Some Guy Named Bob and I played golf alone this morning. The Seafood King had a family emergency necessitating a trip out of town. From the files of "when it rains, it pours", one of the Seafood King's fish joints caught on fire yesterday. The damage was mostly contained, but the firefighters hatcheted a bunch of holes in the building to get to the fire. This location is going to be closed for about a month. That sucks for the employees who are now out of work. That is how it is in retail. No one covers your wages if there is no work. Place burns down and you're screwed. Of course, so is the owner. Working retail has its pros and cons. On one hand the wages suck. If you have to rely on retail to support yourself, you are not usually living the high life. Even if you are the owner of a retail place, the money generally sucks. More owners than not, simply have a bad-paying job that never gives them any rest. I've only worked in retail at three places in my life. The first two real jobs I had were retail. One was as a fry cook in a restaurant and the other was clerking in a grocery store. I learned early on that retail attracts bullies. A lot of people managing retail operations got the job because they were just plain mean and not real bright. They mistake their nastiness for competence. I'm lucky to work at the hardware store. It is a different attitude for the most part. The manager treats us with respect. When she has to come down hard on someone, it is usually because something has come to the attention of the owners and they are forcing her hand. I have do a fundamental disagreement with what the scope of my job at the hardware store is. I think my job is to be helpful to the customers and to stock and keep my areas neat and orderly. The management agrees with those things, but puts a heavy emphasis on selling additional items. If they want me to sell, they should put me on commission. My crappy hourly wage is insufficient to make me into a true believer. One of my coworkers inadvertently tested the limits of the selling expectation and found himself face-to-face with the owner for a come to Jesus meeting. They made him sign a form acknowledging that another misstep would result in his dismissal. My coworker needs the job so he signed. I would tell them to shove it. And that is the real key to thriving in retail or any job for that matter. I'm lucky to be in a happy-happy employment situation. I'm happy if they fire me and I'm happy if they don't. That's a pro of working a crappy retail job. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky