The Earliest of Birds
Those of you who know me offline will likely realize: I am not a morning person. I am not good at waking up early, and I am even worse at being pleasant when I've woken up early. However, as I settle in at my new job, I am coming to realize that I rather enjoy several of the things that happen in the morning, at work.
First of all, having now worked a couple of closing shifts (3-11) and a couple of openers (8-4), I have decided that I much prefer the openers! Although the first hour of the day and the last hour of the day are about equal in terms of boredom, the energy is very different in the morning. My Sweetie says that's because it comes at the beginning of an 8-hour shift, rather than at the end, but I really think there's more to it.
Then, yesterday, I had a new adventure: I had my first training shift on price change. The new flyer comes out on Fridays, so on Friday morning, the price change shift starts considerably before the store opens. We were clocked in by 4 am, and allowed to work in street clothes for the first 4 hours, until the store opened. We took our "lunch" break at that point, and then kept working until noon.
Price change was pretty much everything I love about reshelving library books. You're given a stack of price labels (total run for the week was over 8000, and there were 5 of us working on it) and what you have to do is find the item, remove the old price label, and hang the new one. Over and over and over again. For 8 hours. My friend Trekkie, who got me this job in the first place, and was the one training me yesterday, says that you don't have to be "a bit anal" to do the job, but it sure helps!
I'll be doing Friday morning price change for at least the next two Fridays.
For me, the biggest problem with the scheduling of Friday morning price change is that it immediately follows Thursday night, which is one of my choir nights, so I don't get home until close to 10:00....
First of all, having now worked a couple of closing shifts (3-11) and a couple of openers (8-4), I have decided that I much prefer the openers! Although the first hour of the day and the last hour of the day are about equal in terms of boredom, the energy is very different in the morning. My Sweetie says that's because it comes at the beginning of an 8-hour shift, rather than at the end, but I really think there's more to it.
Then, yesterday, I had a new adventure: I had my first training shift on price change. The new flyer comes out on Fridays, so on Friday morning, the price change shift starts considerably before the store opens. We were clocked in by 4 am, and allowed to work in street clothes for the first 4 hours, until the store opened. We took our "lunch" break at that point, and then kept working until noon.
Price change was pretty much everything I love about reshelving library books. You're given a stack of price labels (total run for the week was over 8000, and there were 5 of us working on it) and what you have to do is find the item, remove the old price label, and hang the new one. Over and over and over again. For 8 hours. My friend Trekkie, who got me this job in the first place, and was the one training me yesterday, says that you don't have to be "a bit anal" to do the job, but it sure helps!
I'll be doing Friday morning price change for at least the next two Fridays.
For me, the biggest problem with the scheduling of Friday morning price change is that it immediately follows Thursday night, which is one of my choir nights, so I don't get home until close to 10:00....