Oy vay

Today was another long day at Lowes. I was scheduled for 9 hours, which translates to 12 hours away from the house.

I left this morning at about 7:30, and got home probably close to 8, because I had to pick up a couple of things at work for our garden, and then stop at Win-Dixie for bread (and I got the stuff for fruit salad).

I swear some times it feels like someone in the Lowes kingdom hates me and is trying to kill me working that long of a shift all on the outdoor registers, in this heat. According to our thermometer it was 100 out there today.

Just a wee bit warm...

It aggravates me to no end because today there were 4 of us scheduled to work "outside", and for all intents and purposes 3 of us did it. The fourth gal, managed to work a front register almost all day.

One of the gals that works outside with me doesn't mind being out there all day, because she hates the front.

And while I would much rather be outside, than stuck at self checkout or even on a front register, I would like to have the same privileges as the one that stayed inside almost all day. Considering the couple of times I did get to run inside she was in the break room, taking a "break". We asked if the gal could come out and give us a break, and some how it took another hour before she came out, and then she still managed to get back inside within an hour so she could do her "worklist". Give me a break.

But honestly that wasn't the icing on the cake of people skirting their responsibilities on the job.

There is a woman that works with us, in her mid twenties, married, but this is her first real job.

When she first came to Lowes, I thought she would be a hard worker, because she seemed to do a lot.

Turns out not so much.

Every time you look at her on the register, she is on the phone, talking to who knows who. Or else 5 times an hour she pages one of the people we work with to call her on her extension.

Now I know that we page departments all of the time to get an item number or what not. But not normally by name unless the customer says that so in so helped them. She calls them to gossip about everyone that we work with, or to flirt with the men.

And if she is "on" one of the middle registers? FORGET IT! She is not "on" the register at all, she is running around the store, flirting with the guys as they walk by, stopping fellow employees so that she can talk to them etc.

I am the first one to admit that if I am on a register and one of the "supervisors" asks me to handle something for them, that takes me off the register, I am ON IT! But she is always all over the store. Ticks me off to no end.

Then this afternoon as I was going back outside from lunch, she was pulling a red cart with some potting mix on it, that had been returned, to the outdoor garden area. The pallet that this stuff went on was 30 feet in front of her, in plain sight, no WAY she could say she didn't know where it was. But instead of walking the extra 30 feet and putting them at least close to where they go, she shoved the cart down between the two main registers (one of which I was about to get on, because we had 10 people in each line).

When I called her on it, she told me that she was too "busy" to haul it all over the store.

I kindly pointed out the fact that it was 30 feet further, and she turned around and huffed back into the store.

I know when I take back returns to a lot of the departments I will drop off buggies at their desks, because I don't know where everything goes, and it is usually just faster to let the CSA's in the department do it. But most of us, will at least let the department know that they have returns at their desk, or volunteer to help put the returns where they go. She just thinks that because she has been at the store for 90+ days that she is better than everyone else.

I put the potting soil up for the guys, who busted hump today in that heat, then helped the customers, because trust me, if I had left it where she put it, someone would sueing Lowes because they tripped over the dang thing trying to get to my register!

I mentioned it to the new team leader of the front end. I wasn't naming names, but I did tell her that we needed to review the PROPER procedure for if you return items to the floor. The teamleader figured out who I was refering to quick in a hurry like. I am sure that the gal will deny it all if she gets questioned about it, because she is like that. But hopefully something will be said just in general about helping out like you should.

I also think about half of the store smokes pot. I have heard a BUNCH of conversations lately about buying it, or sharing it. I know at least 2 of the employees smoke it occasionally when they go to lunch, because they have made the plans to go to lunch together they will ask the other one if they have it with them in the car. But whatever to each his own, I am not going to go to lunch with any of them that I think may do it, I can't afford to even have the chance of being around it and being caught.