Okay, so I did quit my job yesterday. For realsies!

The ambiguity stemmed from the fact that the boss of my boss was running after me and spent thirty minutes trying to talk me out of it. I did contemplate all that she said, slept on it, and decided that my first decision to quit was the right one.

I loved my job but I hated where I worked. The store manager was vulgar and mean. He thought his jokes were funny but actually they were very hurtful. I am a sensitive sort, but being a klutz in the china department toughened my skin a bit. And he was just flat out mean to me. They didn't pay me enough money to listen to that crap.

Heh! They didn't pay me enough money, period. I worked because I had to. But I also loved the people who were my customers. I might not know them when they came into my store, but I'd like to think they were friends when they left. Just yesterday I waited on a Pakistani couple and their daughter. They purchased a complete set of china from me (and since my store is so moronic, I had to carry the damn thing to their car) and they were very happy. Mrs. Kundi even gave me her phone number and asked me to dinner. She said it would be spicy. I might just take her up on her offer.

I've had plenty of customers ask me to dinner after they've purchased their dishes. Some of them are joking but many are quite serious. I've been invited to the ballet. I even tried to sell a customer something that I really liked for a gift for his girlfriend. He bought something else, but he bought the item I liked and gave it to me. It was set of 6 Spode Blue Room collectible plates. That was very nice of him. I've been given numerous gift certificates and gift cards to restaurants and movies. I've had people write letters to our company about me. I was a great salesperson and an asset to my store. I knew that.

Too bad they didn't. Oh, I think they knew it but they didn't like my attitude. What was wrong with it? Well, the customer ALWAYS came first to me. A tenet my company preaches, yet does not practice very well. The customer comes first only if some pinhead from corporate isn't due for a visit. I have always wished that the pinheads from corporate would make surprise visits so they could see how little work really gets done by managers. They are always in meetings and never around to help.

As a bridal consultant, I wasn't really in an active selling role. My job was to sell my store's bridal registry to potential brides and grooms. It's been a difficult job the last several months as we begin the transition from Foley's to Macy's. Foley's had forced the selling staff to such bare minimums that I was forced to sell. I don't mind selling, but I don't like not doing the job I'm supposed to do.

Since our store opened in 2003, it has been one fiasco after another in the china department. This is a sort of complicated department in the first place. It's not like clothing where customers can (but shouldn't have to) pretty much help themselves. A china department customer is making a major purchase of items people don't regularly buy. They want to know what bone china is. They want to know about stainless steel -- what is the difference between 18/10 and 18/8. What is lead crystal? How does one put it all together? How many should I get? When will it be discontinued?

So the sales people must be knowledgeable. And that's been our first downfall. We have hired people who don't know what China is, much less what bone china is. They don't care either. They'll sell crap to people just to make a sale. They don't know how to care for it and give the customer little expertise. And if we don't have the merchandise in our store, forget it, there are few in the department who even know how to use the computer much less place an order. And the company doesn't care. Maybe they will now. Because they will not have me to clean up everyone's mess.

Even though I don't work there anymore I still worry about Sally and Scott. An associate tried to place an order for them over a month ago. She succeeded in deducting over $1200. from their gift card but the order was never placed because she doesn't know how to read. When brought to the attention of management, I was assured it would be taken care of. I came back from being out for 2 weeks to a message from Sally. How was her order going? Well, it wasn't. We still had her money, but no one had done a damn thing. And we really don't have her money, it's just floating around in the ether somewhere. When I mentioned this to the dragon lady yesterday, she said I should take it as a compliment that everyone leaves the problems for me to handle.

Thanks, but no thanks. Those kind of compliments I don't need.

The same illiterate salesperson ordered about $1200 worth of Wedgwood China for our Human Resources manager. Of course, the china had been discontinued by our store and was marked down so low that the total order was only $300. This is a big no no. It was an oversight that the order was even allowed to be placed and when I caught it the next day, I was appalled that a) the associate didn't know we could not place orders for merchandise that was below our cost and b) that the HR manager was upset that she might not get this stuff. No wonder we are going out of business and being bought out by Macy's.

Anyway a corporate crony let the order go through. The order is shipped to the HR manager but she fails to pick it up from UPS. Here's where I have to get involved. Only it's too late to save the order. I have to look for this shit at various stores, and have it sent to the HR manager again. This takes valuable time out of my day of waiting on customers who actually purchasing things that make US money. No telling what the true cost of the HR manager's order was when you take into consideration the time spent trying to fix everything.

But I no longer work there. Yippee!