Trouble in Big Box City

As the kids say today, what a cluster#**k. I was totally psyched about having three days off in a row. That never happens and no, I didn't sign up for yesterday's employee appreciation trip although almost everybody apparently did. Somehow spending the day on a bus, and then trooping en masse into some restaurant and then going to the movies with 50 people, or how ever many went, just didn't appeal to me.

Well I get a phone call at about 5:30 yesterday afternoon asking why I didn't show up for work. I'm like, because I'm not on the schedule. They're like, oh yes you are. They changed the schedule. I was supposed to be there for 3:45 to 9:15. I guess that was my punishment for failing to sign up for team spirit day.

But nobody bothered to tell me they added that shift. In fact nobody even bothered to tell me about the outing in the first place. And they didn't add the shift onto to my printed schedule. They put a note up on the bulletin board by the break room. Where I never go because it eats up five minutes of my break to walk back and forth to it.

On those days I actually get a break, I take in my car, which takes 30 seconds to walk to and where I keep a little cooler with a can of seltzer water since you can only buy sugar drinks in the store.

I was furious. I mean there were something like 14 people on the sheet. I'd been talking since last Friday about how excited I was to have three days off in a row. Nobody mentioned I should look for a list. It not like some supervisor couldn't have told me. It's not a big deal. I wouldn't get fired for it, as the manager on duty last night pointed out. But as I told her, it's the principle of the thing. I don't want to get written up for their lack of communication.

As it turns out, it was actually kind of fun. There was a total of 9 people working in the store last night but it was really slow anyway. It had a real Twilight Zone vibe but very mellow. And I liked all the people that were working. We kind of bonded more than we would have on the trip certainly.

I agreed to stay through closing so I got a few more hours in and Lord knows I need the money. I even got to take a break which normally wouldn't happen since I didn't actually work for five hours. So it ended well but what a perfect illustration what's wrong with the big box business model.