10.19.2006

Changes all around...

But hey, things are pretty much all positive right now. I had my 90 day evaluation on Wednesday. Somewhere between 45 and 50 days since my employment, I figure. Beats me, that's just the way they do it. Regardless, my effort so far has not been unnoticed, as I scored basically as high as I possibly could have, given my short period of employment. Jean, the assistant manager over my area conducted the evaluation, and made specific mention of how well I always dress, as well as that I'm very friendly interacting with the customers, and while I forget the exact wording of the comment, she was happy with the way I immediately carry out any tasks I'm assigned. Basically, my evaluation says I've been a good, hard worker, and deserve my 60 cent raise which will kick in the week of Thanksgiving, best I can tell.

This was actually the second good thing that happened that day. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was made to cover Pets following the departure of one of the people there in favor of a $9 an hour job at the new Office Depot. Anyway, I'm finding that on the larger part, I'm liking working in Pets pretty well. At this point I'm not hauling massive loads of freight the same way I had to in Chemicals, which is the big deal, and what I do haul is items that I take from in back to fill empty shelf space, so I only get the stuff I need to have, rather than taking everything and being stuck with disposing of it, essentially. This supposedly will change by February, but at this point I don't care since who knows if I'll even still be working there by then? So yeah, I'm getting on pretty well in Pets. My caring for the fish tanks has been limited, but that's more a matter of not having enough time, and when I can I still stay past the call for second shift to go home so I can at least scoop the dead fish (27 on Tuesday!). I'm doing what I can with the time I've got to work within. But that's not really the point. Since it is going so well thus far, I asked my assistant manager, who is, best I can determine, partly responsible for selecting new employees in her areas of control, if instead of seeking new help for Pets, if instead she could find a replacement for Chemicals. Looks like I got my wish. Wednesday she had me log on to the network and update my career preferences to reflect a desire to work in Pets. This step is required for anybody who wants to opt into a new job, though I can't technically opt into a new job until I've been there six months. Confused yet? Anyway, Jean told me I would be moved permanently, I just had to add Pets to my preferences so that when one of the Co-Managers logged on the next day, that would appear, and the change could be properly effected. Since it was my day off, I'm not sure if it actually occured yet, and Jean is on vacation until or through Sunday, I forget which. But I'm sure I'll find out whether it's happened or not.

When I asked to stay in Pets, I offered to help train a replacement in Chemicals. I may only have around six weeks of experience, but I think at this point there's not especially much difference between six weeks experience or six months, and someone would be well helped if I can condense the basics I had to learn in little pieces on the fly into a couple days of instruction. I mean, shoot, practically nothing was explained to me compared to what I ended up learning as I went along. One thing Wal-Mart doesn't seem big on is sitting new people down after all the orientation videos and explaining some of the other basic concepts one needs to understand to be an effective worker. Fortunately I'm adaptable and can kind of just roll with the changes as they come along, perhaps with a bit of complaining, but y'know. I really hope they take me up on the training offer, since it would be really interesting to me. Especially explaining how the department manager can't be counted on to do any meaningful work. Makes me wish they cared about Chemicals more, since Paul probably wouldn't get away with slacking the way he appears to otherwise. I'm still waiting for one of the managers to get on him for locking up the Telxon, but it doesn't even really matter anymore, since Randy leaves the Department 8 telxon where we can get to it. I just really don;t like Paul. And that's pretty bad that I want him to get yelled at regardless of if it benefits me at all. On the other hand, getting it done now might help my replacement down the road. I'll have to remember to tell him or her that they need to request to be enabled on the Telxon. When you actually know how to use the thing at all, it's really helpful for learning an aisle. I pity anyone who has to cover Stationary without a Telxon. I know this because I've had to do it. All those hundreds of pens, mechanical pencils, markers, push pins... it's a nightmare!

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