Reprieve!

Not only has our little performance at work been postponed for a week (it's been a busy week for Customer Care, as the first phase of the Fleet Bank buyout/customer merger began this past Monday), but I'm no longer the main voice (whew!). As everyone has warmed up to the idea of singing, they've gotten more confident and now it'll be more or less a group effort (a few people refuse to sing and plan to just stand there...)

Yesterday was Silly Hat Day (I love this place for doing stuff like that!) and I wore a little pooltoy basketball hoop on my head... I wonder if I'll get a Spirit Prize for it (some of the stuff is really cool). I'll let ya know, and post a photo if I get a copy and I don't look too awful in it.
- posted by Stephanie @ 4:48 AM

 
A Loud Flat

Long time no blog. I apologize.

My brain is Jell-O by the end of most days, but at least my feet aren’t hurting and I get to pee whenever I actually need to, instead of waiting for hours until there was a break in customer traffic. And I’m dreaming that I’m in training class. Which can be looked at two ways. Either that’s a good thing, and I’m getting it locked into my memory banks, or it’s a bad thing, ‘cause there’s five weeks of training to go and by the end of it, I may be looking downright scary with dark circles no amount of makeup could possibly hide.

I can’t say specific things about the training, as confidentiality precludes me, but I can say that it’s actually a lot of fun, very interesting, and I’m learning more about banking, types of accounts, and the Federal Reserve than I ever thought I could cram into my brain. But I promise that just because I’m becoming a banker, I won’t ever become boring. Nobody there acts like they’re “a banker.” Which surprised the hell out of me. I’ve also been elected to sing the lead in our training class skit/cheer, which also surprised the hell out of me. We had to come up with something bank related for a song, cheer or repetative skit. We elected to rewrite the lyrics to “I Got You, Babe.” Lucky me gets to sing both Sonny
and Cher’s parts, with the class doing the chorus of “I got you, Bank.” I don’t think I’m all that hot of a singer, but the other nineteen people in my class do, so I got the job.

Oh, lucky me. I generally don’t sing above a whisper except in the car (alone!) and at concerts where I can blend in with all the other loud and equally flat voices. This past Friday when we were going over our song, I was dumb enough to sing kinda loud (everyone else was mumbling, so my loud wasn’t really all that loud) and I won the audition that I didn’t know I was having. Serves me right for having that Frappucino with lunch.

Except in grade-school chorus, and once when I was drunk in a club and the band’s lead singer stuck a microphone in front of my face, I’ve never sung in front of people before. Never kareoked, even Ed’s never heard me really go at it full gusto. I’m gonna be so red-faced. But since we’ll be performing it this Friday in front of all the center’s managers and supervisors, I don’t think I can get away with just squeaking it out. We’re supposed to be showing our enthusiasm here.

I’m gonna try not to be mortified.

Maybe I’ll just pretend I’m in the car.
- posted by Stephanie @ 8:10 PM

 
Today, My Head's In A Sunny Place On A Warm Beach

I got the job!

Starts Monday, which means I'll most likely be working Sunday (my normal day off) to cram as much training in for my replacement as head of the department (a person who has yet to be named, but will most likely be a great and talented guy named Thomas).

Thanks for the good thoughts -- they worked!

My feet are so very happy.
- posted by Stephanie @ 6:55 PM

 

Now we can afford that Lexus...
Posted by Hello
- posted by Stephanie @ 11:04 AM

 
In My Head, It's March in Cleveland

I don't want to go in to work tomorrow.

And I don't mean that in a "just don't feel like working" sort of way.

It's more like a "it's a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon and there's nothing but crap on TV, I've read every book in the house at least four times, the newspaper's soggy, I'm alone in the house and the fireplace sits empty because I'm all out of firewood" sort of way.

And it's beginning to feel like that every single workday.

*Sigh*
- posted by Stephanie @ 8:42 PM

 
Trolling

Well folks, I think I’m fed up and I’m leaving my job of nearly nine years.

Five weeks ago, I responded to an interstore notice that they were interviewing for
assistant managers, as a few were retiring, a few were being promoted, and several more were just plain leaving the company. I’ve been in retail management at other companies before (with no blemishes on my records there), my file with Walgreens is nearly spotless (once, I was written up because a customer overheard me swearing when I dropped a heavy roll of photopaper on my foot, and one year, I took more sick days than I could get paid for and got a write-up for it, but every other year, I’ve banked at least two sick days out of the six I get, and this year, I’m still working on the three I banked from last year, so we’re more than even), and all I’ve ever gotten was an automated response. No calls to my manager, no inquiries to me personally; it’s like I’m not even in the running for the courtesy of a human response. It’s more than disheartening.

Frankly, things were looking rather bleak in the employment front for Ed, so the wage
increase for me was looking pretty necessary (I hated being a manager, back when I was one, mostly because of the bizarre hours and having to work around teenagers who didn’t feel like showing up to work, either on-time or, oftentimes, at all). So apply I did, and hoped for the best. Or at least for an interview.

Things changed for the best for us in those five weeks. Ed submitted more apps and
resumes, and got that magic call... followed by three interviews, a typing test, and a boy-this-is-a-happy-day call to schedule him for training.

Ed started his new job this morning. A lovely, office-type job as a customer service rep in the Bank of America telephone service center. His training wage is a dollar more an hour than I’m making after eight-and-three-fourths years where I’m at, and when the training’s done, he gets a two-dollar-an-hour increase.

They’re still looking for more full-time folks, too. Daytime hours to boot. And since my store is so close to the customer care center, we see a lot of their employees at lunchtime. They’re always smiling (I would be, too, if I could sit on my butt and solve other people’s problems for what their starting wage is) and telling me I ought to apply. (Why? ‘Cause I’m the queen of “The Customer Is Right,” that’s why.)

So, this weekend, I sent my resume through their online app site (the only way they hire). ‘Cause I can’t see myself developing other people’s pictures when I get to retirement age, and I guess getting any further ahead in this company’s not in the cards for me. My feet and all their tendon problems will thank me, the vericose veins in my knees will thank me, and I won’t have to swelter in the summer while the print processor blows out 180 degree air all the live-long day. And I’ll get to wear jeans and, if I feel like it, non-arch-supportive shoes and (gasp!) some of those big fat stacked-heel shoes I bought and can’t wear at work so I hardly wear them at all.

I spent seven years working as a customer service supervisor at JCPenney’s catalog
ordering phone center, so this sort of job’s not unfamiliar, and actually, of all the jobs I’ve had, I liked that one the best. People only called when they had a problem, I finagled a way to fix it, and everyone hung up happy. It was rewarding, in its way, knowing from personal experience how one only calls when something needs fixing; the feeling of relief that that one gets as a customer when their “this-is-my-out-of-control-problem” gets personal attention and got solved because I wanted to help made me feel like I’d accomplished something worthwhile.

Wish me (and my aching feet) luck.
- posted by Stephanie @ 8:09 AM

 
Another Favorite...

Yet another calender page, this one from July 14, but I just couldn't wait that long to post it.

Our beloved G.Boo, discussing the decline of the French economy with British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepeneur.'"


I can't make up shit this funny!
- posted by Stephanie @ 9:07 PM