Yeouch.
Thus endeth the most physically exhausting and painful week of my life. Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but, eh. My back hurts.
The tale begins two weeks ago. After months of searching and being rejected by various about a dozen places for a job, Barnes and Noble in Freehold called back. It wasn't for a bookseller job, though. Gilder Lerhman be damned. This was for receiving. But, I remembered the receiving department in Howell wasn't very big, and the manager there saying it wasn't a really bad job, so, in terrible want of money, I took it.
I went in for a little orientation on Friday, the 21st. Since I knew the store fowards and back already since I've gone there a thousand times since the place opened, I really didn't need to store tour. I sat and filled out papers in the small breakroom in the back, which is characteristic of all employee breakrooms - a small, crampt, bleak, depresssing looking affair with a dirty sink, bashed up lockers, dirty floors, and a too-small table covered in crumbs, newpaper pieces, and some boxes of Entenmen's cakes, which, I think were an offering to the employees. I've always gotten the impression from everywhere else that I've worked that receiving people were sort of unter-employees, and especially since I was new, I didn't take lest someone give me the evil eye and ask me what the hell it was that I was doing.
The job was for full time, and at first it was from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday -Friday, but by the end of the orientation, it changed to 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. A half-hour earlier. Ugh. I would have rathered it be until 4:30. I hate getting up early.
I had the weekend to prepare for my new job. Monday morning, I was in at 7:30 a.m., to begin my life as a full time receiving person.
Nearly immediate, the truck had pulled up, and the other fellow, Joe, began to unload it. He tossed the boxes from the pallet from the truck onto a lift, and I took the boxes from the lift and carried them a little ways to make a pile. The problem was that this truck was dropping off 2-3 full pallets of boxes, most weighing around 40 lbs each, and the lift, to me, was at shoulder level. I was lifting these heavy boxes at the least optimal position. Plus, I was doing it at time when most people I know aren't even awake yet.
As soon as the truck was unloaded, the UPS guy pulled up. He would drop off the magazines, usually a load of about 12 boxes which weigh 56 lbs each, plus about 20 or so smaller boxes. Again, I had to life these from eye-level and sometimes higher, as it took a little to walk across to where the magazines were, so Joe piled them up, and more than a few were above my head.
After moving nearly 2 tons by 9 a.m., it's time to unload the boxes. At a table which is already piled high with books, I'd go back to the pile that I made, grab a box, bring it back, scan it with a thing called a "PDT", which accepts the boxs as being received. I cut the thing open, empty it of styrofoam peanuts, take the books out, check it against a manifest, and put the books on piles arranged by certain topics. These didn't make sense alot of the time. Pets, Transportation, Humour, and Sports all went on the same pile.
I got a few weird surprises while unloading the boxes. There were some hilarious romance novels which came out, and I'd read the backs with a Scottish accent. By the end, I was having so much fun with the Scottish accent thing, I was reading the backs of cookbooks and self-help books in it. But on Tuesday, things got weird. Box after box had piles of weird sex books, including, surprisingly, one by DK Eyewitness, the cool publisher which I'm sure everyone has a book from, and they had naked people on the cover! Alot of them did! And right in the middle of doing things, too! GAH! I didn't need to see that!
Each day, I'd go home with a massive back ache. By the end of the week, it was so bad that if I even touched my back, it'd hurt with a stinging pain. I wasn't able to continue. I can't lift 2 tons a day for 5 days a week. By Friday, I was a mess. I had bags under my eyes, every muscle hurt, from my legs, back, arms, and neck. It felt like my shoulders were sliding off, and my head felt like there was a 40lb weight in the back of it, and it wanted to peel back off of my neck. I told them that I couldn't go on. They looked for a bookseller position for me, but they said that they were all full. So, once again, I'm unemployed. However, this has given me immense inspiration to start sewing with a furor, so I ordered about $500 would of wool flannel, kersey, jean wool, and shirting to get cracking, along with my Civil War signs.
Strange to say, I actually liked Barnes and Noble, the company. They weren't blatantly corporate, they didn't want to take over the world, and, while the manager acted in typical manager fashion when I told her I couldn't do it, she was still very kind. The company actually trusted its employees. What I really liked was that they let you keep the stripped paperback books that they were throwing out. Once they tear the covers off, they toss them in a box in the back, and there they were for anyone's hands. I loaded up. I also snagged a few magazines, too. Plus, if I stayed, they let you borrow a hardcover book for two weeks, and the discount was 30%. Pretty neat. Kicks the ass of Wal-Mart and Target's 10%, so you actually save money on the purchase price, rather than barely covering the tax.
It'd be nice to actually get a full time, well paying job that has something to do with what I'm interested in so we can get married already. GRR.
The tale begins two weeks ago. After months of searching and being rejected by various about a dozen places for a job, Barnes and Noble in Freehold called back. It wasn't for a bookseller job, though. Gilder Lerhman be damned. This was for receiving. But, I remembered the receiving department in Howell wasn't very big, and the manager there saying it wasn't a really bad job, so, in terrible want of money, I took it.
I went in for a little orientation on Friday, the 21st. Since I knew the store fowards and back already since I've gone there a thousand times since the place opened, I really didn't need to store tour. I sat and filled out papers in the small breakroom in the back, which is characteristic of all employee breakrooms - a small, crampt, bleak, depresssing looking affair with a dirty sink, bashed up lockers, dirty floors, and a too-small table covered in crumbs, newpaper pieces, and some boxes of Entenmen's cakes, which, I think were an offering to the employees. I've always gotten the impression from everywhere else that I've worked that receiving people were sort of unter-employees, and especially since I was new, I didn't take lest someone give me the evil eye and ask me what the hell it was that I was doing.
The job was for full time, and at first it was from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday -Friday, but by the end of the orientation, it changed to 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. A half-hour earlier. Ugh. I would have rathered it be until 4:30. I hate getting up early.
I had the weekend to prepare for my new job. Monday morning, I was in at 7:30 a.m., to begin my life as a full time receiving person.
Nearly immediate, the truck had pulled up, and the other fellow, Joe, began to unload it. He tossed the boxes from the pallet from the truck onto a lift, and I took the boxes from the lift and carried them a little ways to make a pile. The problem was that this truck was dropping off 2-3 full pallets of boxes, most weighing around 40 lbs each, and the lift, to me, was at shoulder level. I was lifting these heavy boxes at the least optimal position. Plus, I was doing it at time when most people I know aren't even awake yet.
As soon as the truck was unloaded, the UPS guy pulled up. He would drop off the magazines, usually a load of about 12 boxes which weigh 56 lbs each, plus about 20 or so smaller boxes. Again, I had to life these from eye-level and sometimes higher, as it took a little to walk across to where the magazines were, so Joe piled them up, and more than a few were above my head.
After moving nearly 2 tons by 9 a.m., it's time to unload the boxes. At a table which is already piled high with books, I'd go back to the pile that I made, grab a box, bring it back, scan it with a thing called a "PDT", which accepts the boxs as being received. I cut the thing open, empty it of styrofoam peanuts, take the books out, check it against a manifest, and put the books on piles arranged by certain topics. These didn't make sense alot of the time. Pets, Transportation, Humour, and Sports all went on the same pile.
I got a few weird surprises while unloading the boxes. There were some hilarious romance novels which came out, and I'd read the backs with a Scottish accent. By the end, I was having so much fun with the Scottish accent thing, I was reading the backs of cookbooks and self-help books in it. But on Tuesday, things got weird. Box after box had piles of weird sex books, including, surprisingly, one by DK Eyewitness, the cool publisher which I'm sure everyone has a book from, and they had naked people on the cover! Alot of them did! And right in the middle of doing things, too! GAH! I didn't need to see that!
Each day, I'd go home with a massive back ache. By the end of the week, it was so bad that if I even touched my back, it'd hurt with a stinging pain. I wasn't able to continue. I can't lift 2 tons a day for 5 days a week. By Friday, I was a mess. I had bags under my eyes, every muscle hurt, from my legs, back, arms, and neck. It felt like my shoulders were sliding off, and my head felt like there was a 40lb weight in the back of it, and it wanted to peel back off of my neck. I told them that I couldn't go on. They looked for a bookseller position for me, but they said that they were all full. So, once again, I'm unemployed. However, this has given me immense inspiration to start sewing with a furor, so I ordered about $500 would of wool flannel, kersey, jean wool, and shirting to get cracking, along with my Civil War signs.
Strange to say, I actually liked Barnes and Noble, the company. They weren't blatantly corporate, they didn't want to take over the world, and, while the manager acted in typical manager fashion when I told her I couldn't do it, she was still very kind. The company actually trusted its employees. What I really liked was that they let you keep the stripped paperback books that they were throwing out. Once they tear the covers off, they toss them in a box in the back, and there they were for anyone's hands. I loaded up. I also snagged a few magazines, too. Plus, if I stayed, they let you borrow a hardcover book for two weeks, and the discount was 30%. Pretty neat. Kicks the ass of Wal-Mart and Target's 10%, so you actually save money on the purchase price, rather than barely covering the tax.
It'd be nice to actually get a full time, well paying job that has something to do with what I'm interested in so we can get married already. GRR.