Apocalyptic

Hahaha.

Are we talking about a Christian chat room?

I agree with you. I wasn't fighting at all though, I was just explaining to her that she wasn't bringing me into her drama. Like I said, I don't talk to most of the associates if it doesn't have to do with work. I do my job and I leave. I'm very friendly with everyone but that's because I'm a positive person and I don't want to be the one that makes the environment a negative one. I don't listen to anyone's stories about other associates. I've literally walked away from people who begin to talk to me about other associates. I don't want anything to do with it. But yeah, there's drama everywhere.

As some of you may or may not know, I'm a front end supervisor at my local K Mart. This means that I supervise the cashiers and do customer service. Every shift, there are typically two supervisors active so you're either supervising the cashiers or at the customer desk, with the exception of the times where you're alone because the other supervisor is on their break, half hour lunch, or hour lunch. In these cases, you're on your own and have to divide your time between supervising the cashiers and watching the service desk in case any customers go in for help. I was recently promoted to front end supervisor after a year of working as a cashier. In retail, I've learned that there is just so much drama. It's ridiculous. I hate it so much. After a few months of working at K Mart, one of the associates that work in electronics had already crossed me several times. He was very rude to me at random times, and sometimes even in front of customers. I spoke with the front end lead (head of the supervisors), I spoke with several managers, the store manager, and with the Human Resources manager. The general response I got was that I should just ignore it or say something back to him so that he stops which I thought was very ridiculous since it's unprofessional for someone to yell at another associate in front of customers. Anyway, on one occasion, I was working as a cashier and a phone call came in for electronics. At the time, I was fairly new to K Mart. I believe I had been working there 5 months or so. I knew a lot about the front end, but wasn't familiar with the procedures of the electronics department. The associate that I'm talking about wasn't answering the call, so I decided to turn my light off and take the call for him so that the customer didn't have to keep waiting. I believe that the customer was asking for a gaming console. I'm not sure what it was; it may have been the x box. They were asking whether we had it in stock. I checked and saw that we were out of stock. When asked when we'd be getting more, I was stumped. I didn't know this then, but K Mart gets weekly trucks of products and no one knows what is in those trucks until they are unloaded. I didn't know this at the time, so I went over to this electronics associate and said "Excuse me." since he was helping a customer. The other customer had been waiting longer and I didn't want to keep them on hold for another long period of time. I told him the situation and asked him when we'd be getting more x box's. His answer was very rude. It was something along those lines of "Well, it's common sense that we get weekly truckloads and that we don't know what's in the trucks until we unload them. I'm surprised that you've made it here without knowing that. Now if you're done being rude, I have a customer that I was assisting before you interrupted." I said thank you and walked away. I seriously felt like yelling at him right then and there, but I didn't want to be unprofessional and do the same thing he had done. I told the customer on the phone the information that he needed, and hung up with them. A few minutes later, when Scott (the electronics associate) was done helping the customer, I went over to him and said "Hey, I'm going to explain something to you. The next time that you talk to me that way in front of a customer, I am going to embarrass you. I don't care if you talk to me that way in front of just employees, because I don't give a damn what any of you here think of me. I come here to work, not to make friends, but in front of the customers, I can't blow you off because that would be as unprofessional as you were today when I was helping YOU out." His response was, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be an ass, it's just that's how my personality is. I've been told before that I come off as an butthole but I don't mean to sound that way. It's just how I am." I was just tired with being degraded though, and I was letting my frustration out, so my response was "I don't care if that's how your personality is. You need to control it with me because I don't disrespect you, and you certainly aren't going to disrespect me." Since then, Scott's been very careful about being that way with me. I don't really talk to many of the associates. I'm friendly with everyone, but as soon as my shift is over, I leave. Like I said before, I was recently promoted to front end supervisor. One of the other supervisors was running her mouth with a friend of mine about how I had stolen her hours and about how I was cocky because I didn't accept her friend request on Facebook. My friend told me that same night and when I went in the next day, I was supervising with Holly, the supervisor that had said everything about me. For the record, Holly has a college degree. She is a teacher but hasn't found a permanent teaching job, so she's had long term substituting positions, but that's it. She's in her mid 20's. In addition to working as a long term substitute, she works at K Mart, Tj Max, and Waldenbooks. She's also married but lives with her husband's parents. She isn't in dire need of money. I don't get why she is the way she is. But anyway, I walked into work, and she was quick to greet me and try to hug me. I asked her if I could talk to her in the office, and we went in there very quick. I had to tell her exactly what I felt about her comments. Here's the convo: Me: Holly, I'm trying to understand your mental process. I really am. I am trying to understand why a college educated person would be upset by a teenager's decision to deny their friend request on a social networking web site. I also don't understand why you would feel comfortable talking about me when I'm not around, and then having the unabashed gull to try and greet me and hug me as if nothing had happened. It's ridiculous. Do you feel that because you work with high school students as a substitute, that you have to act like them? Is that what's going on? Holly: No, Roberto, I don't understand - I didn't say anything about you. Me: What you said was that I was stealing your hours and that I am cocky because I did deny your friend request on Facebook. I'm going to explain both parts to you. As far as stealing your hours goes, I was promoted to supervisor. I was not promoted to human resources manager. I do not do the scheduling. If you have a problem with the hours that you're getting, you don't need to talk to me or about me with other associates. You've been here long enough to know that you take it up with Bruce, who does the scheduling as one of the requirements of his job as our Human Resources Manager. As far as not adding you on Facebook, YOU and I are NOT friends. We are co-workers. There is no reason for me to accept you on Facebook or try in any way to become intimate with you or any of my co-workers. It isn't personal, but I want to keep things professional. There are about 10 people in this entire store that I would even acknowledge if I saw them outside of work. You aren't my friends. I didn't come here to make friends. My life doesn't revolve around the drama of K mart. I come here, I do my job, and I leave. That is it. If this isn't your case, that's your problem, but be very careful about putting my name in your mouth and bringing me into your drama. Holly: Roberto I am so sorry. I didn't mean to be offens- Me: You don't have to apologize or explain yourself. You and I are on the same level. You don't owe me explanations. I was simply explaining to you (out of desire, because I don't owe you an explanation either) the reasons for my decision to deny your friend request and why I couldn't possibly "steal your hours" as you said to another associate. Now let's go and get to work, because that's what we should be doing. As you can see, there is a lot of drama and tension at k mart. It's ridiculous. I just can't stand it. Everyone talks about everyone, and that's why I just try and keep the people I talk to there at a very minimum. I had a few employees as friends but I recently deleted them. I only have on there the people that I knew from outside of work and now I happen to work with them. I went to high school with a few of the employees, so that's the difference. Anyway, sorry about this long blog on the drama at k mart, but I've been so pissed about it lately and I wanted to let it out here haha. Comments or questions are welcome This post has been promoted to an article

I disagree. Although there is a lot of stereotyping involved in schooling and later in life when you begin to work, that's simply how life is, and it's up to you whether you want to deal with the drama. At my job, there is a lot of drama. That's how life works. I just go in, do my job, and I leave. I don't associate with my co-workers outside of work and keep things strictly professional. It's the best way to just avoid problems with people. Now as far as school goes, if you plan on going and doing something at home for the rest of your life because you don't want to deal with the potential drama of normal life, I suppose that's your decision, but it's a socially healthy thing to do. As far as the curriculum that you deal with, it's a broad area of topics because these topics are what help you decide what you're going to be as an adult. If you were not good with math, maybe you shouldn't be an accountant. If you were bad with science, maybe you shouldn't plan on being a chemist or anything along those lines. If you were not good with your social studies courses, you probably shouldn't go into politics or plan a history teacher. It's just a matter of expanding your knowledge and helping you to decide what you want to do with your life. Most institutions of higher education also require you to take general education courses. As a freshman in college, I can tell you that I have to take a math and science class before I graduate, and as annoying as that it, I totally understand that it'll make me a more knowledgeable person. I realize that I will not need to know much about statistics or chemistry or any of the natural sciences in the field of law, but I understand the concept of having general education courses as graduation requirements.

I consider myself an optimist, not because I'm a happy-go-lucky person that's always hoping for the best and thinking that things could never go wrong, but because I believe that it's healthier to see things in a positive light as opposed to always searching for the negative in things and in people.

I worked at a local McDonald's in my state of Pennsylvania for a total of 4 days before I realized that it was time to go. The management was abusive towards the employees, and I decided that I wasn't going to work minimum wage to be talked to by a dog who was clearly frustrated with their mediocre lives. I've noticed that customer service simply is not important anymore. Today, I called a local business to make a payment on something, and they transferred me to quite a few people before I was able to actually make the payment. One of the representatives that I spoke with actually answered the phone and said "What?" to which I replied "Excuse me?" and he quickly apologized and asked how he could assist me. I didn't get his name but it would have been a joy to file a report against him had I gotten his name. So rude. Anyway, the management at my local McDonald's is abusive and gets off on embarrassing its employees in front of customers. They lack a lot of professionalism. I avoid McDonald's as much as possible.

That's pretty funny, I opened a thread on another section of the boards talking about the media and Michael Jackson's death, too. I've noticed that some people are still defaming him despite the fact that he's no longer around to defend himself, but what angers me the most are the figures of the media who bashed him when he was alive and now treat him as if he were royalty. In my opinion, they should leave him to rest in peace. I was hoping that his death would indicate the end of this chaos that was Michael Jackson's final years as a celebrity. The United States media tears our celebrities apart. It's really sad. I absolutely agree that one should always take responsibility for one's actions, but the media played a major role in the destruction of Michael Jackson. They absolutely did and anyone that would be willing to deny that clearly doesn't know enough about this man and thus, frankly shouldn't even be participating in a debate concerning the King of Pop. I never believed anything that the media had to say about the alleged molestations of these little boys. From what I understand, the second boy that was allegedly molested admitted after Jackson's death that it was all a scheme created by his father to get money out of Michael Jackson. I don't know whether or not the article is valid, but frankly, who's to say what is and isn't true? Half of the things that the media expresses to us, it's public, isn't true. The only thing that I can say is that Michael Jackson was a man who spent a lifetime giving and giving without expecting anything in return and it truly angers me when people say that he was a bad man for loving children in the way he did. I believe that Michael Jackson was a man who was denied a childhood because his poor excuse for a father wanted to re-create his dream in his children. I appreciate the fact that he introduced Michael Jackson to the world, but I find that it's horrible when a person's childhood is taken away from them, and that's exactly what happened to Michael Jackson. He didn't have a childhood, and that, in my opinion, is where his love for children derived. Sure, some of his activities with these children could be considered questionable by those individuals who thought about them in perverted ways, and he explained that in several of his interviews. It's only sexual if you make it sexual, and that was never his intention. I also believe that Michael Jackson had pure intentions with all children that he encountered. He had many issues because of things that happened to him during his childhood, but he was a very intelligent man, and I don't believe he'd do the same thing twice considering that he is who he is. His children loved him, and that furthermore supports my opinion that he was a genuinely amazing man who loved children -- that's why he was an amazing father for those kids -- and whether or not they are biologically "his" children is none of anyone's concern. He raised them and loved them as his own, and they loved him as their father. That's more than enough for me. He was declared "not guilty" which clearly doesn't mean innocent in legal terms, but ultimately it means that the verdict can't be innocent or guilty without a sufficient amount of doubt. My verdict is that he wasn't guilty.. period. He blessed us with music for a very long time and for that along with his contributions to the ENTIRE WORLD, I love Michael Jackson, and I always will. Screw the media and what they think or have to say. Long live the King! We love you Michael!

Before I begin to rant about this, I need to explain that I'm a faithful Michael Jackson fan. I am, have always been, and will always be a fan of Michael Jackson. I'm a fan of his music, and I love and respect him because he spent a large portion of his life giving to the needy without expecting anything in return. People may question this, but what could he have expected from children in orphanages in Romania? Others may say that he wanted media attention, but the only attention that he got throughout about the second half of his career was negative attention. The United States media did nothing but attack this man for every thing that he did. They blew up his molestation charges, his drug & substance abuse issues, his plastic surgeries, the loss of pigment in his skin, his children, and the list goes on. For the last several years, I don't remember seeing anything good about Michael Jackson on any news station. I wish I could say that it's an exaggeration, but it isn't. I haven't. Not until now, anyway.. that he's dead. Now that the King of Pop is dead, the United States media wants to turn him into a God. That's ridiculous and the epitome of hypocrasy in my honest opinion. What the United States media needs to do is focus less on the private lives of our talented artists and focus more on actual news that affects the public. With the economy the way it is, you'd think that people would care very little about whether or not Michael Jackson had plastic surgery(ies) on his nose, but unfortunately, the media contradicts that thought, and that just says a lot about us as the public. Now that he's gone, the media wants to pretend that none of that ever happened. They want to pretend that they didn't call him Wacko Jacko, and that they didn't focus in on the stupid molestation charges. They want to pretend that they didn't make fun of him for his dramatic changes over the years. It's ridiculous to me, and it angers me a great deal.