customers have all-of-a-sudden started calling me by my name

which, i mean
i have a name tag on, but still
is unusual enough to be a sign of some sort

my manager had something come up so she wasn't working
so i was working with dennis
there's some display i was supposed to execute
which made no sense
but he was telling me about it

wait, it's on the rounder, i say
i just moved all the stuff from the christmas displays onto the rounders
i don't have any place else to put them

but that doesn't even really look good
can't you just clear it off

look, if you are telling me that's what needs to go there
i will make it happen
i can box it up and put it in the back if i have to

why don't you put those boxed sets here, he says pointing to the
very bottom shelf under seasonal sips
we had previously decided to keep the bottom shelf clear of bottles
and just use dummy boxes or wine racks that read as box-like

yeah, ok, i can do that
if i move stuff around again, i might be able to fit the rest of that stuff in

well, i'm better than i thought i was, i say as i walk into the office a while later
because i fit that all in

i also actually cleaned the rounder
because the "really good" dusting i had given it before i put the christmas stuff on it
had not taken and they seemed revoltingly dirty to me
so they are clean
and the three items that i could find that goon it are set up
although not in the jars they are supposed to be
because we can't find any
the other things are showing in stock
so either that's an error
or more likely--  because i don't remember seeing any of them before
more likely they are still in the pallets waiting to be unpacked

dennis put me on the sweep log for 1pm
but in the spirit of cleaning
which i was actually feeling
and since i was going to lunch at 1pm
i started sweeping at noon
it's supposed to be a 10 minute quick pass through
with the idea being it never gets bad if you do a shitty job three times a day
but it was slow and my back hurt from "team lifting" an emerson shelf alone
so i did a more through job of my department

after lunch i stayed on the register while chanel went to lunch
myrka said she didn't mind staying up there, that she didn't have anything important
but i said, no, my back hurts, and i would just as soon stand in one spot for a while

all during christmas i was straining at the bit to get off register
so i could do my job, only, i'm the only one who seems to care
whether i do my job or not
and today
today i felt like i had done enough

this whole christmas thing reminded me how much i kinda like the register
because what you can do on register is cheer people up
i like that


one woman came through
giant bottle of olive oil, that's all
olive oil, i say
going through the holidays, you can use a lot of oil, she says
yeah, i say, especially if one of the holidays you celebrate happens to be hanukkah
then it's kinda a thing
then you know pretty much what happened
absolutely, i say, and happy new year


karl comes in and he's asking myrka and i if we know the explorer percent signup goal
30% i say without thinking
30%?!  he looks at me incredulously
oh, yeah yeah, right, used to be 30%
they've lowered it, what is it now 15%

14% karl says
the manager is always leaving notes about how we should know what our percent is
although, we can't know unless they look it up and tell us
can you tell me what my percentage is, i ask
karl goes and gets the sheet
he asks me what my number is, he reads across
41% he says somewhat flatly
dennis who has since walked into the room wolf whistles me

karl goes back to myrka
you are only at 4%, you need to fix this or
they will start having performance conversations with you
this is really bad form
as this is kind of a pre-performance conversation and it should not really be happening
in front of other employees
but that just if you care about that kinda stuff
which this company most emphatically does not
just remember dennis chimes in sign up 5 per day
if you can do that you should be fine
this is some number they just pulled out of their ass
it depends entirely on the percentage of the people you ring up who are not already members
5 per day may be safe or it may not

my personal goal with it is a little different
i want everybody to know about the program
and sign up for it if they want to
but, of course, i have a rough number goal too
and that number is 50%

this is basically what i say:
you're a member with us, right?
if they aren't i say, most of the time:
would you like to sign up to get really good coupons through email?  it's free!!!

normally my numbers are between 25%-30%
which is good
i figure i'm a fucking team player
i'm bringin up the group numbers

but, lately
idk
people's responses to me have been
surprising
like, literally, surprising to me
they've started calling me by my name
during christmas several people asked me why the person with the human interaction skills
was at the furthest register
and i feel like several people who were drowning in the holly daze
looked at me like i was the lifeguard coming to save them

sometimes there are a bunch of open cashiers
but they gave us these llama signs to hold up
this register open
and most them
will just stand there holding up the stupid llama sign
and i'm trying to get the poor people's attention
saying something i never ever let anyone say who was working for me

i can help the next person here
waving semi-hysterically

why can't we say that
they used to ask me
it's a straight line, it's right in front of you
you can see who is next
this is not the post office
the polite thing to do is to make eye contact and say
i can help you here
besides, if you leave it up to them who's next
you might get into some sort of social darwinism situation
you gotta be in control


there's more but i might write it tomorrow
need external stimuli