#boring work post

[the-b-in-apt-23]

Increíble that some people answer “what will you do with your one wild and precious life” with “be a toxic middle manager”

To what end!? To what end.

[chaaaaaaaaaaaam]

having a bit of a job/money worry

a few years ago if I put up some wigs it was basically guaranteed they'd all be gone within an hour and it just really isn't like that anymore- I think probably a combination of factors - Instagram algorithm changes, more wig makers to choose from, no one having any money these days, etc etc etc but it is really stressful... I still sell pretty well, I don't think I need to be super concerned but... I guess I am anyway

I've got some plans in the works to kick start interest and hopefully rejuvenate the shop a bit-

🤡 repaint the dolls and start using them as models again instead of just taking pics of the wigs themselves

🤡 make eyes with the 3D printer and sell those alongside the wigs (have messaged Ben asking for help to do this at the weekend)

🤡 post on Instagram more regularly including commission work BC I suspect that regular posting keeps the algorithm more on-side 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

tbh idk if I want this to be my life's work anyway but I don't really want a career full stop lol. but I mean if I want to have a career in dolls I'd really like to make the dolls themselves which means I'd need to take like sculpture courses and learn joint engineering and it's just like daunting. but I think I need to diversify from the wigs - and I can already paint them/make their eyes, I just need to actually integrate that into the shop

[millerflintstone]

Meetings wreck my concentration /productivity.

I have 2 status meetings every morning that are an hour apart. I usually start at 7-7:15 so that between 10:30 - 11:30 I can be sidetracked. I'll set myself away at noon for an hour ish and then when I'm back at 1pm, I usually have an uninterrupted hour because it's noon on-site. Those office folks will eat lunch away from their desks.

I have a 5:30pm meeting today I'm not happy about. It's rare to have them that late in the day. I'm still gonna complain to myself about it though

[asimplesun]

Suuuuch a slow night. Everyone got the word that the bar would be shut down this week for renovation then plans changed and we’re not shutting down but everyone else seems to still think so. Plus it’s Monday, so. I know I shouldn’t, but when I get off I’m definitely grabbing some beer on my way home. Unless I for some reason have to be here past 10pm then I’ll be ready to just go home.

[justanunderwaterthing]

Had a real shitty interaction with a customer at work earlier this afternoon and while I don’t feel emotionally upset about it the tension from the incident has settled right between my shoulder blades and feels like it’s set up permanent residence.

She was renting a violin, it got destroyed at school (I mean, it’s garbage. Unfixable.) Technically she owes us for the full balance of her contract. But instead of making her pay for a broken violin and then be shit out of luck we tried to help her out by waiving the balance on her contract and selling her a step up violin outfit we normally sell for $699 for $449. I mean really, she owed us almost $300 on the trashed rental. She did great on this deal. She bought the better violin. Today she came in and said she felt that we had ripped her off. Because we have insurance. And we tried to explain that yes, we have insurance, but that doesn’t cover instruments that aren’t in our store. Like, when you lease a car, if you get in an accident your insurance pays for the repairs. Even though clearly the dealership has insurance on that car before you lease it and after you return it. She really thinks that we’re going to call up our insurance company and they’re going to send us a brand new violin. I could not get her to understand that that is 100% not the case. We are going to throw that violin in the garbage and buy a new one to replace it in our rental program. It ended with me telling her very kindly to bring the violin she bought back and that I would refund her all of her money. And then I’m going to tell her--very kindly--to take her business elsewhere. I hate to have to give the money back, but it’s just not worth it. We haven’t been in business for 25 years for some asshole to think we’re scamming them.

[justanunderwaterthing]

As a brief follow up to my earlier work post...

This afternoon there was a lady here looking for sheet music for a specific song and she had like...food all over her face and paint all over her hands and the whole thing was just kinda strange. While someone else was helping her a couple came in with their obnoxious 2 year old who proceeded to run right over to the guitars and start shrieking “GUITAR GUITAR GUITAR” over and over and over while strumming and grabbing every guitar he could get his grubby little hands on. So, I’m helping this couple while simultaneously trying to stop the toddler from breaking anything and all of a sudden there’s this huge crashing sound and everyone is like WTF?! We look over and food-face lady has walked directly into a window instead of going out the door. Like non-stop, no hesitation, right into the huge potted plants we keep in front of the window (she knocked one over), smack right into the window. She fell flat on her ass. There was a giant forehead print on the window. When she got up she reassured us she wouldn’t sue us (? for what?) and then left. After she left the couple I was helping proceeded to rip into the lady for being dumb enough to walk into the window (while their kid continued to run around the store shrieking GUITARRRRRRRRR).

[justanunderwaterthing]

We’re just wrapping up our busiest time of the year at work. I like this time of year because it’s pretty intense, there’s always something to do and (usually) friendly people to help. But now at the tail end it starts getting weird and the people start getting angrier and stupider. For example: they come in looking for a book that their kid was supposed to have 2 weeks ago. First they’re pissed off that they have to buy the book (don’t the schools provide the book? I can’t believe it! I can’t believe they’re forcing you to take band!) and then when they have no idea what it’s called and they ask me and I find it for them they look at their dumb 11 year old and say “Is this the book? Are you sure? Are you sure it’s the right book?” and dumb 11 year old grunts “uh-huh” and then they ask me “Are you sure?” and I smile and answer with a friendly “Yes! It sure is!” while inside I’m screaming “I’ve sold approximately 350 of these goddamn books in the last two weeks, not to mention the literal thousands I’ve sold over the last 15 years YES I’M SURE”. (Also by the way, no kid in our district is forced to take band. They have a choice between band/orchestra and choir, and it’s only for one year.) These are often the same parents who bitch at their kid the entire time they’re in the store about how much money said kid is costing them. The book is literally 11 dollars. Most of these parents haven’t even rented or bought a quality instrument for their kid (which is why they still don’t have the book). They’ve either dragged some gross instrument out of their basement or attic that’s been sitting for 20 years and is barely playable and filthy, or they’ve borrowed one from a neighbor (even grosser because now it’s someone else’s spit that has been sitting inside the horn and growing mold and bacteria for the last 20 years that your kid is now going to breathe in every time they take a breath while playing), or they’ve bought some shitty $100 clarinet or whatever on amazon because they have ZERO common sense and can’t figure out why all the music stores charge so much more for instruments (we must just be ripping them off, but not them, because they are SUPER CLEVER and found a great deal).

Long story short all of this is fairly normal and not that big of a deal. But every time it happens it’s a ting drop in the bucket of my customer service limit. I reached my breaking point Tuesday when a guy walked in the store and walked up to the counter and mumbled “hey do you haamfmiaslkjfdia”. I said, I’m sorry, what was that? And he pulled up his sleeve to show me his BLOODY BICEP and asked me if I had a tissue or a paper towel so he could clean it up. ?????????????????????????????? DUDE WHAT? I pointed him to the bathroom and then I actually had to leave. I went home and took some tums and some advil and sat in the dark for 20 minutes. I’m still not over it. My mom reached her breaking point this weekend when someone pissed in the trash can in the bathroom. YAY RETAIL.

[justanunderwaterthing]

I am so done with people. Just 8000% done. I’ve been forcing myself into this customer service thing for 16 years and I have straight up had enough. I don’t know what I’m going to do because I like the rest of my job, and there are only 4 of us, and BY FAR I do the least amount of actual interacting with people. But honestly. I don’t know how much more I can take of being talked down to, being treated like shit, being treated like I’m a fucking idiot, listening to their goddamn stupid sob stories that I literally could not care less about. The whole thing stresses me out so fucking much. Being away for a few days only makes me realize how much. I come back to work and I physically feel ill.

For the last month or more I’ve spent actual fucking hours, days, WEEKS with a customer trying to get a big school order correct I mean, went way out of my way, did nothing but work on his shit for days at at time. He brings me the check to pay for all this weird shit the day before Christmas Eve and called today, pissed off, that he can’t pick all his stuff up. Like. I don’t know what to tell you dude. People take time off. Not me. But people, the other 5 companies involved in getting you all your weird ass marching shit. And I TOLD you that when you came in with the check. It’s not my fault that you changed the order 20 times, or that you’ve been sitting on this grant money for months, or that you were so stoned out of your gourd when you dropped the check off that you don’t remember the conversation we had. He upset me so much today that my lower back has actually seized up and I can hardly walk. And I’m pissed at myself for letting him get to me but GOD DAMN. Honestly. So many years of this shit. Of me telling myself that I just have to do better. Fuck. That. Why. Why should I have to swallow this down day after god damn day. I don’t deserve it. I think I used to believe that I did.