work, work, work

A little over a year ago, I started working for Hallmark so that we would have a better chance at paying the American Express bills. I started out with one store (Barnes & Noble), then added a Safeway, and then a Walgreens. After Christmas, I switched from Safeway to Walmart. That was a little too stressful for me, so my supervisor let me switch back to Safeway. A few days ago, my supervisor's supervisor volunteered me to take another Walgreens (that's store number 4, in case you lost count). My supervisor is stepping back from working the merchandise to just be a supervisor and asked me to take her two Walgreens at the end of June. Now the grand total is six stores. The idea of that is a little overwhelming, but the reality of it won't be too bad because I'll divide the work over four days. It's a huge compliment that my employers recognize that I'm a hard worker, good at my job! Of course, I attribute that to how I was raised. My parents have always been hard workers and taught me, mostly with actions but also with words occasionally, that being diligent is a very important characteristic to have.

Another lesson that my parents taught me was how to win over grouchy people, especially at work, by being kind and respectful and by doing my best at everything I do. A smile and good work go a long way in making people a little happier. The managers at Barnes & Noble didn't want me there at the beginning, but once they saw how well I got the job done and how pleasant and respectful I was to them, they changed their opinion. Now they all greet me with a smile and are always completely helpful and cooperative with anything I need from them. I have another one of those situations at one of my new Walgreens. I'm pretty confident that I'll succeed, but it's a little daunting to walk into a place where I know someone is going to try to dislike me.

My kids aren't quite so happy about my working all these hours, but the schedule will balance out a little better once we get all the stores re-organized. Summer is also the time for store revisions, so I'll work fewer hours once those are all finished. It's good for all of them to have to take care of themselves a little more instead of expecting me to be everyone's maid :-)