i'm essential, hooray?

[kindkit]

I work in a grocery store (one of a small local chain of member-owned co-ops), so I still have a job, for which I am duly grateful.

My particular job normally involves cooking recipes for people to sample, and obviously that's not happening now.

So instead, I ended up in charge of creating, from scratch, a curbside pickup program. In a store that has no online inventory or online ordering.



This is way, way harder than you might think. It's definitely vastly harder than I thought it would be! (How do you efficiently take orders from people without an online system? How do you do payment, when taking credit cards over the phone is a massive breach of security compliance? Do you let people order whatever they want, and if so, what about the people who want to buy 5 bottles of olive oil and 10 gallons of milk and all the TP you have in stock? Conversely, if you impose limits, what should they be and how should they be communicated to customers? How do you handle order assembly and storage? etc. etc. etc.)

This week I was supposed to have Monday and Tuesday off. I ended up going in on Monday for supposedly two hours, which ended up being four and a half hours. Then on Wednesday I worked ten and a half hours with about a fifteen-minute break. So today I am mostly off, except for checking my work email occasionally and responding as needed--which I'll get paid for. Probably the only time I'll ever be able to work from home in this job.)

I intended to sleep in today but my brain decided to wake me up at 6:30 in the morning. Hoping to get a nap later. (I haven't slept well in ages, due to stress compounding existing sleep problems from a probable rotator cuff injury--which means most sleep positions are uncomfortable--and from hormonal stuff due to going through second puberty at 50.)



I'm sure you're all doing this anyway because you're good people, but: please, please be nice to the staff at your grocery store. Please don't get on their case because things are out of stock and they don't know when they'll be back in stock. Don't yell at them for not wearing masks, because masks may not be available! Or, depending on the store, they may not be allowed. Please don't complain to them that you can't get your favorite kind of ice cream, or whatever. Please don't complain or get angry if the customer service isn't as efficient, effusive, or grovelling as you're used to, because our jobs have gotten way harder and we're at least as tired and stressed as you are, in most cases.

And above all, PLEASE don't cough into your damn hand and then use your filthy germy hands to put your items on the conveyor belt, or to hand the cashier your payment, or to touch anything in the store. Cough into your elbow!!!!!!!

(And additionally: please don't tell us we're heroes unless you've called the company and said we should be paid more. And done something in general to support a living wage, health care for all if you're a US-ian, paid sick leave, etc.)

/rant, at least for now

Comments

[mllesatine]

My grocery store has put limitations on certain items. One was crispbread. You only got to buy one package. No limitations on any other kind of bread.

What kind of things do you normally cook for sampling?

[shewhostaples]

Ugh. That sounds horrible all round. Hope you get some sleep, and people get a clue, soon.

[sovay]

So instead, I ended up in charge of creating, from scratch, a curbside pickup program. In a store that has no online inventory or online ordering.

I am impressed that you did that and that totally sucks.

I hope you are napping. I wish you safe health.

[lilacsigil]

I feel you! I've been putting together the home delivery program for work, having never done this before, and the regulations keep changing every few hours at this stage.

And I really hope all of this "heroes" stuff translates into better conditions for grocery store workers, cleaners, pharmacy staff, security guards...

[silveradept]

That's not something management should put on a single person to figure out, especially without any sort of infrastructure behind it to make it easy. Or even workable.