Moving On

Thursday, August 06, 2020

First, good news! My Border Collie, Miles, doesn’t have an autoimmune disease, it’s arthritis that causes his limping. That he needn’t take steroid medications is a huge relief to me. Maybe in time, he’ll again be able to accompany my horses, at least, on shorter outings.

Next, we’re back! Yesterday, Costco had five of us demo types working to attract and inform customers. We weren’t handing out samples, but showing and describing products, without generating much interest. My product, hand sanitizer refill, wasn’t exciting, didn’t stop customers, nor encourage me to speak ad infinitum to a script. An hour or so into the demo, I began to fall asleep, worked hard to remember lines and avoid mumbling. Fortunately, a break revived my energy enough. Assignments to products like sanitizer, toilet paper, and most pharmaceuticals makes for b-o-r-i-n-g demo work.

Customers look for tactile and certain visual experiences. They want to touch, eat, or pause on spotting a surprising and appealing product. Yesterday offered none, customers were disinterested. We demo types worked ad infinitum to suppress our yawns.

Things might start looking up for me. I’m assigned today and tomorrow as a breaker, which means filling-in while others take their breaks and lunches. This allows me to move around, change products, and share brief co-complaining sessions with fellow-workers. Breaking means shorter working hours, too, which I prefer. I’m experienced in showing most store products and don’t require full-time hours and pay. I simply want to keep my “hand in” and am hoping for a breaker role permanently or most often.

Restarting a massive, worldwide demo biz is requiring the organization to move forward with very-baby-steps. We first-hires are the workers most experienced. We understand the significant, gradable processes of maintaining stations, squeaky-clean, and selling products with scripted-speeches. We also have off-the-record experiences. One is knowing how to stay alert enough to perform adequately with any product.

By tomorrow’s ending, I’ll be off and running in the job. My next focus will be seeking to continue horseback riding while accommodating that work schedule. If mostly I’m a breaker, that will leave hours open to play with horses. My fingers are crossed.

Dear Friends: How a person wears a mask illuminates clearly his or her personality-type. Diana