nourishing obscurity

Today was a bad day – on balance, a shocker and there were one or two things which peeved mightily, though not the ones which might have been apparent.

First of all, on the station this morning, two thugs got on next carriage up and were continually looking through to where I was and discussing it.  Fine – lads are lads but these weren’t lads – they were total deadheads out for trouble.  So I moved closer to the guardsvan and that kept them at bay.

They had no intention of getting off and were stretched out on the seats when one saw I was getting up, they leapt off too.  I organized two enforcement officers to block them.  They hadn’t actually made contact with me so there was nothing illegal as yet.  They got away and climbed into the carriage I was on on the next train and at the end, I went at my usual pace out of the station.

Next thing I know they’d jumped over onto the up escalator to try to catch up with me but I got the enforcement people at the barrier to stop them.  As I said to the officers – I’m not risk adverse and told them about a little venture I’m on next week but there’s no point taking unnecessary risks before a day at work.

Of course one must have a Plan B and mine was that if they actually got within two metres, I’d attack the main one and tip him down the escalator.   If it got dire, I’d have to stab him but it was better it didn’t get that far.

Anyway, I gave them the slip and made it to work where they had a new till system, all computerized and touchscreen.  Naturally it didn’t work [turned out to be at all branches] and as one of the girls said today – what are the older staff going to do?  She had enough trouble and she was savvy.

It was a bloody pain – I counted the steps.  There were twelves steps minimum on every transaction, whereas we used to do it in three.  That quadruples the time with each customer.  Sheer madness and why this new system?  To check personally on staff – it’s all personally coded.   So, I was being trained up in the first hour but the system going wonky didn’t help, none of the barcodes worked and the manager made errors herself.

I perhaps shouldn’t have mentioned that.  Anyway, from that moment on, she had it in for me, as women do who are miffed and this is when the true annoyance on my part came into it.  But before I get to that, some other annoying things about me.  Now I didn’t ask our youngest female to come in today, I didn’t expect her to have her friend with her and I didn’t expect them to stick to me instead of going upstairs with the manager.  They were called up there but slipped away again and came down to where I was.

So what am I accused of?  Coming onto them when all the movement had been theirs.   Manager came down and didn’t like me talking to customers – I tend to get friendly with customers – well my colleague and I both do – and there’s always some banter going on.   My colleague now did things which made me wince.  She’s always going on about me being a pain and so on but it’s always banter, always done in a friendly way and we discuss everything under the sun.

Today though she was under pressure with this bloody new system and having been trained up earlier, I was au fait with it though never comfortable.  Manager comes down and hears, “What have I done?” from colleague on one transaction, sees me closeby and interprets that as me heavying my colleague.   Colleague, not picking up at all about the stick between manager and me, says it’s all my fault, as she always does but the manager takes it literally.

Everyone was on edge today, the whole day.  At one point, the weekend manager came in and she and I get on like a house on fire but that didn’t go down too well either.   I suppose I just failed to have as glum a face as they had or maybe it was that one of the ladies makes my soup, which is kind of her and I supply the cappuccino and coffee for us – that seems to offend other people too.

…..

So by this stage, I’m starting to get a bit sick of people just getting offended with me over nothing.  As they seemed to have no need of me downstairs, I went upstairs and those two girls were doing stock movements and it was heavy so I offered to help, which they were happy with.  Apparently that and the way they were laughing and talking about nothing at all with me didn’t go down well.

At the end of the day, at the door, my colleague and I make to leave, the manager puts her arm around my colleague, said she did wonderfully, which of course I agree with and thanked her profusely, I went out after her and the manager turned away without a word.   Now as far as I’m concerned, that’s just not on.   I worked just as hard as anyone today.

And the most annoying thing of all was that I made no errors.   Mind you, it was a close call a few times.

Meanwhile, we took bumper takings again and there’s no doubt that it is a combination of the stock, the banter, the warm atmosphere in there and the customer care – we do give to the customer, chat and Saturday consistently outstrips all other days.   I mentioned the bumper takings to the manager, seeing if she’d have the decency to praise it.  Not a chance – just a grunt.

…..

Got home eventually after work, checked the sites and emails and there were three people upset with me for one reason or another.   Must be the day for it.

Actually, if you delete the human element from the equation, it was a lovely day.  I understand others don’t like mist and damp but to me, it’s quiet, tranquil and quite atmospheric, quite picturesque.   A French couple came in and he’s a photographer – he’d captured it perfectly.   I got into trouble for speaking with them too long.

Then two Russians came in.  Thought they were Poles at first but no, they were Russians and were delighted to find an Englishman speaking Russian and jargon too.   That actually didn’t go down well with management and I had to curtail the conversation.

…..

At one point I mentioned all this to the weekend manager and she said the manager manager was just exhausted.   Me?   I was full of beans as I’d had a great breakfast and lunch and perhaps my cheering everyone up wasn’t what the doctor ordered.   I think when it’s misty, we’re all supposed to be gloomy.

Never mind.

Filed under: Society & human issues