Embracing your Weirdness

One day left. I worked it out the other day using some random tool on the internet – 3 years, 6 months, and 15 days since I began work. Thats a long time. Although I don’t leave until tomorrow, I had my leaving do this evening. It was very nice. I will always remember the people in this job. They are nice, normal, sensible people. And I am going to miss them all.

Looking back at the last three (nearly four ) years of my life, I can see how much I have changed. I am now a totally different person than I was.

Actually, thats not true. I think maybe I am the person I always was, but that I have the confidence to do different things. I think that the real me was trying to escape. Having a job, going to university, my invovlemnet with scouts, and the American Adventure have all been a fundamental underpinning of my development.

I am happy in my own life and in my own skin and I just want to make the most of what I’ve got.

I am against working in a blame culture. Where I work if a mistake is made, or if something goes wrong, the first question that is asked is “Whose fault is it?”. There is no understanding of the simple fact that mistake happen, and that the best way to deal with this is not to embarass or deride the person who made the mistake – a quiet word can make all the difference.

Apportioning blame is secondary if a different question is asked – “How do we fix this?” It would make all the difference.

Its endemic of a poor working culture, and to be honest, it is a management issue that has fed down through the ranks – and now if people do make a mistake, I doubt they would own up to it.

Only five more days left to work there – so its not all bad.

I don’t want to be bored everyday and I really don’t want the hassle of being in an office!

On the plus side, having gone running first thing this morning I then went swimming.

Did run out of steam a bit by about 3:30!!!

I think I’m going to crawl into bed soon.

And tomorrow will be much the same as today – only it will be so much busier.

As Tony the Tiger would say…. thats G-R-R- EAT!

Its been a very interesting few weeks. I have come to terms with a lot of my feelings and I think I’m starting to make sense of the world in my own way.

But I’ve had quite a lot of fun along the way. I’ve done tonnes of Scout stuff, applied to an International Scout Camp, helped at a half marathon, and really got stuck into every new thing I’ve tried.

And then got told I was basically incompetent at my job! Lets just say it helped me make my mind up about a lot of things. I came to the conclusion that I am bored and need to go and do something different with my life.

Its definalty spurred me on to get ready for this Army selection in a few weeks, and pretty much made the decision to apply for the international camp. It may just have been a positive experience, even though it didn’t feel that way at the time.

I think I forgot for a while that there is a positive side to every situation…. even if it is not immediatly apparant.

Anyway, I think I’m back to my old self now.

It was one of those days today, where some bright spark manger decides that sales will be the focus of the day. I have never been so embarrassed to be doing my job!

Customers were being, in my opinion, bullied into taking products that they didn’t want or need, simply to stop that harrasment by my colleagues. And that is a terrible thing to have to say.

If I had been one of our customers today, and subjected to that kind of attitude, I would never have gone in there again. I’m still maintaining my boycott of Dixons because of appalling customer service. Back then I said that where I work customer service is a key priority, with the idea being ‘sales through service’ (which in principle I agree with) which doesn’t generate the business results.

Today was also the pits with regard to customer service. I would much rather be dealing with back office queries than have to be customer facing if that is the way I am expected to behave. I actually found myself doing it, at the insistance of the manager, and I feel quite guilty that I dropped my game to such a level.

It may generate short term business results, but when customer relaltionships are jeapordised then the long term value of those customers is lost completely.

If I just keep my head down and stay off the radar, maybe they’ll just leave me alone.

Or then again, maybe they won’t.

Where I work, customer service, in its many forms, is held as an absolute priority. Queues should not be allowed to form, and all staff must be customer facing at the peak time. Although I do not always agree with the definition of customer service and how it is applied, I realised today how important some of the things we have to do actually are.

I was in Dixons today during my half hour break. There were about twenty customers in the store. There were about seven members of staff, anda queue for the till about six deep.

There was one person on the Cash desk. One person, serving those who wished to pay. and the other memeber of staff were standing around, laughing and joking, and fiddling with the displays. Absolutely appalling customer service! I wouldn’t be allowed, nor would I want, to act in such a manner at work.

It makes me wonder whether the art of customer service has been well and truly lost.

We have this new person in the office I work in. Well, actually, there are two new people. And they are complete opposites. Call them Guy and Girl.

Guy is really keen to learn. He played his part, asked questions when he needed to, and when he wasn’t sure. He was keen to try the different procedures and just ‘learn’ in general. He was really a pleasure to supervise and teach.

Girl – almost drove me round the bend. I repeated myself, I showed her things half a dozen times. Girl wanted everything handed to her on a plate. She didn’t care about how things work. She didn’t even try to remember things in most cases. Her attitude, put simply, sucked!

Which one will succeed – Guy. Which one will not last – Girl. Every time you meet new staff, you can (usually) tell whether they will last or not.

It was quite interesting to see such contrast. That said. Concentration is key to being a success, especially when you are new. But if you have a positive mental attitude, you can be a success at anything. And if you struggle, a positive outlook ill make other people more likely to help.

Attitude is so important, it helps build workplace relationships (both internally and externally). It creates a positive working atmosphere and at the end of the day – its all about teamwork. People are key.

Ramble Over

Onwards and upwards.