It's Official! I Love My Job!

It's true!

I know what you may be thinking - oh, she's just started, she's liked all her jobs at the beginning, it'll only be a matter of time before she quits for the summer and blogs a hilarious "Things I Hate About the Customers at [My Job]" post. Well, that could be true, I suppose - but for now I am revelling in the glow of enjoyment I get from my employment (see that? I'm so happy I'm rhyming!).

For one thing, the store has a wonderful manager and a small, tightly-knit staff. The small staff is probably going to be actually beneficial for me - according to one of my coworkers, this means I'll be trained in everything, whereas in the bigger bookstores I'd only be trained in specific tasks. So, I'll be getting a more well-rounded training at this store.

I like it. It's quiet, and the customers are (for the most part) great. I like merchandising the books (a fancy word for "arranging them in pretty ways on the shelves"), and stocking out ("putting books on shelves"), and selling the books - we have a very cool, up-to-date computer till that makes everything very easy and fun to use.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the fact that I'm VERY GOOD at my job? All my other jobs were kind of banal - take the order, sling the popcorn, fry the fries, rip the tickets. Not a lot of room for improvisation. At the Bookstore, though, I've found I possess a near-miraculous talent at selling Membership cards. You know - those cards that give customers discounts on books in the store.

When I first arrived at the job, I was told that everyone had a quota to make regarding the number of Memberships they sold or renewed. On the day's Task Diary, beside the person's name would be a dollar amount of memberships that they had to sell. It usually came to about one Membership a day, but my coworkers said it was usually expected to be only two a week. Now, I was worried about this. It wasn't commission or anything, but it was a quota I would have to meet by SELLING it to customers. That meant I had to up my personal communication and social skills and sell people something very specific, instead of just suggesting books for them.

However, just like my fear of my Japanese classes that turned out to be extraordinarily easy, I appear to have an almost supernatural ability to sell Memberships, record amounts of them. Yesterday, I sold seven Memberships! In one day! A few days ago, as it happens, the VP of our Bookstore paid a visit to our branch in order to do an inspection, since our branch has been having great progress and tip-top sales despite being small and sharing a mall with a larger bookstore at the other end. And my manager complimented me to the VP on my great membership sales, and the VP also complimented me on the way I engaged customers.

My sales have resulted in me getting rewards at work, which is great, but I feel just a little nervous because I have no idea what I'm doing better than anyone else to get the Memberships, especially considering I've only been working here for a week. Yesterday, I tried to tell the Manager that I had no idea how I've managed to sell so well, but was interrupted when a few more customers came in, and I ended up selling two more memberships right in front of the Manager! -_-;; She laughed and said, "You should be teaching us!" or something to that effect, but I only felt embarassed, because I wouldn't know what to teach!

Anyway though, I'm come through several long shifts with a smile on my face. I spent the whole day at a job, and I've left it still happy about my job, and not dreading the next time I'd have to go and do it - unlike my jobs at the movie theatre and McDonald's. The only hitch in my whole plan was that my feet hurt like HELL during the eight-hour shifts. I wore these really comfortable heels. They hurt a little on a shorter shifts, but I just figured that was because I hadn't stood up for so long since working at the theatre a year ago.

Turns out, though, that spending eight hours with the majority of my considerable weight on the balls of my feet is almost enough to give me a stress fracture. Which means, I'm going to have to clean off my theatre all-black sneakers and give those a go instead. However, for now that is the ONLY hitch in my otherwise fantasic job.