Today is Friday
Today is Friday. Which means that it's my night to close the store. While I don't object to closing the store, I do object to doing it on Friday. For several reasons.
- It's generally the busiest night of the week. Why do I have to have that night? Can't I have the slow night which means that I can actually do something like slack off? The answer to that is a very firm no.
- Everyone seems to be cranky on Friday nights. This is actually a common theme throughout the weekend. Why on earth are people cranky on the weekend? It's the weekend! Which means that they don't have to work, they get to have time off. They should be happy about that dammit!
- Teenagers hang out in the mall on Friday nights. If it's not stupid giggling 13 year old girls that sit in the magazine section, effectively blocking off an entire aisle of the store, it's equally annoying 16 year old boys who have nothing better to do with their time than to get stoned and go to the mall for amusements sake. I don't know why they feel the need to come by their x-box magazines from me...probably it has something to do with the 13 year old girls sprawled all over the floor in the magazine section.
- The customers refuse to leave the store. Without fail on Friday night, there will be customers that come into the store at 10 minutes before closing that want to browse. You'd think that the presence and sound of the vaccum cleaner would alert them to the fact that it's time for them to leave the mall. Failing that, when the doors close at 9pm, it should be a fairly good indication that it's time to leave. But you'd be surprised just how unaffected people can be. I guess they just assume that we get paid overtime. I'd like to ping them. I do NOT get paid overtime. I'm a salaried employee who gets paid next to nothing for the hours I actually DO put in, why the hell would I want to put in more for free?
At least I feel comfortable kicking people out. I heard about a Friday evening when some extremely rude ladies came in and didn't leave till well past closing time. The one lady said, "C'mon I think they want to close". The other said "Well that's too bad, isn't it?" Had it been me? At that point I'd have said, "Actually, it's not. We're closed."
I mentioned to my manager how I'd been at Chapters one night when it was closing time. Someone came over the intercom and said, essentially, We're closing, please take your purchases to the cash, else we'll be happy to serve you tomorrow at 10am. I thought it was hilarious. My subtle way of telling people we're closed is to turn off the music in the store. The manager said, I just turn off the lights. (!!) From that statement, I don't feel at all bad about kicking people out.
That's pretty much my argument for why I don't like Friday nights. The override? I am the Assistant Manager, and therefore must be there if the Manager is not when it is busy. Therefore...Friday night is my night.
Posted by Michelle at January 10, 2004 08:57 PM