3 posts tagged “the store”

Ever get away with saying somebody else did it?

Yes.  It was one of the bad things I learned to do at The Store. 

I never learned so many bad habits as I did from The Store.  I learned to lie on a regular basis, to smile at people when I didn't mean it, to appear happy when I wasn't, to tell someone I would do them a special favour when I knew I probably wouldn't, to badmouth someone behind their back, to not tell someone something when telling them would have helped them out, to snap at someone just because I had become tired of answering their questions, to not understand that they were new at their job and needed time to learn.

I learned only a few good things: to truly cherish someone when you know they are interested in helping you, that sometimes acting happy when you are not can actually make you sort of happy and wearing a pair of tight dress pants can make people believe you actually care about your appearance.

So yeah, I am now settled into The New Job.

I am now sitting behind my own desk with my own list of, and mostly done, tasks.  The training took about 4 days and the rest of the just-under-two-weeks was spent in adding knowledge to that list of Usual Things I Will Do.  I must say that I went from Deer In Headlights mode to being pretty comfortable in a shorter than expected timeframe.  Now I am just learning to cope with the challenges of actually having things done on time.  No, I am not saying I am challenged by doing that but by the simple act of having the time to actually get things done.  Sure, my Usual Things are usually quick bursts of activity and it is the holiday season, but as I was saying last night, it's nice to have about a dozen things on my plate that are caught up as opposed to a dozen things on my plate with one or two actually getting any attention.  I feel accomplished.

Now I have to stop thinking about work at home, a habit I gathered out of pure necessity.  I was wont to say, "If I don't worry about it than nobody else will and it won't get done."  I don't have to say that now as tasks are very very defined and once I do my part it's in someone else's hands.  I am not expected to get other people's work done and I only have to nag in the very least.  People will not nag me nor do I expect many people to yell at me. I can leave at the end of the day knowing that the only unfinished tasks are reliant on other people approving my POs or replying to my emails.  Nice.

Other things?  I like the neighbourhood.  Downtown means comic book stores, Chinatown, food choices galore, streets with character, people with character and for some odd reason, more sane drivers.  Yonge & Eg had more than it's fair share of nasty ignorant drivers who liked to try and run down pedestrians.  Another thing is that I am one of those nutty people who likes a commute.  I have finished one book (creating the need for a review here) and am most of the way through another.  Yay reading!  So far?  Nice people.  Computer geeks and techies and administrators and tech writers and various types.  No yelling customers, no needy rich people, no negative emotioned coworkers (nor me) and generally normal people.

And the money.  Yay money.

So it is finally real. I signed a contract and I will be working somewhere other than retail for the first time in 5 years. The New Company is paying me decently so I don't have to worry about money for the next few months. The work sounds good so I can now rebuild the damage done by the environment I was in. More is to be said on that but for now, I am here now (literally here in a chair having just signed contracts) at a new place and officially gone from The Store.