2019 is off and running. I had to say I really appreciated the posts on Insta how everyone already fucked up, and here’s to 2020! I like that vibe, low expectations, makes it much easier to feel accomplished.
After a lovely stay in Florida for Christmas, I was deported back to the cold Kentucky backwoods. I got in a the Indy loving he could possibly stand, and managed to drink lots of wine and eat all the refrigerated foods. Quite lovely indeed.
Alas, Amazon was calling, and since I am still broke, to work I reported. As I scanned away, my youngish boss did the drive by with a laptop. If you’ve ever worked in a corporate place, you can picture it well. Your manager dropping by, stating your name in that low monotone, negating any form of ‘hello’, or ‘how are you?’, just right to the point.
“Katie”, he stands close to me, interrupting my lame attempt to open a heavily taped box. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you before the holidays, but you’re break times have shown up in reports as being over”.
I stopped my tape struggle and furrowed my brow.
I was confused, I took breaks with all the other campers, sometimes hurrying back before them, surely it must be a misunderstanding.
He continued, “You actually pulled up on the report as being one of the top 4 longest break takers in the building.”
“What?!” I choked out. There were like, 800 people in this building, during peak (now) there are around 2,000, and I’m top 4 worst in the building?! I kind of laughed, “there must be a mistake, I mean I’m always back with everyone else…where else would I go?”. The whole thing was shocking. We weren’t allowed cell phones, and you were lucky if your food didn’t get stolen, it was virtually a giant warehouse, nowhere to go hide and take breaks for long periods of time.
He continued in his somber monotone, “My department has never been on this list before”, his eyebrows raised, “try to get your scans in right away when your back.” Off he went with the laptop to do whatever it is managers of returns does.
“But I haven’t even done anything wrong!”, I screamed in my head, “I show up everyday, keep my head down, scan shit, and go home!”
Alas, apparently I wasn’t doing it right. After some coaching from the other campers, add in another week and they finally popped up on the report too, I felt better. I was just the first of them to get chastised about nothing.
But it reminded me that 2020 is certainly going to be my year.
