Be Kind To Your Cashiers

In my last post I mentioned that I had gotten a job at a grocery store to make ends meet when no one else would hire me. Due to other circumstances, I will not be at this job for much longer. Before I do leave my position as a check out clerk I thought I would share some observations about my job which might help other people in my position.

Through my few months on the job I began to realize what it was that made some days so terrible and other days slightly bearable (others had more positive experiences than I did, so don't take my word as the ultimate truth). I had this feeling that customers were all mean and demanding and not very kind to myself and my coworkers. Then I paid more attention to who was nice, who was neutral and who was just plain nasty. I found that the majority of people didn't cause me any stress or make me feel bad about myself. It was a select few. The problem was that it takes many smiles to make up for one memorable frown (this I should have figured out earlier with my experience as a teacher). So even if 10 people are super kind to me, one person can ruin my day. I also do realize most of the people who aren't kind to checkout people are not likely to read this and the ones who do read this are probably the kind ones I see every day.

So here are some tips to make your checkout people more enjoyable:

1) Acknowledge their existence. Yes I know this sounds trivial, but not a day goes by when I don't get a customer who does nothing but talk on their cellphone through the whole transaction. It makes cashiers (at least me) feel dehumanized. We are people too.

2) Don't take your problems out on them: they likely aren't the reason for them. And if you're kind, we might be able to help you out. Kindness can help you solve your problems. Believe me, I'll look harder for something on the shelves if someone asks kindly. I'm not saying you should be all smiles all the time, and I don't even mind listening to what's bothering you, but when you get upset at us, it just passes the anger/upsetness along to more people (and since we are human, it will likely get passed on to more customers).

3) If you can help, please do. Nothing makes me feel worse than rushing to ring through a huge order while the customer is just standing their tapping their fingers waiting for me to bad everything. I realize some customers are unable to bag and I have no problem doing it for them. That is my job after all. What is difficult is the people who think they can order other people around just because they have money. Yes, the big corporations are getting profits from you shopping there, but the workers are getting paid very little and if you're able to help them out, it makes everyone's lives easier.

I'm sure I could give more tips, but those are three big ones. I do realize not every cashier is in a cheery mood (and those that are are most likely faking it), but if you are nice to us, we tend to be nicer to the public.

So next time you're in a grocery store or a department store, give the people working their a smile. You never know what difference you might make in their lives.

Filling in the gaps

Before I start talking about new things, I thought I should share with you what has been going on in my life the last few months.

In June I graduated from University with my B.Ed. and was happy as could be. I decided not to worry too much about jobs for at least a week or so. When I did start looking I had no success. All summer I looked for jobs and applied for those I thought I could do. Most did not get back to me. It was a depressing time for me and writing for a blog didn't seem to important at the time (though in retrospect, it may have kept my spirits up and helped me get through some tough times).

During this time I was running quite a bit with the run clinic I had joined. This was quite different than I was used to and I had good weeks and bad. The bad weeks did not help my disposition. In early August I finally got a small breakthrough on the job front. I got about 6 or 7 hours a week working with children but at a lower wage and with a long commute. It helped a bit both to the self esteem and the money shortage I was experiencing. I applied for many other jobs in the teaching field (including for the Victoria school district) and got a few interviews that didn't really go anywhere (except for one job that led me on for over two weeks only to tell me they wanted someone more experienced working on their own) so I had to make some drastic moves.

It was about the same time that my running went downhill. I had trained too hard through August and was burnt out in September. The combination of poor running and no job success made me do something I am not proud of, but something that did keep me afloat until now. I applied and got a job at a grocery store (I won't say which one because I don't want to give any free advertising). I got a few hours (many at odd times and not consistent week to week) at a low pay so when I got a call to take on a third job (which paid much better) at a library, I took that up.

So here I am now, working three jobs, and between 42 and 54 hours a week making barely enough to survive. And that's why I haven't really had time to write anything thoughtful and inspiring. But like I said below, there are some major changes coming.

For starters, I'm going to try to write occasionally on here to help get me through the tougher times. At least this will allow me to speak my mind (and maybe someone will actually listen and maybe even think about what I write) about things that I think are important (or interesting).

But what is really big is that I do have a good job - just not for a few more months. I've actually known for a while, but it hasn't seemed real (hard to imagine greener pastures working three jobs). I (with a good friend) will be teaching English in Korea (the South, not the North) starting probably in March. No travel dates (or even a city) have yet been confirmed, but I have been accepted by an agency that does placements in Korea and have been told I will have a job there.

I have started to get excited about this trip and thus I felt the need to start speaking to the masses again. So I've set up another blog to detail the trip. I've mostly done this as a resource for anyone who wants to go to Korea in the future, but it will also be used as a way to keep track of what I'm doing there and how it's going. This blog will also still exist to talk about non-Korea things (so that anyone using that one as a guide won't have to wade through all of my odd-flavoured posts here).

So that's what's been going on. I hope to get back into the swing of things here shortly (perhaps even as soon as tomorrow - though I'm not making any promises) so look for something soon.

Thank you for continuing to check this blog!

Changes, changes changes!

It has been a while since I found the time or the energy to write a post. There have been good reasons for this and over the next few weeks I will hopefully be able to relate those reasons to my viewers who have been checking this site occasionally.

The last few months have been filled with some big changes to my life and it has been hard to adjust and survive in this new life that has been formed around me. Further and bigger changes are coming in the next few months (and if you're really savvy you can probably figure out the biggest one) so this space will likely be much different than it once was. All changes will be revealed in due time.

So what does all of this cryptic talk mean to you? Well, for starters it means that I'm back, though different. I have decided to make the format a bit looser for my blog. I will no longer adhere to the strict guidelines I set out at the beginning, though I will try to keep my posts to the subjects that started with (with perhaps a few exceptions).

I will probably be posting with less frequency than I was before (I think the intensity was too much for me at the time, and now I have even less free time), but I will do my best to make quality posts.

Look for a brand new post in the next few days...