[We’re the workers of the world]

OK, I have to get out of Dillard’s soon. It’s a drain on my livelihood. And it’s not just that my weekends are held completely captive that bothers me. It’s the atmosphere in that place that really irks me. There is a major negative vibe that permeates the whole store. Management seems to stack the cards against the employees whenever they can. They give you a certain amount of sales you’re required to make per hour, jack it up each month and way up during the holidays, and then dock your pay if you don’t meet that amount. And to make sure you’re not meeting your SPH (sales per hour), they staff so many people that it’s hard to get time at the register, which is how you make your SPH, which is how you keep your pay rate. Plus, I work with some people who will not share their terminal, even if I have been helping customers and cleaning up and putting up stock and working my ass off. And it seems like every time I come in, there is so much shit to clean up (in the girls’ department, at least) and I am the only one who will do it. So even if I’m busting my ass, it doesn’t matter unless I ring people up. And you better believe that some of the old biddies I work with are vultures, and will follow people around until they’re ready to check out — even if I’ve been helping the people out. It’s so silly.

I think the worst thing is when the store is completely dead — which is has been the past few times I’ve worked. Even if there is not a single soul in the store, I’m still expected to sell $60 worth of stuff an hour. How, exactly, does that work?

The DNJ is advertising for a part-time designer. Should I go for it?

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I missed the debate tonight, but I made it home in time to catch the post-post-post shows that will likely continue until December. How did it go?

On a related tangent, Karen Hughes is a crazy, lying jerkface. Is she for real?

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My friend Tamara and her boyfriend, Dan, whom I’ve never met, are coming to hang out tomorrow night. I feel the need to clean the apartment, provide healthy snacks, and lose about 30 pounds. I haven’t seen her in more than a year. She just moved to Nashville from Buffalo, New York, and is working at the Dillard’s in Hickory Hollow. Dan works at a Circle K. Before Chrissy got her new job at BMI, she worked at Dillard’s and Billy worked at a gas station. Weird, huh? There must be something about people willing to work at Dillard’s and people willing to work at gas stations that makes for hot romance.