not having fun any more....

I have been employed at Publix for nearly fifteen years, most of that time working as a part-time 'clerk' in the floral area, as a sub-set of the produce dept. I have seen a lot of management people come and go: some  escorted out the door, while others have been promoted to jobs of increasing responsibility and increased income in other stores... while I fill my lowly spot at the bottom of the produce dept. food chain.

There was a time when there were more hours involved: being part time in floral and three days a week in the bakery on the other side of the store, adding up to a full forty hour week. That endeavor lasted a couple of years, before I decided there might be too much drama occurring over there, and found other things in my life needed more attention than I could devote with full time employment. So I went back to the obscurity of two days a week several years ago - about the time the bottom fell out of the economy. And found my skills becoming more and  more superfluous, with many weeks that I had no work at all. (This is where the aggravation of substitute teaching proved marginally beneficial.) They would schedule me for an occasional four hours as a bagger and cart pusher/taker-outer just to keep me on the payroll. That was not fun, and hardly worth the effort to get my duds on and go to clock in... but it did keep me in the computer system instead of being dropped as an active associate/employee all together.

The corporate attitude has changed since the economy tanked, and many things have been implemented to try to improve the bottom line, make man hours/labor costs more effective and prevent lots of little generally insignificant losses that cumulatively leaked big bucks when multiplied by 1000 stores. But it seems to me like some of the changes that have been ordered from the corporate office (designed by people who have no idea what it is like to be out on the front lines in the retail world) are so focused on OCD behavior and looking at more ways to tighten up the bottom line that the emphasis is gradually leading toward what appears to be 'pockets': how can we be more adept at parting the customer from his/her wallet? Subtle changes that seem to create a bigger and bigger gap from the principles I heard when I first started working there - creating happy employees would give the associates the desire to provide uncommon, exceptional service and create happy customers.

It ain't so much fun anymore. I suspect that part of it is due to the fact that I have less and less tolerance for standing on my poor tired, aching feets for eight hours a day. Not that I ever did find that enticing (though I can remember 'way back in the fog of time when I used to spend 8 hours a day on  stilts/wooden shoes with at least two inch heels... What was I thinking?!?!... probably not....) I still enjoy talking to customers, helping them make good decisions, providing information and service to meet their needs, but there are definitely times when I feel like I'm not having fun anymore...