Short Staffed

 "You're rather short staffed today aren't you." 

Is what a customer commented to me yesterday at work after I'd finished bagging them some crickets.

A comment which I'm sure was inspired by the fact that said customer had to wait for me to finish helping another customer with fish before I could help them get their bugs.

But it was kinda ironic in a way.

Because yes, we're typically short staffed at work. It's not a surprise because corporate is very stingy about giving us hours to hire more people so most of the time we're lucky if we have a manager, a cashier, and someone for Petcare along with maybe a 4th body.

Which is rather depressing to consider that back when I first started at Starsmet, we had 2 morning petcare, 2 closing petcare, a team of like 4 stockers, at least one cashier if not two the entire day. Like we had a literal whole crew.

And now....it's bare bones.

Because corporate wants us to do more with less so more money goes to whatever gold gilded pockets of whoever owns the company or whatever.

And it's frustrating on multiple levels especially considering my store has been seeing an increase in business because our competitor has temporarily closed as they move from their old building into a new buildng.

But does corporate give us more hours to make up for the increase in traffic? *rolls eyes* Of course not.

But the customer's statement yesterday was kinda ironic.

Because we actually were a bit....overstaffed compared to normal.

Like. We had THREE cashiers, me in petcare, and then three other managers in the store -2 attempting to work on getting product on the shelf from our truck and the 3rd acting as the midday manager.

So like tehre were a good 7 of us in the store which was alot. 

And really only happened, i'm sure, because we have a newbie being trained on register, so we had double coverage there.

But also because it's Saturday. And Saturday's are typically our most busiest day of the week. Which means we try to have more associates working that day --if hours allow--

So coverage wise. We were doing really great.

*shakes head* But customers don't always see it that way. Especially if they need to wait more than 30 seconds to recceive help.

It's like they think there's a whole crew of us waiting in the back to be called out to help.

But like...we're not Best Buy. There's not 20 of us wandering around the store.

No, usually there's like 4 of us max. Which when one is stuck at register and the other is stuck at the fish wall...doesn't mean that we have much coverage with 2 others to help other customers especially when one customer decides to be a chatty Kathy and just waste our time talking while other customers are also waiting for help. 

*exhales*

It's stressful for sure.

Saturday's aren't fun at all.

But like....we had the coverage yesterday to make things go pretty smoothly, for which I'm grateful.

lol and if customers don't like waiting....they really shouldn't shop on a Saturday. Like that's always the busiest day for us. You want to have less crowds and quicker help? Come on a Tuesday or a Wednesday when it's more dead. *shakes head*

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi