What a DAY

Lately at work I have been feeling like I'm not really helping anybody. I know that's not true. It's just a couple of associates who I feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall with. Urg!

This morning I prayed for specific inspiration to know what words to say to help each individual associate.

Well. Today was a hard one.

The drunk cashier called in to say she would be late, and then never showed up.

Another cashier forgot we had changed her schedule and worked a night shift instead of a day.

One was still on vacation.

One cashier came in to work on the cash registers.

The last cashier that was supposed to open for me came in to work in books today because she was sick (she wasn't supposed to talk for three days-- an impossible feat for this particular associate). She showed up in jeans. My books department is on the sales floor, not in the warehouse. We needed her on the cash registers after all anyway, so I asked her to get a bag of money. Holy hell.
That did not go over well. Of course, she said it hurt to talk but you would never know it. Then when I asked her to go find a pair of dress pants so she could work on the sales floor, she threw another fit. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I told her to go home. She said she would go find some pants. She found some pants. At this point I knew we really couldn't do without her even as a backup cashier. I told her so. Nope. Refused. Went home.

Then another one of my book workers (who like... never comes in to work. I mean, out of 24 scheduled hours over the past two weeks, she worked six. The ironic thing is that she brought me a note from her court excusing her from her Thursday shift. What about the previous three she had missed???) threw a major attitude when I asked her to go work on the sales floor. I invited her to go home if she would like. She chose to work.





At the end of the day I reflected on these "conversations." I had just had a really nasty customer argue with me over fifty cents. Fifty cents! I remembered the prayer I had offered this morning. I felt discouraged. Then I remembered a much calmer interaction with one of my sales floor associates. He came to talk to me about some financial problems and stressors at home. Previously I had told him I would probably be giving him some more responsibility, which would in turn increase his wage. He wanted to let me know that he wasn't sure if that was a good idea since he didn't know how dependable he could be under all that stress. I didn't really know what to say, so I paused for a second to let someone else's thoughts flow into my head. And all I really ended up doing was assuring him that I was there for him and I didn't want work to be a stressor. I let him know I would be right there with him throughout the process and asked if there was anything else I could do for him.
It seems really simple, especially when it's written down. But he seemed genuinely very grateful. And I know those words didn't come from my own head. I'm always very aggressively solution oriented with my associates.
And this is really what the Deseret Industries program is all about. Helping people who want to be helped in small and simple ways. It's just good to remember who is in charge.