I. AM. KMART!
A funny story from about two weeks ago.
This was the Monday after I got back from my trip to Washington. As I've mentioned before, I'm currently part of this cleaning crew at work. Our job is to go through the store and... clean. We're trying to give the store a make-over. Everything from cleaning and repainting shelves to redoing layouts. On this particular week, we werew in softlines (the clothing section of the store) wiping down all the racks. As we were doing this, I heard Mike, our store manager, page Mark and Josh, two of the guys on the team, up to the office. Josh has been working at Kmart for a couple of months now, since the beginning of summer, but Mark was only hired a few weeks ago. One of the things I first noticed about him is that he wears a dress shirt and tie to work. This isn't actually an uncommon thing at Kmart - if you're a manager. But we lowly associates are only required to wear white or red polo shirts. It's a bit commical actually to see him overdressing so much. According to him, he "expects to get manager training within 6 months". Apparently, he was an assistant manager at Quiznos, where he worked before here. I didn't have the heart to tell him that being an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant isn't shit compared to being a manger at Kmart.
Anyways. Back to the story.
About 5 minutes later, the two of them came back. When I asked them what that was all about, Mark told me, in a very pissed tone, that the two of them had basically just been chewed out for not working hard enough. In his words, their "productivity wasn't high enough".
Then, I heard Mike page another woman and myself to the office. Thinking I was in for the same, I prepared myself for my coming chastisement.
When I walked into the office, Mike greeted me with a warm handshake.
"Hey, Jarrod! How's it going? How was your vacation?"
"Umm... Good, I guess." I was a bit confused where this was going.
"Good, good! Anyways, I just wanted to say that you two are doing an excellent job out there with the cleaning! The district manager came through last week and noted how good it's looking! So I just wanted to say good job and keep up the great work!"
When we went back out onto the floor, Mark immediately asked me what happened.
Me: Ummm, well, apparently, I'm doing a really awesome job!
Mark: ...That's bullshit.
I had to look away at this point; I couldn't keep myself from laughing. And in my mind, I couldn't help but think, "Yeah, where's your tie now, bitch!"
Fastforward to today. Still cleaning. Well, more or less. Today, we had to move a huge stack - stack doesn't really describe it; it's more like a mountain, really - of old boxes and binders of papers that have long-since needed to be destroyed downstairs and outside so that two guys from a shreding company could pick it up and take it away to be shreded (to give you an idea of just how much paper it was, these guys had to make two seperate trips). At one point, we were using the conveyor belt, since it was much easier and quicker than lugging the boxes and binders downstairs by hand. Some of the papers fell out of a box on the way down, so I had to go down and climb under the conveyor belt to get them. As I sidled my way into the narrow space behind the conveyor belt, I made a comment along the lines of, "Man, the things I do for my job..."
Mark started laughing here. "Look, our fearless leader is getting frustrated!"
Later, as I got ready to leave for the day (and finish up the week of cleaning), Bob, the manager in charge of our cleaning team, and Mike came up and started talking to me about next week.
Bob: I'm not going to be here next week, so I'm gonna leave instructions with you, okay? Notes about what to do day-by-day. You're gonna need to watch over the crew and keep them on task. Watch Mark because sometimes he tends to wander off.
I then told him the story about the "fearless leader" comment from earlier.
Bob: Well, sometimes in life there're formal leaders and informal leaders. There's nothing wrong with being an informal leader.
Me (laughing): So, I guess this sorta makes me second-in-command after you, huh?
Bob: Yeah, more or less.
So, basically, my managers at work love me. They think I do such an awesome job, now they're even turning to me to look over and direct other people. It's fantastic. Just simply fantastic.
This was the Monday after I got back from my trip to Washington. As I've mentioned before, I'm currently part of this cleaning crew at work. Our job is to go through the store and... clean. We're trying to give the store a make-over. Everything from cleaning and repainting shelves to redoing layouts. On this particular week, we werew in softlines (the clothing section of the store) wiping down all the racks. As we were doing this, I heard Mike, our store manager, page Mark and Josh, two of the guys on the team, up to the office. Josh has been working at Kmart for a couple of months now, since the beginning of summer, but Mark was only hired a few weeks ago. One of the things I first noticed about him is that he wears a dress shirt and tie to work. This isn't actually an uncommon thing at Kmart - if you're a manager. But we lowly associates are only required to wear white or red polo shirts. It's a bit commical actually to see him overdressing so much. According to him, he "expects to get manager training within 6 months". Apparently, he was an assistant manager at Quiznos, where he worked before here. I didn't have the heart to tell him that being an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant isn't shit compared to being a manger at Kmart.
Anyways. Back to the story.
About 5 minutes later, the two of them came back. When I asked them what that was all about, Mark told me, in a very pissed tone, that the two of them had basically just been chewed out for not working hard enough. In his words, their "productivity wasn't high enough".
Then, I heard Mike page another woman and myself to the office. Thinking I was in for the same, I prepared myself for my coming chastisement.
When I walked into the office, Mike greeted me with a warm handshake.
"Hey, Jarrod! How's it going? How was your vacation?"
"Umm... Good, I guess." I was a bit confused where this was going.
"Good, good! Anyways, I just wanted to say that you two are doing an excellent job out there with the cleaning! The district manager came through last week and noted how good it's looking! So I just wanted to say good job and keep up the great work!"
When we went back out onto the floor, Mark immediately asked me what happened.
Me: Ummm, well, apparently, I'm doing a really awesome job!
Mark: ...That's bullshit.
I had to look away at this point; I couldn't keep myself from laughing. And in my mind, I couldn't help but think, "Yeah, where's your tie now, bitch!"
Fastforward to today. Still cleaning. Well, more or less. Today, we had to move a huge stack - stack doesn't really describe it; it's more like a mountain, really - of old boxes and binders of papers that have long-since needed to be destroyed downstairs and outside so that two guys from a shreding company could pick it up and take it away to be shreded (to give you an idea of just how much paper it was, these guys had to make two seperate trips). At one point, we were using the conveyor belt, since it was much easier and quicker than lugging the boxes and binders downstairs by hand. Some of the papers fell out of a box on the way down, so I had to go down and climb under the conveyor belt to get them. As I sidled my way into the narrow space behind the conveyor belt, I made a comment along the lines of, "Man, the things I do for my job..."
Mark started laughing here. "Look, our fearless leader is getting frustrated!"
Later, as I got ready to leave for the day (and finish up the week of cleaning), Bob, the manager in charge of our cleaning team, and Mike came up and started talking to me about next week.
Bob: I'm not going to be here next week, so I'm gonna leave instructions with you, okay? Notes about what to do day-by-day. You're gonna need to watch over the crew and keep them on task. Watch Mark because sometimes he tends to wander off.
I then told him the story about the "fearless leader" comment from earlier.
Bob: Well, sometimes in life there're formal leaders and informal leaders. There's nothing wrong with being an informal leader.
Me (laughing): So, I guess this sorta makes me second-in-command after you, huh?
Bob: Yeah, more or less.
So, basically, my managers at work love me. They think I do such an awesome job, now they're even turning to me to look over and direct other people. It's fantastic. Just simply fantastic.