Sooo...this job...

...is not going as well as I would have hoped.

They hired me as a bookseller, right? That is what I said before? Okay, just checking. Because I have not set foot in the book loft since my first day. They've had me on the main floor doing general cashiering all day, every day since then. (Well, except Monday and Tuesday, because I wasn't there. I'm talking during my work schedule.) By myself, about 90% of the time.

The work itself is not difficult. It is frustrating - no bar codes, every entry has to be selected from a category on a touch screen, then you select the price (if it's not a common price, you have to enter it manually). Then there's the dinosaur of a credit card machine. And the wrapping of glass items (there are lots). And the ridiculous procedure that goes with people purchasing furniture. And the impossible multi-tasking.

There are five glass cases near the front register. Each has a lock, and a separate key. Each can be opened only by an employee. Then you have to stand there and babysit the customer while they diddle-daddle over the merchandise in the case. You cannot leave them alone by the case, because THEY COULD STEAL STUFF.

This would not be a problem if there were one person to watch the customers at the case, and one person to operate the cash register for the perpetual line of customers. But there ISN'T. Customer-watcher? Me. Cashier? Me. Other Goodwill employees? Vanished. Probably in the back, chatting. Nowhere in sight. And the cashier is not supposed to get more than 15 or so feet from the register, so I can't go looking for help from my coworkers. No PA system, no walkie-talkies, no phones. I am pretty much all by myself, screwed, with the impatient customers at the front who expect me to be able to do five hundred things at once.

And this was not the job I was hired for. This is the job I somehow keep getting foisted into. If I am not back upstairs tomorrow, the managers and I will have words. I do not want this job. I want the book loft.

The book loft is peaceful. It's like working at a tiny Barnes & Noble. When I was up there, I was tempted to think it was boring. Now it seems like heaven. God, I miss it.

My book lead, Kate, said that if I'm not upstairs tomorrow, she will also have words with the managers. So at least there's someone on my side.

There's so much more I could complain about, but I'm not going to. It's too depressing.


Also, I cannot get the smell of homeless people out of my nose (as awful and heartless as that sounds). They hang around in the store a lot. Sometimes they buy weird things. ...yup.

Also, also, I should be packing tonight, but I'm so worn out. But when else will I be able to pack? *siiigh*