The Holidays Job Madness: When the holidays affects your customers, making them seem more needy then usual, and more persistent on asking you for help when you already are trying to do something. Or when you are affected, and you just want to focus on what you are doing and not have to do fifty other things. Not sure if it counts but I had the both of those today.
First, I was zoning Health and Beauty when I see a man looking at two bottles. He then turned to me, and asked, “Hey, what’s the difference between dry shampoo and hairspray?”
I admit, I had this moment of disbelief, wondering why he would ask that since I thought the answer would be obviously clear. Despite that, I told him that the dry shampoo helps with the oil buildup in your hair.
Then, I was told to do returns, and to start off with the fullest cart. Of course, this happened to be a cart overflowing with toys. So overflowing that several boxes were falling down when I was taking it to the toy section.
Then the minute I get there, I had a woman approached me, asking me if we had Tickle-Me Elmos. I said no, and then she asked me where the air fresheners are, and telling me that she had bad legs. I felt bad for her and went to go grab it for her since it was at the other end of the store. However, she still followed me, stopping me to ask if we had Elmo towels and asking if I had a bad back just because I pulled on my shirt at the back.
After that, I was told to cover the doors, so I didn’t get any recovery done. Walmart had this new rule due to COVID that the doors on the grocery side are exit only, so I had to deal with people trying to exit though the at the doors I was stationed. I ended up encountering two elderly men who didn’t care about the rules: They refused to listen to me, spoke to me very rudely, and went out the wrong doors.
After my break, I started working on returns again, and when I was bringing the Christmas things over, I had a woman stop me, pointing out a cart that someone left behind at a unused register. Usually, we have people who covers that sort of thing, but we were short staffed that day. So I took all the things out and put the cart away.
While I was putting the cart away, one of my co-workers asks me if I was going to do the Health and Beauty cart and I told her I would do it later, I had something else to do and I wanted to focus on it and then the more full carts.
I was able to empty the cart, but thoughout the whole thing, I often had to take customers to find things, such as paper towel and tape.
Then I went to grab cart and seeing another full toy cart, I got that one and went over to the toy section.
When I got there, I was called over by a woman, asking about a policy about selling an item cheaper when it’s in the wrong place. I recommended her that she ask the cash, as I remembered that policy back from my cashier days, and I couldn’t remember if it was still in place. So she takes a photo for proof, and then asked me to come with her to back her up.
This one drove me the most crazy, as I felt like since she had proof, I didn’t have to come with her. And I just wanted to get my recovery done. But I went along with her until we ran into some other co-workers. I asked one of them if I really had to come with her to back her up, and he said no, and that they will help her.
At that point, my shift was nearly done, and I was just plain frustrated at all the customers. And finally, my manager politely asked me to ‘do recovery’, which what I was trying to do all day. It honestly made me feel bad, as I feel like I barely did anything. Sure I helped a lot of people, but I just wanted to do what I was told.
I admit, I get super-focused on the task, and I need to be flexiable at Walmart. But that day, I was so focused on getting recovery done, I feel like I wasn’t being that flexible.
Despite all the screaming in my head, I was able to keep my composure. When I explained everything to my manger after her request, she understood how I was feeling, and said I did a wonderful job, and she thought I kept myself in control. I admit, I feel like people can see when I’m stressed, so I’m still worried about it. But I’m sure she would had brought it up as well.
The customers were really nice: They knew I was trying to get through the holidays, and never once told me that I was rude. I admit, I was talking about how stressed I was, trying to explain if I sounded rude, that’s why.
And despite all of that frustration, I know I did the right thing on stopping recovery and helping the customer as they will always come first. Walmart does want all customers to leave with a smile on their faces and wanting to come back after all.
Mom and Dad say that’s the reality of the holiday rush: It brings out all the crazy requests. But when I think about it, it’s due to the customer wanting to make their families happy as well, or wanting to get something at a cheaper price. So they really do have a reason for their requests.
I’m going to get good days somedays and after a while of good days, a completely bad day will come up and throw me off. That’s reality. And when that happens, I have to remember that tomorrow is another day.
