It's natural to be slightly nervous on the first day of your new job. My first day at SmartMove was a petrifying experience. I got the bus especially early, after exceptional paranoia meant that I got a strange feeling my bus would break down, and I ended up arriving a whole hour early, and sat in the cold waiting for opening time. The whole day was spent blustering around the office, learning bits and bobs and just getting by whilst the days business unravelled around me. I distinctly remember walking out of the office at lunchtime and wondering what the hell I was playing at. The expression, "thrown in at the deep end", didn't do that day justice. My first day, (or night of course), at BP was a little better. After experiencing a "high-end" job, I did get the feeling I was too good for the job, and most of it, apart from the till, was fairly self-explanatory. Long, but self-explanatory.
Today? It's a similar environment to BP, where the customer service and retail comes in, but to do this job you do need a modicum of ground knowledge to get started on. After all the formalities and paperwork had been completed, I was thrown on a till and given a rushed 10-minute demonstration on how it worked and then asked to serve customers. My thoughts that it probably wouldn't be so busy were chucked straight out the window, as a queue developed given I was making countless mistakes. I think I might have processed a payment without the dude actually paying, but frankly I couldn't care less. If these people weren't prepared to break me in gently, as it were, then you have to expect a few things will go wrong.
After a couple of hours, gaining very little progress, although I was fairly comfortable dealing with normal transactions, I was thrown into "my department", the camping section. Again, my original thoughts that it was mainly tents, shoes and sleeping bags were chewed up and spat out as the first question that came my way from a middle-aged man built like a bear was, "What kind of Propane Regulator do I need for this 6 kilogram red?"... Come again? Can you say that again, but in English? I hadn't even been given a radio, (that everyone seemed to be sporting on their jeans pocket), so I had to find a guy who specialised in camping to come and give the answer. The guy who asked me the question must have thought I was a right moron... Like I say, you need a base knowledge to deal with customers in here. Another question later on, was "Where can I find a platypus bottle?"... I mean, really? Are people asking me ridiculous questions on purpose?
Throughout the day, I did get the impression that I was simply getting in the way. Just a spare part, wandering around what to do next! A few people were nice and friendly, trying to offer help and guidance when they could find the time to do so, but some just kept themselves to themselves, just content with doing their own job and not trying to help someone who was clearly in need of help! Towards the end of the day, I just used the excuse, "It's my first day", where some people were understanding and some people have clearly forgotten what that feels like. I did just want to go home.
My mood is not made better by the fact I have 3 early starts this week, (8.30 till 5), before I get the weekend off to celebrate my birthday, which will just make certain the fact that I am not a kid anymore. To be fair, I am excited for the weekend coming up, as many a drunken sing-song and usual town antics will be followed by 2 cricket matches, (depending on level of hangover), before I go back to the humdrum of embarrassing myself in my lack of knowledge about camping.
To make things even worse, (if that were possible), it was announced by Store Manager Ian, that there would be a visit tomorrow from, "potential investors", who are about to table a £30m offer for the company.. Given that this store is, and I quote, "One of the best stores in the country for employee knowledge and customer service", they are coming to have a look at why this store is described as that..
I imagine that tonight will be spent sleeping away a nightmare that involves me screwing up that investment by not knowing about ... Caravans. Please, bring on Friday!
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