a.a.a.l.

Administrative Assistant Appreciation Lunch

I'm always awkward in these situations. I don't take compliments or thank you's very well and then you add in a spice of outside of work interaction with work colleagues and you've officially placed me in my worst nightmare.

And so begins a day of polite smiles and awkward silences while food is being consumed.

dream nervously

I've recently escaped the retail prison in favor of something new and better paying. My first day is tomorrow. I'll be taking the two hour train ride to queens beginning at 6:25am and getting to flushing possibly a half hour earlier than I'm supposed to be. I'm a complete nervous freak about time and I want there to be an absurd amount of time to wander before I have to actually go into the building. My big fears of a new job are the following: Not knowing what the hell I'm doing 95% of the time I'm there, being over/under dressed for the establishment, completely fucking something up and getting yelled at by new boss on the first day, not relating well to people because of my shy persona which I cannot escape, and getting ill out of nervousness.

I made the terrible mistake of eating a large dinner and now I'm stuck feeling like I have to vomit right before I attempt to go to sleep. I told myself I wanted to be in bed before 10pm and its 10:25pm now and I'm dreading the sleep thing.

Time will tell whether or not I'll be prepared for this new gig. I guess its just time to grow up. Off to bed before 12am and on my way to becoming an actual adult. My 22 years haven't prepared me for anything like this...

escape gracefully.

I've been trying to motivate myself to get out of retail for the last three years. Retail work is at the bottom of the good job triangle. After nearly fours years in the business of selling c.d.s I might be on my way to a real job. You know one that requires you to get up at the same time, five days in a row and spend eight miserable hours shuffling paper.

A friend told me about a position in her office (which just so happens to be at the Postal Office) and recommended me for the job. I immediately got a phone call from a man requesting I come in to fill out paperwork. Today is the day where I fill out paperwork. I'm nervous because I have a very bad memory and all in all I think I won't be able to fill out the paperwork without freaking out in some small way and/or not filling one or two things. I need this job.

I went shopping with my mother ::Shudder:: for business casual work attire. I ended up buying stuff that is way too big for me because my mom is convinced I'm THAT huge. I know I'm a big girl but really? I need to go out shopping with some friends and call it a day. I can't help but think that she's already trying to sabotage my chances at this job. She decides that she wants to stay home the day of my paperwork adventure. She's trying to see what I'm going to wear. It'll end up with her yelling at me about something I'm wearing and I'll just end up going to the paperwork thing upset. She's a bitch.

That being said the only thing calming down all of my nervous energy is writing this little blurb right now.
Oh jeez... I feel nauseous.

fill applications.

Dear Related,

You have bought the building in which I work and will be closing it down within the next year thus putting a great deal of people out of work. I have but one question for you and that is: Can you give me an apartment and a job to match? You see I recently got an application for lower income housing at an apartment building you own and all I really want is for you to give me this apartment in good faith. You know, that after being let go from my current shit job that I'll go out and get another job that can pay the bills.

I hope you take this into consideration when you've found a renter for the space I currently work in....

Yours Truly,
La Dame

keep breathing.

I work in retail. The sort of retail that if you were to ever experience a day or two working at my job you'd never want to work retail ever again. You'd be off to college to get that degree you know you don't want but have no choice in getting. Retail living is rough living and, after finding myself in a few choice situations, I feel as though I need to get out as quickly as I can.

Situation #1: I've been given a new position. I am now in charge of everything that our customers listen to. I talk to label reps and take care of promotional materials. It was an easy transition since I am very good friends with the man who had it before me and helped him out a great deal when he needed it. Now my old position has never been filled and when talking to management about getting someone they basically laughed me off and told me we didn't need a new person. Two weeks later they realized how much work I was actually doing and decided to get another guy. The first guy didn't stick despite being the most competent person out of whom we had to pick. Now they are giving me another guy to train and when I asked a fellow worker what he was like her exact words were, "He's like clay. He looks like clay. It's like you can shape him. When you're talking to him its like in one ear out the other. It takes at least four times of you telling him to do something for him to actually do it." And that's when my frustration bubble begins to take over and I need to bite the inside of my mouth to remain calm.



Situation #2: I work in an odd sub-division of my retail store. I'm not part of management (no matter how many times they tell me I should be.) I'm not connected to the registers at all. I'm not even part of our receiving section. We are the sad few who sole responsibilities are to basically make sure everything on the floor is on the floor and to keep EVERYTHING clean. We do most of the work and get none of the recognition. At most we get told that the head boss wants to fire us all and thats about it. Anyhoo all of that being said we do get a small corner of a back room with one computer for all 10 of us to work on. Now we all go on it for personal means but lately there seems to a lack of consideration for those of us who actually do work on that computer. Day in and day out I'm fighting for use of that shit. It's irritating to say the very least. I mean, how am I supposed to work efficiently when I'm getting dirty looks for asking a co-worker (who just so happens to be over 40 and on Neopets.com) if I can use our shared computer. Not to mention the time I asked another co-worker if I could use the computer and his response was, "Well what time do you get off of work?" 

All of this and more add up to the biggest headache I've ever experienced in my entire life.

Retail Stories will continue on later...