the destination cube more visible by putting it where most customers go. (Too often, customers can't find it because it's too far down.)

You see challenges excite me. When I look at it from a task-based standpoint, this job sucks. However, I have fun strategizing and merchandising. I mean how do you make people buy more impulse while reducing the amount of space you have for impulse merchandise? When the first answer ("better in stock") doesn't work, then what? How to make people buy things they didn't come in for that are usually priced higher than the same product in the actual department?

D82 seems like such an uncomplicated department. And it is. But at the same time it has unique and complex challenges such as the ones I described before (too much work thrown onto one person's shoulders, too much merchandise spread across the store, too many people wanting too much time, etc.). But when I look at how far I've come by working it, I've grown tremendously as a person, as a manager. I see the potential. I see the skills I've gained. If I can convince management to help me overcome a couple of obstacles, then I know I can deliver even if for my own sake. Even if it means throwing their words back at them and calling me out when they blow me off. I've raised my game, it's time they raised theirs. I'mma start looking, and hen the time comes, when the energy is right, if they haven't gotten their act together I'm walking. I guess I'm just stubborn this way. lol