Archive for Kmart

Kmart and Work In General

{ December 19, 2008 @ 11:22 pm } · { Kmart, future }
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As some of you may know, I work at Kmart. I like to call it my own personal slice of holiday hell. It does not help that it was eighty-five degrees in there today. The management are like Satan’s slave drivers. Dealing with morons and crazy people is torture. Luckily, some of my fellow prisoners are sane, interesting, and friendly. If not I’d probably quit.

Today, as I was being tortured, I was thinking about what I’m working towards. I got accepted to one of my favorite schools with a big scholarship this week, so I’m probably going. After college, what? I’m not sure. I just know I don’t want it to be a better educated version of the Kmart hell.

What do I mean by this? I don’t want to always be following other people’s stupid rules. I don’t want my fate to be controlled by the whims of power-tripping middle management. I don’t want to spend all day dealing with idiots. I don’t want to worry all the time about placating crazy people. I don’t want to do the same thing all day and not feel like I’ve accomplished anything.

Sadly, a lot of jobs fall into at least some of those descriptions. Most jobs will fall into at least one. And I don’t want any of that. It drives me crazy. I don’t want the rest of my life to be like this, or else, what am I living for?

I will celebrate my eighteenth birthday this April by purchasing a bunch of lottery tickets and hoping I’ll never have to work again. Crazy? Maybe. But you’ll wish you hadn’t laughed if it works!

Random Acts of Kindness and Cheer

{ December 14, 2008 @ 7:47 pm } · { Kmart, food for thought }
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Today, as I was standing at my register in Kmart for the fifth hour, my feet hurting, my hands smelling gross (like pennies. I hate it), me thirsty and tired and just wanting to LEAVE, two elderly women came up to my register. Uncheerfully (it’s hard to be cheerful there), I rung up their purchases. As they were leaving, one woman handed me something, said something along the lines of “Have a good holiday,” and left. 

She had given me a piece of candy and a tiny card with a picture of Santa kneeling in front of baby Jesus with the American flag sticking out of Santa’s pocket, and the phrase “Every knee shall bow,” at the top, which is apparently a bible verse. The pictures were stamped and then colored in with pencils, it looks like. 

Weird? Very. But also, really nice. Funny and bizarre, definitely, but also…that’s a nice thought. Giving cheerful (weird) Christmas cards and candy to strangers who, I guess, look like they need something to brighten their day. While we should all have a bit more of a grasp on sanity than whoever thought that picture was normal, we should also try to be a little nicer to strangers. Most people come up and just yell at me because their shopping experience was not what they expected, but this woman was just very nice, and it did brighten my day, and only partially because I was able to laugh about it with my coworker, Jonnathan, when we weren’t too busy. 

It’s something we all should think about.