Nice job if you can get it...

I did quite a bit of my Christmas shopping online this year. And if I didn't do it online, you can bet I went on a weekday off to a lesser-shopped mall. Every year it gets worse; they don't have the size/color you're looking for, there are lineups as far as the eye can see, your arms ache from carrying all your bags, your patience wears thin trying to maneuver around the crowds. And to top it off this year, there is barely any staff.

To be more specific, there is barely any knowledgeable staff who are willing to help.

I mean, why should they inconvenience themselves by offering to help you? The city is so crazed for workers that A&W is offering workers twice what I made in my first job for flipping burgers! You can earn a good dime just standing around filling out a company's payroll.

All the little slights add up. After paying for her purchase, the sales clerk walked away from the till and left my mom to reach over the counter and grab her purchase. At another store, the lady in front of me in line had to reach for her purchase as well since the cashier was too busy chatting with his school friend who had come to visit. He did not even bid her "goodbye" or thank her for her patronage and, in turn, did not even greet me "hello" as he started to ring through my items. I'll admit, I used to think those self-checkout counters were a horrible and impersonal concept...but if this is the kind of service I can start to expect in the future then I have no trouble ringing through my purchase myself.

My brother, though he only works the odd day to help his friends out, could tell you a million stories of useless and clueless staff. Just like in retail, some of these workers could use a scholarship to charm school.

One day I had ordered a snack from New York Fries. The clerk slapped my poutine on my tray and trotted to the back. Never mind that she had made a mess splattering the gravy everywhere when she dropped my food down.

At times you have to wait forever and a day before the sales associates acknowledge that you would like a fitting room to try something on...or worse yet, that you're ready to actually buy something.

The other day a trainee showed me to my change room and left me be. This in itself was fine, at least I got into a fitting room. It was afterwards when I was paying for my top and she raved to her new manager "it looked amazing on her!" that I wanted to pipe up and keep her honest. I wish I had said something snarky like "you mean you could actually SEE me in the fitting room?! That's really creepy!" Instead I kept my mouth shut, it would have taken more of my time than I was willing to spend in the store just to set things straight.

And that makes me part of the problem right there. These people don't care about their job since, even if they are let go from their present one, they can easily nab another job elsewhere. Even if you make a comment to the management, chances are they will hesitate to fire bunk employees since it's so difficult to keep employees around in the first place.

But there's always hope, right?

The other day they finally fired a sales associate who had been dead wood since she was hired as Christmas help 2 years ago. Great lady (and note I said "lady," we're not even talking about the stereotypical lazy teen here) but horrible employee. It's inevitable to hurt staff motivation when you bust your butt to represent your company well and to the best of your abilities while another employee slacks off and gets paid just as well. This woman would shop around during her shift, so much so that they would chronically page her over the system since she was always missing from her department. I wish they'd pay ME to shop! That's essentially what she has done for ever and ever. And she gets a staff discount to boot!

With each passing day that she was employed the more the rest of us sales associates would get miffed. It may not be the most glamorous job but at least we took our work seriously. I may not have been a stellar sales associate at times but I still did my job.

Don't get me wrong, we weren't being malicious in our relief to hear that she was finally gone...she just didn't fit in with the team we had going. More to the point, she never tried to fit in with the team. I don't think anyone should feel bad for her, I'm sure she didn't let it faze her much.

For all we know she's probably got a new job working for our competitors already.