Monday 17th August 2020
Start of another week. After all the fuss about uploading and being added to the Whats app group chat at Myer on my last shift last Saturday. I checked the Kronos app again and I still have not been rostered on to work any more shifts after tomorrow Tuesday 18th August 2020. In the event I am accused of not turning up for work I have taken screenshots of all the blank schedule screens from the Kronos app up until st least the end of August 2020. It is a little unreasonable to now want me to work at the last minute as I have a few things planned and it takes me upto 2 hours to get to work one way so I need some notice. I am beginning to really think I am being made so unwelcome at Myer which is not good as I am a shareholder. ( why should I be forced to download apps join a group chat or like staff I don't even know if I'm not going to be rostered on to work at Myer or given very few shifts?) Everyone should be treated equally.
Great my blog just crashed again! I was writing about how I just checked the Kronos app again and have just 1 single shift from 10.30 - 4.30 pm on 29th August 2020 and I think the only reason for that is to have another one on one with the customer service manager - I wonder what she has to say about me now? She will probably scream that I haven't signed up a single Myer One membership - not everyone wants to join and you can't force customers to especially if they don't live in Australia or can't speak English. She will probably scream that I've only done one order on the IPad - if stock is unavailable you can't do an order which has bern the case lately. I think too much time is spent on the metrics and not on customer service itself. I have a different approach to Myer on customer service quality and generating return business. Metrics aren't important to me, quality customer service by building relationships with customers are more important. Suggestions through personal experience of products , product knowledge, customer acknowledgement and going just 1 step further to assist customers such as indicating to customers where products may be located or where the closest toilets are is more important to me. I believe team goals to meet budgets or targets rather then individual pressure to meet targets and goals is how I believe metrics should be measured. I don't want to be treated like a robot worker nor do I want to treat customers like robots. I find that the more you use the IPad to search for product availability for a customer the more a customer is likely to approach you with an enquiry. Never be scasred to approach customers and ask them if they need assistance often they do and I often have other customers approach me at the same time. Since my first encounter of " there is never anyone around to serve me" comment on my first shift or so, I have not had any more similar comments. I also believe if there is a queue building and I'm on my own in directing customers as a suggestion to other service counters if they don't want to wait. Metrics to me is not based on how many 10/10 service feedback comments and scores you receive as most people can't be bothered to complete surveys - I know what It's like when you have been on day of shopping and purchased things from multiple retailers and come home to find multiple customer service surveys via email to complete. I either ignore them or give a neutral feed back. Only occassionally I will give a positive comment or score. The customers I served in my previous job used to give me little gifts of cake or chocolates as a token of appreciation for my customer service which I used to share with my work collegues which is much nicer then receiving a you hit your target this month which is no motivation to me. My customer service skills are genuine not robotic and I have developed my exceptional customer service skills from my life experience of receiving so much substandard almost non existent customer service and I have a dedicated 50 mm + thick A4 lever arch folder overfilled with customer service complaints I have lodged over the years.
I managed to venture out today around lunch time. Too late for a 2 hour one way out of Sydney daytrip so I settled on a return visit to see Nirin on Cockatoo Island. After walking to Lanecove and topping up my Opal card it was a bus from Lanecove Cove Interchange Stand A walking across an overpass to Lang Park then a walk to Circular Quay to catch a 20 minute ferry bound for Sydney Olympic Park from Wharf 5 to Cockatoo Island. I sit on the outside front deck of the ferry and took a short video of the spectacular view of Sydney Harbour. It was quite windy but I was dressed adequately for the conditions.
Upon arrival there were basically only 3 art installations I missed on my original visit and wanted to see. The first one was the Yurt and I thought it would be open to the public but no it was closed again - maybe it is not meant to be open to the public. The second art installation was being maintained whilst I was there however it's seagull nesting season and there was a very angry mother seagull prtecting her nest of eggs who kept skawking at me with her sharp beady eyes and beak wide open ready to bite me whenever I got to close to her sitting on her nest. So I backed off from the art installation and took photos of it from the other end. There were seagulls everywhere nesting. Seagulls few over you and you had to watch where you walked as they could attack you just for walking past them I was scared and if you manasged to avoid them you had to avoid stepping in alk their poop or being pooped on from above. I hate seagulls as much as pigeons but at least they aren't the size of chickens in Australia like they are in Canada!
The 3rd art installations as a walk through The Dog Leg Tunnel and there was again quite a wait to get in to see it. It did not disappoint. Another one of my favourite art installations of Nirin on Cockatoo Island. Just outside the Dog Leg Tunnel were quite a few nesting seagulls however there was one mother seagull whose eggs had already hatched and there was a little brood of 3 grey fluffy seagulls not just carefully watched over by mum but a protect daddy seagull as well. I did not realise it was seagull nesting season. The last time I saw baby seagulls - hundreds of them was on my Goat Island tour and It's the only time I could call a baby seagull cute - seagulls are far from cute they are a menace and steal your food out of your hands!
The art installation through the Dog Leg Tunnel was best captured on video rather then still photography and I have uploaded one of the two videos of my walk through Dog Leg Tunnel onto my YouTube chanbel. I was so scared walking back to the ferry wharf of being attacked by a seagull I walked where everyone else walked as a precaution.
Photos below
Ferry back to Circular Quay via Barrangaroo Wharf. Train back to Town Hall for a grocery shop at Woolworths Townhall before heading home. At 6.19 pm I'm not even home yet and a message via whatsapp group chat pops up from the customer service manager reminding us about Wednesday morning breakfast ( meeting) and to ensure we are at the store by 8.20 am and how she still has not heard back from me and two others yet as to whether we will be attending. Is she serious? I haven't got back to her because that was the first time I heard about it. When did she organise this? I check all my apps and messages from Myer and never received any notification about this breakfast meeting. How can I attend something when I don't know about it or have any details? So unreasonable. I will make it quite clear I don't do last minute and it takes me 2 hours to get to work one way therefore if I am expected to get to the store by 8.20 am then I would have to leave home by 6.20 am . No way am I doing this as I am hardly working any shifts and it is on a day I am not actually rostered on to work so to attend a 8.20 am - probably 9.40 am meeting and travel 4 hours in total just to attend it is not actually reasonable. It's probably unpaid and what about social distancing? - I would be sitting there with a mask on all the time which is quite uncomfortable and away from everyone else the entire time especially if they eat bacon and eggs - I would not be able to eat breakfast as it would make me sick , the smell would probably make me feel sick ( It's the oil, pork products and lactose) . Definitely not attending and I hope It's not compulsory. If they want me to attend they can do so via video conferencing . Besides being really allergic with my ezcema flared up really badly at the moment, I am recovering from a bad cyst under my right arm which appeared quite rapidly and grew to the size of a pea, I knew it was a cyst because it felt like a really large boil or pimple as it was red and had this little head like a pimple or sty and over night it burst and in the morning I managed squeeze out most of the pus then clean it up with some antibiotic ointment I had over a few days and going to work with some bandaids and elastoplast tape to cover it while it healed. That triple antibiotic Polysporin ointment really works - the cyst has almost healed in 3 days. I didn't mentioned this in my blog as it wasn't serious enough to take time off work but it did sting a bit and was a little sore and uncomfortable. A blocked sweat gland probably caused it.
Anyway back home I wash my hands and wash my mask with disinfectant and hot water hanging it up to dry overnight. I then put my groceries away and have dinner - an egg sal ad rye sandwich juice and a cup of green tea.
I watch the Masked Singer, Have You Been Paying Attention although I was not as I was blogging and catching up with watching YouTube videos. It's 11.22 pm and I am still awake. Must go to sleep soon as I have to work tomorrow.
Tuesday 18th August 2020
I was waiting for the bus to Chatswood and was on one of the main roads standing at the bus stop. There were so many trucks passing by all carrying loads of substances on the back of them such as dirt, possibly chemicals ( the backs of the open trucks were covered up) or cement. A truck had probably lost part of it's load earlier as there was some sort of granulated substance spilled over the road. As motor vehicles passed this substance over the road flew over my direction covering the screen of my smart phone countless times which I kept wiping away with my hand. I was wearing my mask which gave me some protection from breathing it in but I was not 100% protected from it as I did not have my sunglasses on. By the time I got to work I was coughing my eyes watering and my nose running. I washed my hands took an antihistamine ( this probably won't do much) and changed over to my spare mask. I still had a at asthmatic cough which eventually disappeared whilst at work. I also wiped my phone over with a antibacterial wetwipe I carry in my backpack.
Myer 11 am - 4.30 pm. It was a pretty quiet day today - NOT! I told a work collegue working downstairs in The Hub about the message I received last night regarding the breakfast meeting tomorrow morning that I didn't know about. I have not replied to the customer service manager who will find out why she didn't get a response from me. I am definitely not attending.
Today I worked with a guy from the electrical department who spent most of his time talking to his buddy in the electrical department and down at the dock or eating lunch or having a break. Most of the time I was able to help customers but sometimes I did need help. I hate doing returns as I need to ask for authorisation - I would not refund something without authorisation. Someone wanted to return a coffee pot of some sort purchased online which we did not sell in store - the pot had started peeling and the customer said she purchased it in May and her option was for the price she paid for it, should not peel like that. We took the online return to electrical for authorisation but was then advised to ring the manager on duty as we don't acept faulty online returns usually. I left it at that with the electrical department and went back to the homewares department to serve customers.
I made sure I did a cash reconciliation to day and witness a cash clearance today. I think I had to do the cash reconciliation 3 times before submitting it as it on it gives you a few minutes to complete it before it times out and it is difficult when you have customers that actually want to pay cash as there is only one cash till on the entire floor.
Today there was an awful lot of sheets pillows towels glasses and white dinnerware sold. One customer need a box to put her purchases of crockery (cups and saucers) in so I had to run to the dock to get one then the same customer purchased 2 pairs of kids SEED legging where one style was scanning but the other one not so I had to run to kidswear to find out why. I grab some codes that need to be entered manually before overriding them to the special buy 2 pairs promotional price. I am so glad the lady from Polo came over to help me sure as it was getting busy again and my work collegue was on break or lunch.
I had 2 customers each purchasing 20 pieces of crockery each and one customer who was a bit cranky with me because she had poor time management rushing to pick up her kids from school.
There was a customer who was buying a present for someone and picked out a nice gift adding a packet of Darrel Lea chocolates with it. I scan the 2 items but was surprised to see a big red message come up underneath the Darrell Lea chocolates on the POS screen advising " this item is not eligible for Afterpay" I joked with the customer about this message appearing and her response was if you are paying with Afterpay you should be not be purchasing chocolates with it anyway! Very true then I realised why the chocolates were not eligible for Afterpay ( remember the guy who was $1 short of being able to pay for his 2 items with Afterpay? - refer previous blogs) . If you are short of the minimum spend eligible for using Afterpay - what is the first cheapest item you would grab to make your purchases eligible to use Afterpay? You guessed it a packet of $4.99 Darreal Lea chocolates conveniently located near the counter!
Now let's talk about the Myer One rewards membership. Today about 99% of the customers I served had one. However I had at least 3 customers who had more then 1 Myer One membership #. I could not figure out why . Some had legitimate reasons eg their card was so old that it did could not be found on the system so they applied for a new one. However I was told by a work collegue that once a customer reached silver membership status they were issued with a new Myer One loyalty rewards card with a different membership # yet the old membership number was still appearing on the look up on the POS and active. What I did with these duplicate membership # customers was asked which membership # they wanted their purchase points to go onto and write both membership numbers down for them so they can ring Myer One and amalgamated them into one loyalty card and update their details as well.
By 4.30 pm I was pooped again. I went downstairs after grabbing my stuff from the staff lockers and visited a work collegue down at The Hub. I thanked the other work collegue for coming up and helping me as well ie sorting out the online return.
Home by bus - No grocery shopping tonight. Watched The Masked Singer then bed.
Wednesday 19th August 2020
I slept in this morning and tried to ignore any messages from the Myer Team Group Chat appearing on my phone
Today I watched tv blogged watched YouTube and didn't get out of bed all day except to empty the bin , vacuum and make a doya chicken mayo and lettice dark rye sandwich and make a suref & turf congee in my slow cooker.
I surfed the net and checked my emails paid some bills rent, phone & Income protection in advance and before I knew it it's the end of another day.
Thursday 20th August 2020
It's 2.30 am in Sydney and I'm up probably because my ezcema is really annoying me but then again I'm up around this time a lot. I tend to be constantly on North American Time Zone except a day ahead. In Vancouver it is now 9.30 am - oops so I'm a little off and have slept in a bit!
I just had a quick took at my blog's analytics and over the past month my American readership has dropped dramatically to approximately 1/5 of what it used to be however Australian readership has increased to what American readership was previously. Analytics can only tell you so much - I still have not worked out the reasoning behind the analytics. The only blog that is still being read and has probably 100 times as many readers as all my other blogs was my blog on my visit to Chowder Bay and my walk down to one of the local nudist beaches Cobblers Beach.
I write about a range of subjects from travelling, to cooking, to my options on different issues to product reviews , to essays I've written, to cross references to my YouTube channel and of course navigating life through the COVID pandemic and becoming unemployed like hundreds of thousands of others as a result of the pandemic.
Maybe Americans are no longer reading my blog because they don't understand my blog's about my employment at a department store and would rather read about my visits to places of interest or events I attend (not that there are many on at the moment). Maybe they only like to hear about my cooking skills. Do people like reading my product and event reviews which I should write and rate more of having been employed as a destructive and non destructive tester in the past? Maybe the Americans are just caught up in their own country's issues and concerns at the present after all they do have an election looming and teams don't forget pro Biden anti Trump! I still think Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton would make great presidents of the US. Can't hold back I'm one of those anti Trumps. I thought Trumps time was up - hasn't he served his two terms ready hence ineligible for re election? Maybe it just seemed that way- it has been one long and drawn out presidential term not helped by the COVID pandemic!
It's only 9 am and I only woke up at 7 am this morning but it seems much later as I've had breakfast and checked my current payslip from Myer. It is so difficult to follow and I am just going to assume it is correct. I tried to view my past payslips online but the system just kicked me out. Everything is done through the Web Self Service and if things are incorrect are very difficult to fix. Why is there 5 hours of online training appearing on my paysip then revetsed by at a sloghtly different amount? Is this a saturday loading ( I did work 1 part Saturday shift) or was this because I logged back in The Myer Academy in WSS and rebisited almost the entire POS modules? This is my problem with Myer - technology and communications are the worst I have ever experienced at any company I worked for.
Now that I am on the Myer what's app team chat group - messages from work collegues keep popping up like what is this? I think the photo of the white towel with a frayed edge on it was left from Tuesday when I worked and was a customer return that had a note on it write off. I remember the customer coming in to return it but I didn't serve her and she was a talker so I walked away as a work collegue served her. Don't ask me who served her. I thought she was the same lady whose husband came in when I first started and tried to e change the same towel but wanted an extra one as well. Suspect. The lady said the fraying happened on the first wash. That's the only bit of conversation I caught from her on the Tuesday. I had no idea where the towel was left after that with the note and what was written on the note.
Although I am constantly checking the kronois app for any shift and time changes. I received a message to check for shift changes and any issues to contact the customer service manager. It doesn't address it to any particular person so it was probably a general message to everyone. So I checked the Kronos app and what do you know I have been rostered on at the last my minute for Saturday 22nd August 2020 for 3 hours from 11 am - 2 pm. I have an issue with that - minimum shift I always thought was 4 hours and it will take me 2 hours on a Saturday to get there by 11 am and 2 hours to home after my shift finishes!I won't complain this time but if it happens again I will have to reject the shift(s). At least it wasn't a 2 day notice and an unpaid 8.20 am meeting for 1.5 hours or so that I didn't even know about or advised of details of - That was just unacceptable!!!
It is another perfect sunny morning and I know I have shopping, recharge Opal card, rubbish, laundry and recycling to do today. It's Thursday late night shopping so I can stay out l after tonight and I've checked Kronos again and am still not rostered onto to work until next Saturday so have heaps of time to explore although I am not keen on exploring in case there is a Corona virus cluster located at the places I visit. I need to visit Ikea at Rhodes but am too scared to due to a recent case of Corona virus out there.
I wonder if a trip upto Palm Beach is safe? I am waiting on my slow cooker - It should be almost ready now.
Well I managed to take my rubbish out to the dumpster but still have not ventured outside yet. It's still sunny outside.
I just checked my YouTube channel . Thanks to the one person watching my YouTube videos out there!
I ventured out to recharge my opal card, get some change for the laundry and do some grocery shopping at Chatswood by catching a bus. I lost track of time at the supermarket and when I left the supermarket most stores had closed and when I looked at my phone it was 8.40 pm and with late night shopping shops close at 9 pm. I head home with my 2 full bags of groceries and they were both full. I did not actually complete my grocery shipping list as I was being careful not to go over the 2 cloth reusuable shopping bags I had with me. I avoid having to purchase extra plastic shopping bags and at anything from 5 cents to 20 cents to purchase an extra plastic bag - it can get expensive over time.
It is around 9 pm by the time I reach home. I wash my hands and wash my mask with hot water and disinfectant to hang out to dry. I finish the bottle of flavoured kombucha that exploded on me as I opened it at the shopping centre to have a drink and placed the empty bottle for recycling with my other bottles in a bag also to be recycled.
Friday 21st August 2020
I slept in until 8 am this morning then most of my time was catching up on watching you tube and checking the Kronos app for any modifications in my shifts and noting each one onto my digital diary and there were quite a few shifts added!!!! Probably about 5 shifts added in one week.
Next I have to complete my Centrelink fortnightly reporting. Done.
Then it is breakfast, prepare for work tomorrow ( a whole 3 hour shift!) - most of my day will be spent travelling.
Then it will be deciding where to go today as it is a beautiful day - I know where I would love to be but it will not be happening this year at all - in the snow down in Thredbo or even better at Lake Mountain Victoria!!!!!!
Another rather boring day today. I decided not to venture out but have a no e afternoon snooze as I have to work tomorrow. I wish u could just travel but there seems to be restrictions everywhere. Just getting to Orange is an ordeal with just 1 direct train service from Sydney each day - all other services are transfer to a coach mid way. How inconvenient. Then there is accommodation which is still pretty expensive per night and no I do not want to stay at a hostel in a shared dorm room.
I was looking at escaping to the Blue Mountains but accommodation is not readily available. I wants something cosy and the the there is where I want to stay but all their private rooms are booked out and only shared dorm rooms are left.
Maybe it's meant to be just a stay at home weekend. I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow for 3 hours!
So what else did I do at home today - logged into and read My Metrics, checked Kronos (again!) and read any what's app team group chat information not that any of it made sense. There is just so much to read. Most of my time is reading Myer related stuff.
It's 8 pm and I need to wash my dishes have a shower and prepare for work tomorrow. I have to leave the apartment by 9 am in order to get to work in time.
Saturday 22nd August 2020
Today was meant to be the coldest day but it wasn't really. It snowed in the Southern Western regional areas of NSW but in Sydney it wasn't actually that cold. I didn't even need to turn on my heater.
I took the long way round to get to work again today as there is only 1 bus every 30 minutes direct from Chatswood. I took the 144 and B Line transferring at Neutral Bay Junction. I had a little spare time to go shopping so picked up some things from Coles - including a packet of 5 pairs of black socks ( I had to change into one pair of them as my ankle socks kept slipping off in my boots) . I thought we were supposed to wear a touch of pink today and make a donation for doing so but that looked like it went out the window. Instead they had some kind of option for customers to round up their purchase amounts and giving the rounded up amounts to charity.
Myer 11 am - 2 pm ( although I did not finish serving until almost 2.20 pm) . I travelled a whole 3 - 4 hours just to do a 3 hour shift. What a waste of a Saturday! - I could have been in the Blue Mountains waking up to snow!
Today was the worst day ever. A rude customer who phoned up complaining about a missing knife and not allowing me to even finish searching which store may have the item on the POS.
I forgot to take off security tags on 2 pillows today because I was so concentrated on processing the customer's payment transaction with 4 different methods of payment - 2 digital reward cards, 1 gift card ( which was actually a type of efpos card) and the balance on efpos. They came back when it beeped and it was all good tags removed.
Another customer a a weird type of gift card tgey wanted to use which had no pin number on it which apparent does not work all the time.
I also had a customer which I think I forgot to override a sale price on 2 egg cups oops.
Worst sale transaction was the one with every single item that had to be overidden and sale prices entered. There were 4 trivets all different 6 or 8 egg cups all different and 4 mugs. I won't be surprised if I made a mistake. Some were straight discounted items and did not have to be overrode and other items had to be overrode and then discounted. Why is the promotional price so complex? Why can't I put in the quantity of same items then override them in one go? This would cut down on override and entering sale price mistakes.
Another customer I processed the discounts but I wasn't sure if I processed it correctly so I went over it a few times and it looked right.
Other problems code not scanning , items on sale but discount not appearing as marked down on POS so price has to be overridden and sale price entered.
One thing that is a lot easier now is the Myer One lookup option. No more post code guessing. Now there are 3 options of looking a customer's Myer One membership number.
There was an awful lot of pillows towels and sheets purchased today and these are non returnable or exchangeable unless faulty due to health regulations especially due to COVID for obvious hygiene reasons. Instead of using large plastic bags to place pillows in , most of the pillows had their own handles so I just stuck a "purchased at Myer " sticker across the front of the plastic cover on each of them purchased however was told not to do that and to place it around the handle which does not make sense because 1. The rather large sticker is the size of a luggage sticker except has v shaped slits all the way through it and I have enough trouble peeling it off and sticking it down on a flat surface without breaking it - touch one side of the sticker and it breaks off or curls up. I have tried wrapping it around the handle of the plastic pillow covers and it's not easy except if you leave the backing on and staple the ends of the sticker together around the handle. 2. If pillows and other linen products can't be returned why does it matter where you stick the "Purchased At Myer" Sticker? The whole purpose of the stickers is to prevent shoplifting as there are cameras watching you everywhere and limit a customer from being accuses of walking out of the store or other stores of shop lifting and as proof of purchase. The only time I may not place a sticker on the pillow's plastic cover is if they are giving the pillow as a gift.
I had a customer who wanted a " Purchased At Myer" sticker for her dinner set so I did not in that case stick it on the box as it is a refundable exchangeable and returnable item and the sticker would the box hence rendering it unreliable therefore I slipped it into the inside of the box sticking out the top.
On my way down from the staff lockers to exit out of the ground floor front cosmetics entrance of Myer as it is still during store opening hours, I found 2 customers who somehow took the lift up and accidently got off on the Myer staff only floor. They said that they were looking for the cafe and my cheeky response to them was "Well you won't find a cafe on this floor!" before directing them to the cafe which I advised them was located on Level 1 in the Homewares department. The lift was actually going down to the Ground Floor where I was headed and tgere was also another customer in the lift heading to the Ground Floor as well. I hope the 2 lost customers found their way to to the cafe on Level 1 after the left the Ground Floor. Security to the staff level questionable and not the first time I have noticed this. I was aware of this from the interview day. There are security cameras around but I would not leave my stuff in a staff locker whilst I was on the floor working unpadlocked like some staff do.
Time to go home - I didn't get asked to stay back. Someone else did so I left as soon as I could.
On my way home I stopped off at Chatswood to do a bit of shopping at Kmart then Target. Kmart was a little disappointing as I could not find anything I needed.
I spot the below selfie station just inside The Chase Shopping Centre doors What are they trying to promote? I haven't worked it out but it's pretty.
Home wash my hands and my mask. I make dinner of oven baked potato wedges salmon and carrots. I made a homemade tartare sauce and added some spinach leaves to have with my salmon potato and carrots. A few cups of hot cranberry tea and some juice to finish off.
Blog food channel and some YouTube and it's 8 pm time to sleep. End of another day.
Sunday 23rd August 2020
Another beautiful day but I have done absolutely nothing today except catch up on my blog , watched the food channel , watched YouTube, had breakfast & lunch folded & put away my clothes finally as well as sort out my blacks and whites to be washed and dried in my next batches of laundry and that's about it.
I have almost a whole week off work ( I will not be working any last minute shifts!) but have not decided where to go. I really need to get out of Sydney.
End of another week.
Still awake at 9.45 pm.
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