okay. I'm taking a little break from my updates about dieting and ATKINS and whatnot. Yes, I am still trying to get a perfect six pack going on, but I have to tell you, I seriously regret naming my blog that. In a way, it's very limiting. But, I guess it speaks volumes about the kind of superficial crap that is really important to me, sadly enough.

But enough of that.
I would like to talk right now about the retail industry. Quite a lot gets said from the customers point of view but now I am going to tell you how it is from the clerks point of view.

I have worked in the service industry all my life. I worked for Dairy Queen and Barnes and Noble Booksellers among other places. And now I work in the Military Exchange industry. It is, so far, the worst working experience I have had. But, every single day, I put my "Game Face" on. I go in and I do try my hardest to make sure the store looks good and people get what they want. I have never ever looked at customers as being "the enemy" or "them" or anything like that. I view them as my team-mates. I try to help you get what you want/need and if I succeed, we have achieved a small satisfying shopping victory. That's my main objective.

I am still shocked at how many of my colleagues love to bitch routinely about customers, usually behind closed doors. And most of the time it's about nothing! I'll hear them telling some story about how they had to track down a certain item for 20 minutes for some insistent person and I am thinking "uhm--- that's our JOB. That's why you GET PAID and come here every day."

I am a big believer in "if you don't like your job, CHANGE JOBS." Don't bitch about your job every single day. Once in a while, fine. I can handle that. But not every day every 15 minutes.

I myself am changing positions because I can no longer tolerate the level of incompetence my boss displays. I had a conversation with a co-worker about him, and I felt bad about the talk. It's not tasteful to discuss your boss to others in his employ. But I was doing my best to be tactful, trying to guage their impression of him. And basically it seems like the rest of the staff tolerates his lack of work ethic and his lack of knowledge because he is nice and will readily grant days off and let people leave early.

Am I missing something here?

I want a full day of productive work. Since when did this go out of fashion?

I recall a day at Dairy Queen many years ago when a certain employee came back from lunch late YET AGAIN and he had the manager (his girlfriend, sort of) change his time in the machine to look as if he had come back on time. And I said "You know BIFF, do ya really think that's fair to everyone else? I get 30 minutes, Sally May over here gets 30 minutes... why should you take an hour but be paid as if you only took half an hour?" and he got all offended and was like "it's no big deal man, come on."

Oh well.

I just believe in certain things when dealing with customers. If somebody enters your area, LOOK AT THEM. Say hello. You don't have to be annoying, as in "hiya howsitgoincanihelpyafindanythingtoday?" A simple, "good morning" will do, in my opinion. Uhm, we are actually trained in my job to try and use people's rank, as in "Good Morning Major Joe" but I usually don't. I may say "have a nice day, chief" after they have made their purchases but I don't go nuts.

Also, why do so many of my co-workers have a problem with DOUBLE CHECKING the back-stock to see if we really ARE out of an item? I mean, it takes two seconds. Walk your lazy ass back their and LOOK if a customer asks. Yes, even if you looked this morning. Four hours ago. What is it going to hurt? And WHY--- I mean, any job I've ever worked at it takes me 30 seconds to go check and see if an item is really out of stock, why when I am acting the part of a customer and I ask it invariably takes the person 15 minutes to come back to me? That is so strange.

But I will tell you what hurts the retail service people more than anything else. For me, I read something Michael Dukakis said you have to do the work for the work, not the rewards, and it is true. But , in my opinion, I really go the extra mile for people, pulling all kinds of strings and many are very verbally appreciative but in two years nobody has ever ever made the effort to write a comment card about the service I provided them or say anything to my boss. Most companies have systems set up to reward employees for going "above and beyond". So in a way, if you get great service at some place and you make no effort to let anyone know about it, you are costing yourself good service in the long run. Because that person who makes 6 bucks or 7 bucks an hour to deal with customer issues all day long, it takes a toll on you. ESPECIALLY in fast food where you work your ass off for peanuts and everybody from the customers to your bosses treat you like dirt.

I'll admit it. There are a lot of BAD WEIRD customers out there and when they come in you just have to do your job and move on. But there are also a LOT of bad retail clerks out there. I mean, how many times have you been at the cash register and the person does not even acknowledge your presence or even bother to read your total to you?

Another thing : some retail people actually DO like our jobs and we ARE trying to give you the best service. But you should know that OUR bosses burden us with so much POLICY crap it is unbelievable. The facilty I work at now has so many policies coming from the BUSINESS side and the MILITARY side that NOBODY, not even the category team manager, can keep track of them all. Also, our bosses are NOT concerned with YOU, the customer. It's true. I have YET to meet an exception to this rule, except when I worked for BArnes and Noble. Every person, boss or otherwise, that I worked with there really did love books and they love customers who love books and they really do want you to enjoy yourself and find what you need. ------ But mostly, bosses are worried about their bottom line. What are the sales? And that IS SMART. It's business. It's capitalism. Just know that customer's needs take a backseat to whatever is going to drive sales. The two are not always compatible.

Anyway, just thought I would get the ball rolling sharing some thoughts about the service industry.

---I.W.A.