My Job.

I work for a large grocery store chain. I worked at the same store for two and a half years. For the first two years I worked as a cashier. I learned a lot about people and how to handle difficult situations. In that two years, I was able to learn a vast about about the front end of the store. More than people realize. I dealt with multiple screaming and upset customers. Trying to fix their problems even when it should not have fallen back on the store. I remember very clearly running the service counter and a woman and her son came to the counter with a Ziploc bag full of cooked meat. They threw it down on the counter and demanded a refund because the meat wasn't as tender as she wanted it. Our policy states that we have to give the customer their refund. But my problem with it was that they ate over half of it. And it took them to eat that much of it that they decided they did not like that.  That really bothered me.

But once I graduated from high school the person HR approached me and asked if I would be interested in the position that had opened in the Bakery department. Now prior to this I had helped out in the Bakery on the weekends when  it was busy and they were short handed. So with no hesitation I accepted I worked in this Bakery for 6 months. I had become very close with my fellow bakery members. They became like my second family. I knew that I could trust all of them with out a doubt in my mind. My manager, Courtney, soon turned into more than a  manager, she became a good friend. Someone that I could talk to about anything. I knew she would never judge me for anything I said and I knew she wouldn't tell anyone what we talked about. My fellow closer became like my brother. We never had a moment together that we were cracking a joke or laughing at something. We always new how to get our work done and have a good time while we did it.

In January my company opened a new store down the street from the store that I started at. It didn't matter to me. I loved my job, my store, my coworkers, and everything about it. I never had planned on leaving. About a week before the store opened I was asked if I wanted to go to the new store and help them set everything up and get it ready for the grand opening. So I did, thought it would be fun and different from everything else that I was doing. I helped for two days. Then the store opened and they realized that they didn't have enough people to run the department the way that it should be ran. So they asked if I could come help a couple days a week. And I agreed. Soon after I started helping, all the managers saw how much potential I had and they asked if I would be interested in becoming the Lead of the department. (Which is just a fancy word for assistant manager). I couldn't even believe that it was happening. I never thought that I would be able to be the Lead of the new store. So I said yes!

When I left my old job I never realized what I was leaving behind at my old store. I was leaving behind a manager who taught me everything I know, people who have become like my family, who I learned to trust and who could trust me. I lost bosses who were willing to give a 16 year old girl with no work experience a chance. I never thought that me leaving would have been such a big deal. I thought that it was just a well I'm moving up in the world and that they would all just move on from this like it was nothing. But after signing my leaving papers I realized that all my bosses didn't want to lose me. I had worked so hard at that store and knew so much about that store that me leaving was going to be hard on them. Having to find someone that could replace me was going to be difficult.

My new store was a big transition. It was a lot harder than I ever anticipated. The manager of my department didn't seem like she even knew what she was doing. She had moments where she was good. But most of them were not. If I would ask her a question the answer usually resulted in an "I don't know" we were always running out of product and she never seemed to order it. All of the people that were above her were getting sick and tired of always having to help out the bakery because she wasn't doing her job.

So about two weeks ago I received a text from my old bakery manager telling me that she was going to become the new bakery manager at my new store. I couldn't have been more excited by this news. I was getting my friend back, and I was going to have a manager who actually knew what she was doing.

Since this has happened I enjoy going to work everyday. I know that things are starting to run more smoothly and its exciting.