[At work] Mmm.. corporate policy. Delicious.

Current Sounds: Silence. Maybe some computer fans somewhere, but mostly silence
Currently Feeling: I want to sleeeeeeeeep.

I'm walking towards the front of the store Wednesday after I finished my 8.5 hour shift at the good ol' Target, ready to get on with my evening, get some food, and go about the evening. Since I work in the backroom, I already put up my walkie talkie (ever realize how dumb of a name that is? Anyway...), but I still have the PDT (big scanner-gun-thing), which means I can't quite deny that I'm a Target employee.

Of course, on my dash to freedom (I was already 10 minutes late to clock out, since I was asked to do a quick errand right before I left), a little kid totters on over. He's holding a toy, so I figure he wants a price-check on it or something (for some bizarre reason, customers seem to rather have you check the price than to use one of the price-scanning machines available throughout the store. I've had someone ask me right next to one of the scanners). No big deal, I don't care. But no, that would be too easy. Instead, he asks me a question.

Kid: "Have you seen a woman with dark hair and glasses?"
Me: "... no, I haven't. Why do you ask?"
Kid: "'Cause she's my mom, and I don't know where she is."
Me: X_X!!!!!!!!!! (But I want to go home!) "Oh yeah? Well, why don't we go to Guest Services and have them call your mom so we can find her?"

Not having a walkie talkie meant that I couldn't call someone else to either assist or deal with this issue. There are tons of procedures in place in case there's a lost child (parent exists, don't know where the kid is), but as for what to do when you find the kid? They're kinda vague. I figured it's an easy solution, though: go up, have the Guest Services desk page the mother ("Attention Target Guests, will __ please come to the front? Your party's waiting for you."), hand off the kid, and I'm on my way, right?

HA! Wrong! In a horrible, vicious breach of policy, the woman behind the desk told me that we don't page if the child's under 10, and this kid was 8 (why? I have no clue. That seems counter-intuitive). This is also, again, against Target corporate policy. Well, what should I do then? I was told to take the kid with me and wander the aisles of a large Target store looking for the mother.

To make a long story short, things didn't quite work out that way, and I went back to the Guest Service counter to go demand the woman make the call, or I'd do it for her. While I'm here, the mother just walks up (I guess to ask where her kid is), sees the child, is utterly nonchalant about losing her kid and then walks off with him. Just great...

From what I'm hearing, it sounds like there's something unique and special about my Target. It's relatively new (3~ years), makes a good amount of money a night, but rules? Corporate policy? Alot of that seems to be blatantly discarded.

Anyway, that was my eventful night at the Target two days ago. Right now I'm here at the university, guarding the computer lab (though absolutely no one's in here right now). One important note: where there are rules, there are ways around them.. and flash drives are a valuable asset. This is just important to know.

I should get going and go write up an instruction manual for how to submit projects for the contest here.. so exciting. I'll write sometime later! Ideally, I won't find any more lost kids this weekend.. blah.

(though, as an aside, when the child is the one that's missing, it's infinitely worse. The whole store is closed off, all entrances monitored, and I certainly wouldn't be getting home in a timely manner. I'm hoping to avoid such a situation.. mostly because that'd just be terrible)
School on 06.22.07 @ 08:26 AM JST [link]

[At work] had some time to take some pictures

Current Sounds: Students working on pronunciation practice

Sitting in the computer lab, happened to have my digital camera on hand to work on some other projects (namely the video project), so I figured I might as well send some photos along. I don't really look too thrilled in the second one, but that was due to a timing issue on the camera (stupid auto-timer). Really!

Not much else to say.. just got a few more hours to go and then I make an attempt to get home in the boiling, murderous sun. Wish me luck!

Target's going to absorb pretty much my entire weekend, so.. no plans for pretty much anything in the near future. What fun.

I'll write more when I have some time.

(oh, and the pictures are under 'more...' at the bottom of this post)
School on 06.15.07 @ 10:40 AM JST [more..]

Stupid Week Gnomes

Current Sounds: Transformers - Dare

Ever notice that when the week's going to go utterly to hell, it generally happens pretty early on? It doesn't start on Wednesday, no. Bad things don't start piling up Thursday morning. Nah, it starts right on the spot of the beginning of the calendar week (Sunday) or work week (Monday). The evil week gnomes have to make sure that you have as much week ahead of you as possible to try to infect.

This does serve as a helpful warning, though: do not make plans. Don't start anything new. The week has been tainted, you see.

Just figured I'd share this pearl of wisdom. It's been quite a week already, and it's only Tuesday. How exciting.

Otherwise, been continuing to work on the website and technical issues for the video project at the English school (if I haven't discussed this video project, just assume this is the same thing I've been working on for the past week or so). I also got to participate in orientation speeches for the new students and explain to them what it's all about, how to submit, and all that such-and-such. There's nothing like being told you're going to be making a speech to a room full of students 2 minutes before you have to do it. Of course, English is not these people's first language, so I think I can attribute most of the confused looks I got through my speech to that fact.

Target's all right (this cut from last Sunday on my left hand aside), though I have to admit that I really don't like customers. At all. As a backroom stock-boy, my job's not supposed to involve customers what-so-ever. I kinda liked that aspect of it. But since they insist on sending me out onto the salesfloor, I see these people anyway. Now, granted, customers are supposed to feel free to ask any question and they should get a prompt and informative reply. Here's where the idea of a 'stupid question' comes in. Does it hurt to look for something before tracking down the first red-shirted person to ask? I've had no less than four people ask me where the greeting cards are. Note that to find me at the place where I seem to keep getting this question, you had to walk past the greeting cards. The ones that are facing the aisle. The same ones that are in a logical place (right in front of stationary/business supplies). Oh, and did I mention that there's a 6-foot sign hanging from the roof that says "Greeting cards" right above it? In English AND Spanish? It'd be great if I was joking that this was asked on 4+ occasions, but sadly, I'm not.

There's also the conflicting belief in many customers that I both know absolutely everything about Target (when they're seeking information) and know absolutely nothing (if they don't like the information I've given them). I should be able to tell you not only where any item in the store is by you describing it (what, exactly, is a "motorized brush thing, like for dishes in a sink but for other purposes too, maybe automotive or in a shop"?), but about how much it should be, and even the features. Now, it IS true that if given "the numbers" or a barcode to scan, I can tell you where any item is in the store or in the backroom (even the price), but I cannot do this just by you waving your hands and saying "this table, it's white and has a glass top". When I say that we don't have an item in the back room, or that it's something we don't carry at all, suddenly people are skeptical of my all-knowing abilities. That computer-gun thing I'm holding is clearly lying. For some reason, it makes customers happier to have an employee run around the entire backroom and wait 15 minutes with the exact same results than to just get the answer up front from a small computer.

Gar.

It's not really a bad job.. it's just the customers (which keep the company afloat.. darn!).

Anyway, I'm going to go off and.. dunno. Probably watch a movie or something. Target tomorrow.. joy. Let's hope the week gnomes back off a bit.
Jason on 06.12.07 @ 07:30 PM JST [link]

[At work] Want luuuunch.

Currently Feeling: Hungry...

Been doing placement testing all work at my university job. The semesters for the English school work slightly different than normal university semesters, plus we have our own enrollment system, so we've had to do placement testing for all the prospective students so they can be placed in classes and start next week Tuesday. That's another interesting difference here: You don't actually pick your schedule, the school assigns one to you according to your proficiency (judged by the grammar, listening, and writing tests that the student takes during placement testing). Schedule changes are possible, but difficult.

In my free time (what free time? I have free time?), I've been working on a side project for the school, a video contest that they're going to be starting next semester. My job is to do all the technical/background stuff, handle the videos, the website, and the voting that will take place at the end of the semester, so it's kinda interesting. At the very least, it's interesting to work on a project that impacts a university department. Nothing epic, but still nice to know I'm involved.

Target, on the other hand, isn't quite so involving. I stock, I pull CAFs (computer aided fills), and then I put the product on the sales floor. In the middle of that there's the occasional pull of an item for a customer, or getting jumped by someone on the sales floor where they start asking you questions. But for the most part, I just stock, pull, and CAF.

.. aaand.. I gotta run. I'll write later.
School on 06.08.07 @ 12:59 PM JST [link]

It's tough being so boring

Current Sounds: 'Back to the Future' (part 1), in the background

Yay, got a brief day off today. Back into work at school tomorrow, Target on Wednesday, and the work week continues on. Only learned that I wasn't working today at midnight when I was talking with one of my coworkers (Naoki!) about work.. quite the last minute (or about 8 hours before I go in). Depending on how you look at it, it's either good or bad (less hours = less money), but I wasn't too keen on working for 10 days straight, so I'm okay.

Hmm.. what else...

Haven't been up to a whole lot. Just working, working, doing some work, and working. In between the working, I like to try to sleep. I also have been watching movies, reading, etc. Definitely nothing exciting, but I guess I'm getting used to it. It's hard being boring, you know.

Just a brief update before I ramble off again.. watching the Back to the Future movies right now. Got work at school tomorrow for a few hours, then might go run about for a bit in the afternoon.

Soon, I'll be uploading my papers for school from the last semester. Nothing terribly interesting, but hey, it can't hurt to make the most of all the effort I put into them.
Jason on 06.04.07 @ 08:18 PM JST [link]