MLAARE -Understanding

Sometimes there's a benefit to being the new person.

Because you can get away with being slow.

If.
If you tell them why you're taking forever.

"Sorry I'm new here."
"This is my third day working."

Me. Not so much.
But my new greenie coworkers? Definitely.

If only they would speak up.
I end up doing it half the time for them.

"I'm training so and so as she's new here, so this will take us a little bit longer as I show her what to do."
"This is her second day here."

And it makes the people waiting to get our help way more understanding.
Oh. That person is new. No wonder they're taking forever. I bet its hard to catch all those fish. Blah blah blah.

Yah. Greenies have all the advantages. ;)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Evens and Odds

I had a customer come into the store today.
Who wanted goldfish. Our inexpensive goldfish.
And his insistence on which ones (the big ones) that he wanted,
assured me that he was planning to put them in a pond or a fish tank or something of like nature.

So I fished out the fish he picked out.
Telling him how many he'd selected as he hadn't given me a specific number of how many fish he wanted.

And finally I said "You have six goldfish sir."

To which he replied. "Well, I guess I better get another one, to make it even."

O.o
Last time I checked....
7 Wasn't an even number.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MRS -Loud

I don't think my Roomie realizes how loud she is.

Or how thin the walls are.

Because it seems like everything she does.
I can hear easily.

I can hear every move she makes in the kitchen , slamming doors, banging pots, running water.
I can hear her move through out the apartment with heavy footsteps.
I can hear her talking basically anywhere in the apartment. Either via the air ducts, or just because she puts her phone on speaker phone and then talks really loudly back...

*shakes head.*
It's boggling my mind how she can be so noisy.
Currently I can hear her talking (even over my music -not loudly playing music but still playing) and she's currently in her room with the door shut and I'm on the opposite side of the apartment as far from her as possible really in the living room....and I can still make out nearly every word she says when the music gets quieter.

So weird.
And distracting.
Very distracting.
As the curious part of me just wants to listen in and see what she's talking about though I'm trying hard not to.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -The Timer

He came back again.
The Tortoise Guy.

Can you hear me groaning?
Because honestly.
He's DRIVING ME INSANE!!
It's so difficult to want to talk to him because I know once I do, I will be stuck trying to 'help' him for the next 45 minutes!!

Yet this time,
I couldn't avoid him.

Because I was coming back from a lunch break just as one of my coworkers was supposed to get off her shift.
And she'd been stuck talking to him.
Which meant, that I had to rescue her so that she could go home.

Cue groaning again.

What was his problem?
Well, he'd bought a specific timer to automatically turn off and on his Tortoise's lights on the recommendation of a coworker.
And he'd 'followed' the instructions on how to work it both the ones on the paper and the ones that my coworker had given him.

Only to find that the timer hadn't worked.
-It's one of those that takes 24 hours to start working...so you don't know it works until like a day later....-

And it had been a few days...and hadn't worked.
So he'd brought the device in to see if we could show him how it was supposed to work.

Luckily we use the same device with our display tanks -which is probably why my coworker recommended it.

And with some fiddling around I showed him how it was supposed to work,
though it wasn't working for his own device for the obvious reason of...it won't work until 24 hours later....
But I went through the same process like...TWELVE times. AT LEAST.
Repeating it. Again.
And again.
And again.
And
Again.

Just because he wants to double extra triple check that he's understanding what I'm telling him.

Finally I told him that perhaps he should come back later, when the coworker who suggested it to him came in to see if he would know any 'secrets' on how to get it to work.

And finally like 45 minutes after rescuing my coworker.
I too was free from him.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!
I know he means well...
But seriously...he's driving me insane.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Feeding Time

Sometimes it's hard to train the Greenies.
Because it takes them a while to catch on.
Some longer than others...
On what should be done each day.

It really boggles my mind some days.
How could you not remember this? Shouldn't it be in your head by now?

Of course...it's a strong reminder that not everyone is the same.
People learn in different ways in different speeds.

At least they're trying right?
Trying to learn a million new things and remember them all.....

But still...
I would think it would be obvious that animals need to be fed every morning....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -They Like Me They Really Like Me

I got Associate of the Month!!!

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Shift Changes

Sometimes I wonder at our Greenie's logic.

I had one of my New Coworkers come into work today.
Which confused me as they weren't scheduled to be in my department.
But that had been what had happened the week before as they hadn't been placed on the schedule yet due to training.
So I wondered if it was continuing this week as well.
Which would be weird, because it would only take a week for the new people to be trained and then have a schedule for them on when they worked ready for the next week.

But then I also remembered that our new people were also scheduled to be getting some cashier training that wasn't shown on the main schedule. I'd known that two others in my department were due to have that training this day, so I thought...maybe they were as well? 
It didn't make too much sense....

And then I went to a manager just to see if they actually were supposed to be on the register.

Turns out.
My coworker....wasn't scheduled to work today.
At all.

Yet there they were....working.

How did this happen?

Well, upon informing my coworker that they weren't scheduled to work today...
They asked: "Doesn't our schedule remain the same every week?"

O.o
Uh....No. No it doesn't.
The schedule changes by the week. Hours shift around, days working shift around....
It's hardly ever consistent.

So I had to go and show my coworker where the schedules were posted, and show them where to look to know where they were scheduled and when they were scheduled.

Honestly...I'm not sure how they got it into their mind that the schedule stayed the same.
As I'm pretty sure the manager goes through a whole spiel on schedules and everything. Did they just assume? Was there confusion? *shakes head.* I have no idea.

But at least it's cleared up now. :)
 

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Inside the Bag

I was just about to get off shift.
When my phone rang.
Not my personal phone.
But my departmental phone, where people call to ask questions and such.

And on the other side.
Was a gentleman looking for a particular brand of dog food.

>.<
I hate calls like this. People hear the words "Pet Care" and automatically assume that it means the whole store, when in reality it means the specialty pet section. Which is basically every animal BUT cats and dogs. *sighs*

In any case.
This gentleman was looking for a particular type of dog food.
He told me the name of the brand.
But he wanted it to be more specific than that.
Yet he couldn't remember any other detail.

Well....any other helpful detail.

He told me that the food was "Hard brown pieces, with softer yellow pieces of chicken in it."

O.o
You don't know how often I have people who say that to me.
"Oh you know, I'm looking for the cat food that has star shapes."
"Do you have the dog food that's light brown, kinda octagonal in shape?"

It's like they expect us to have a wall of glass tubes in the backroom with every single dog/cat food that we carry, with pictures of the bags, and samples of what the food looks like on the inside for us to learn and know by heart.

Well...we don't.
Unless we use the food ourselves, we have no idea what the food inside the bag looks like.
We know the outside of the bag really well.
The inside?
Not so much.
We're lucky if we get a picture of what the food is supposed to look like on the outside of the bag.

And this gentleman was insistent that we should know what food he was talking about just by hearing the description of the dog food itself.

Uh....

Well, after putting him on hold to talk to a couple of other coworkers/managers.
I narrowed it down to basically the only choice I could of the brand he was talking about.

It took a while to convince him that what I was recommending was what he wanted.
"I'm looking at the bag sir, the picture shows the food is brown with yellow bits of shredded chicken in it."

Finally, he was convinced.
And he hung up a happy customer (Hopefully he remained happy when he came into the store to check out that product.) grateful that I had stuck through with him and hadn't just passed him off to another coworker -though he'd asked to, I decided to just follow through to the end.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Wonderful

So there I was,
Having just finished rearranging all our gravel for the fish tanks, so that they were once again to our planagram, with every bag in it's spot with a nice shiny new price tag to accompany it.

And my manager looked at me with a smile on his face and asked. "Has anyone told you yet today?"

I sensed he was about to say something nice to me. But shook my head. "Told me what?" I asked.

"How wonderful you are?"

^^ Awwww I Love being complimented!! ^^
It's really a great reward in of itself. Kind words make me happy. ^^

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -A Greenie Holiday

So the other day was a Holiday....a day that I worked.
Honestly....I don't know what it is about Holidays that brings in all the people.
I would think that they'd find something more interesting to do than come visit a Petstore, or come to the Petstore to get food/pets/etc.

Yet. They come.
Perhaps it's because they had the day off.
Perhaps it's because they needed to take the kids somewhere inexpensive that would entertain them for a bit. (Though with the warm weather we've been having.....you'd think a park would offer the same entertainment....)

In any case.
I seriously wasn't prepared for it.
I don't think anyone in scheduling remembered that it was a holiday until belatedly....

Which meant that my opening coworker managed to leave just before we got super crazy with a rush because their shift ended.
Leaving me all by myself.

Or so I thought.
For my manager decided to bring in one of our Greenies to give her some training.

I honestly feel like I've been in this boat before...Training Greenies on how to work in the department...when I'm by myself....and it's busy with customers.

In any case.
It's one of those odd grey areas.
Where I have another person in the department...which means I have more coverage.
But as a Greenie, they know next to nothing and therefore stick by my side like glue...and so don't really help any customers at all.

Thankfully, I taught them the basics....like bagging crickets. So whenever someone needed those I could send the Greenie that way and focus on the customers that had questions and other needs that needed to be answered. :)

So, while it was crazy....we had it covered. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Washing Wood

One of the fun parts of my job is that I often learn new tidbits of information from customers that can be helpful to other customers in the future.
Mostly because they read things....
Why they decide to read things on packages of items at the store...isn't always clear.
I mean...it's a bag of woodchips...obviously you know what it is. You know it's meant to be used as bedding, what else would you need to read about it?

Well...apparently some individuals like to read the packaging for such things.
And taught me something new.

As it says right on the bag.
That you can wash the woodchips.
O.o
That caught me by surprise.
Wash the woodchips?
Of course it makes sense, I often wash wooden branches and hideouts from the habitats without a second thought.
But it never crossed my mind...or it did but I dismissed it....that the woodchips could be cleaned in a similar way.
That you don't have to toss them out.
You can clean them.

O.o
I suppose if you have the time and patience to do so....good for you!
:)
I'll have to keep that in mind the next time someone asks about how often they need to change out the woodchips for their reptile I can add in this little tidbit.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Boxed Up

Some people really shouldn't have pets.
Really. They shouldn't.
There should be a ban, a warrant out to keep them from having them.

Why do I think this?

Well.
Earlier today, right as I was getting off my work shift,
A man.
Older gentleman, a muscular husky, bald head....and looking familiar (so I'd probably helped him before at some point.)
Stormed into the store.
You could almost see the rage coming off of him in waves.
And nearly slammed a box on the counter,
My cashier asked him a question,
I didn't hear the response as I was still over by the fish,
and he stormed out again.

I thought it was to grab some paperwork, or his wallet or something, as at first glance, I thought he was returning one of our animals.
Main thought was that it had died :(
But I'd hoped that it was still alive whatever it was.

As I got closer my confusion grew, as I realized it was one of our adoption boxes, ones we use only for cats.
Again I thought the worse. Had this gentleman adopted one of the cats and it had died on him?

No.
The cat was still alive. And smelt super bad as well. :S yikes.

No, what had happened was that "He couldn't stand it anymore." Dealing with this particular cat and had brought her back and left her there, just like that.
Abandoning his pet.
Abandoning a cat that had been looking for her forever home!

Why?
Because he couldn't stand it anymore.

I heard from another coworker that apparently she'd somehow gotten behind their washer and drier and had peed there.

Which, upon investigating who was in the box.
Made a ton of sense.

As it was a black short haired female.
One I'd been caring for in the store for a couple of weeks.
She'd been there earlier in the week, but had been adopted after I left for the day.

And the poor thing is so timid.
Really, she needs a special calm home for her to relax.
For she really just laid curled up all day in her cage at the store.
She wasn't one to move when there were people about.
She wasn't feral.
For she loved to be petted and scratched, and had been calming down.
But honestly, it takes more then two days for one like her to relax in a new home.
She would have needed a week or two at the least, with a quiet caring owner, confident. patient.

Everything this man was not.
How terrified she must have been to hide behind the washer and drier!

I have no idea what sort of home environmental nightmare she must have been in.
If the gentleman is anything to go by.
It wasn't a quiet peaceful place.
It wasn't an environment full of patience.

No, hearing it from other coworkers, even adopting her out had been a hassle in the first place.
The man getting angry at all the paperwork he had to fill out.
Not listening to us when the coworker told him multiple times that he needed to pay with CASH, and upon getting up to the register tried to pay with a Credit Card.
and became so loud in the store that apparently you could hear him all the way from the back because of that.

Oh, my poor kitty cat.
It definitely wasn't the environment to place a timid cat in.
No, one that was more confident would have worked out better,
At least I hope it would have.
But I don't know if this gentleman is suitable for a cat.
Not if he's prone to outbursts. To anger.
As cats can be singularly frustrating.
And timid cats even more so.

At least she's safe now.
Away from the nightmare she'd been in.
Able to find a different home more suited to her needs.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Right At Opening

I will never understand people who wake up in the morning and decide "I'm going to go to the pet store!"
I will understand them even less when, upon walking into said pet store, they ask for help in getting a fish.

O.o
Who in their right mind would come into the store right at opening and buy a fish!?!?
It doesn't make any sense! The people are crazy. Go back to bed crazy people.
Seriously,
And it happens nearly every day.
Really.
Almost everyday there' someone in the store within like 15 minutes of opening our doors wanting to buy a fish. O.o
Why?!

The other day I had a gentleman come in wanting one of our $3 goldfish.
Just one.
He was in right at opening.

And when I asked him how long his drive back home was.
(So I could place the fish in the appropriate bag to survive the journey home.)
He said "50 minutes."
Nearly an hour!
He drove nearly an hour to come get ONE goldfish!
Right at opening!

Think of the prep that came in with that.
He'd had to have gotten up about two hours before hand, the first hour, to get ready to leave the house, the second hour to drive up here, to get just one goldfish.

O.o
So.
Crazy.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -He's Back

The Tortoise guy came back.
Two days in a row he came into the store.
And both days I ended up caught talking to him for a time.

Thankfully not about the same problems that he's come into talk about before.
New ones though, which I'm sure I'll hear about the next few times he comes in.

I'm glad that he's so into taking care of this Tortoise that his Granddaughter got....
But at some point....I really think he should just take a step back. The way he talks about her, talks about now taking the Tortoise back from her (as surprise, teenager isn't taking care of her new pet as she's gotten bored of it.)...I think she doesn't have time to learn the consequences of her actions. There isn't always going to be someone willing to take over, who can step in when one gets bored...

Honestly, I think she should learn from her choices....
But I don't think the Grandfather will let her.
Which is good as I know that the Tortoise will receive good (if slightly paranoid care) under the Grandfather if he does take over the Tortoise.
But not good for her. *sighs*
Such a paradox. But at least I know someone is making sure the Tortoise is being cared for after all the drama my store has gone through with this family for the last couple of months.... it would be heart breaking for something to happen to it after all that...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Slithering By

You would think that it would be easy to not lose snakes in our store.
But apparently, they're more tricky than we had suspected.

As the other day, my manager told me, He was talking to a customer in front of our reptile habitats,

When one of our corn snakes came slithering along the ground across the way towards them.

O.o
Surprise!

At least they managed to catch our little escapee and put him back in his home.

Who knows how he managed to get out....possibly during a bedding change or a feeding...but odd that no one had noticed before that point. O.o

-Sarnic Dirchi