Honestly, a lot went wrong today—no, that's too negative. Hmm... more could have gone right had I followed proper procedures. Confession: I was technically not supposed to be there today, as I technically was supposed to wait for the manager to confirm my hours and set me up, have me shadow and trained on the floor by someone, and so on. I'm not even going to make excuses for showing up "early" to my "career."
I was anxious about not hearing anything back in regards to my emails on scheduling, I liked the deposit I got from the day I went in for training, my work clothes came earlier than expected, and I wanted money to spend on goofy $hit. Full disclosure, no excuses. There's also some extra nonsense thrown in because I am the way I am.
AND as it turns out, they didn't train me right last Saturday. Like, I'm a sales girl, but they had me doing the training procedure for a whole other service... I didn't know how to work the register or anything—I had to ask people how to clock in/out, make transactions, process returns, use the gift cards/sales promotions/etc, adjust pricing on markdown items, lookup items, and so much more. I was a bit of a mess, tbh. AND it DEFINITELY wasn't helping that my "first day" was Black Friday, lol. Granted, people who shop luxury are much more tame than those who go to Walmart, but I feel it limited how helpful others were towards me. I appreciate all the kind women I met who helped me get through the day. 😭😭😭
During the first half of my day I questioned why I was even there. The environment felt off to me—I didn't feel good enough to be on the sales floor. I thought the Help Desk or something similar would've suited me better since they stay in one place and people go to them, AND they don't have to compete with others for a commission. There were so many sales I let go of because I had to ask others for help, who just wholly took over and got the sales under their name. It didn't make me feel good in the slightest—it has me questioning the benefits of working on commission.
Yes, the second half of my day—after I came back from lunch—was significantly better. I got a handful of customers and made at least an extra $50 on my paycheck this week, on this one day, for sure. I got super lucky in finding a mother and daughter who were Hispanic (in gorgeous fur coats, might I add) and essentially claimed me for the remainder of their visit in my area. They were my first (~$500) and second (~$100+) transaction of the day. After learning how to apply the various steps of a sale through them, I felt much more confident about the process and was able to help others and make more sales—some big, some small.
Essentially, my day was... 60% organizing the racks, walking around the sales floor and learning the brands, sending people on wild goose chases (I'm so sorry to those three or so people who asked me for directions, and I led astray!!!), and 40% learning most every function of the register, completing transactions, returns, applying discounts, "gift wrapping," and dealing with store loyalty card holders.
I chipped the nail on my right thumb while removing a tricky security tag, and now have to cut all my nails down so they look uniform. I also somehow got a cut on my left foot? Perhaps from my shoes?? The same shoes that I'm probably never wearing on the sales floor again because they're just SO impractical and had my feet aching by my third hour of clocking in???
Not to mention, I'm still somewhat disoriented which is why this post is not only long but also probably less comprehensible than normal in some parts.
Ugh. I'm done. I wish I had waited until the end of today to decide on if tomorrow was worth going to work for or not...
Still... I did learn a lot about how a huge department store works... I'll have to write some of it down later when I'm not such a zombie. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier because I a) will be in a smaller section, b) will have a lot less to ask about, and c) there will be less people to "compete" with.
I want to challenge myself on how well I can blend in tomorrow, but honestly I'm unsure if I have the mentality for that...
Final thing (I know, I know, this is ridiculously long), I do think that what caused my day to change was that during the end of my lunch I switched up my vibe and told myself that I would do well... I wonder how well that energy will keep me going for an entire day?
