Monday 29th March - Sunday 4th April 2021 - Week 53 Of Unemployment Again, End Of Job Keeper & French Film Festival Closing Night #JUSUISLA @ Palace Central & Lumen @ White Rabbit Gallery

Entrance to art exhibition - don't forget to scan the QR code to check in on the Service NSW website, sanitiser your hands or do a manual check in ( which I had to do as my QR code failed to scan)

Monday 29th March 2021

Day Off

The End of JobKeeper government's wage subsidy scheme - let's see how accurate the forecast was that millions of Australians will return to being unemployed again.

News is that 150000 people will be expected to lose their jobs as JobKeeper ends today. How on earth does the government come up with these figures? What is more unbelievable is QLD has another COVID cluster therefore border closures, contact tracing etc is urgently being pursued so close to the Easter holidays and affecting the hospitality and tourism industries yet again which are already hard hit from the COVID pandemic. Also news the unemployment rate may have decreased and there maybe an increase in job vacancy rates but the job vacancies created are all entry level jobs aimed at juniors and there has not been any effort to assist people returning to the workforce, older Australians and casual workers looking for more permanent employment like me for example. The figures are definitely incorrect - if you read my older blogs the statistics were for every 12 - 13 people there is only 1 job therefore if the above statements and figures are correct why is it news now that for every 38 people ( correction 1 entry level job for every 48 people according to another news article I read ) there is only 1 job!? It just not make sense - How are these figures calculated?  Where do they come from? Why are they considered correct? Who/What calculated them? and Who ( demographics of population of people) did they survey to base their calculations on? So many unanswered questions. JobSeeker payments still have not increased much. The government says that JobKeeper was only meant to be in place for 6 months but was extended to 12 months but insists it had to end as it can't be in placed forever. I disagree with that - implementing yet another scheme from September 2020 and currently still in place calked JobMaker (which only encourages companies to hire and keep younger Australians below the age of 35 )  only makes the above situation worse especially for older Australians like myself trying to constantly find any form of permanent employment. Australia is becoming a country of underemployed long term casual if not unemployed. 

Other news Sydney has had most restrictions lifted including mask wearing - I am keeping mine on and keeping away from crowds of people! We don't want to go into another lockdown which is what QLD is considering so close to Easter and school holidays. 

What a waste of my time , I haven't  been able to do anything today as I just spent over an hour speaking to a rep from my private health insurance HCF discussing my concerns about my membership such as the annual increase in premium which is again increasing on 1st April 2021, yes I have informed them of my intention to leave the fund permanently this time after 28 years as a member with them. I seem to be paying to have private health insurance just to satisfy tax requirements unless I want to be slumped with a Medicare levy surcharge which is an addition form of tax. No thanks. The way private health insurance works is a rort - if you don't claim anything - your premiums are put into a pool to pay for everyone elses medical expenses claims. In my 28 years of membership I have made almost zero claims - the medical expenses I had were either non claimable at all ie out of my own pocket medical expenses because they are not eligible private insurance medical expenses or are covered partially under medicare.  When I first joined HCF I used to claim my sports equipment such as ice skates and runners on it but that was scrapped.  I also had complimentary travel insurance with my top cover included but tgat was also scrapped ( only covered basic overseas travel not domestic travel) . It never covered my dance classes or ice skating lessons. I am really unhappy with their customer service as they constantly suffer up my income protection and members hip  payments and suspension and realignment of them. So many complaints lodged. I even found out that I have been p aging for pregnancy when I am beyond having children and had requested thst this coverage be removed quite a while ago when it had not been all this time. In the end I negotiated 6 weeks free membership ( they were only willing to give me 4 but I advised tgem that both HBF and Medibank private both gave at least 6 months free membership for new members). My income protection isn't even correct - I selected the option to keep my monthly premium the same yet they have kept increasing it and now my income protection is only paid up until February 2021 when I have paid up until the end of April in advance. I requested my income protection to be reviewed and reconciled so it is correct. My payments have never been correctly applied.

I am now waiting for the building cleaners to leave as their truck is in the way and I can't take my rubbish out to the bins.

My lunch is packed for work tomorrow but it looks like I am not going on my trip down to Melbourne as the train services between Sydney and Melbourne are all cancelled until Good Friday due to the QLD COVID cluster - borders are not slamming shut but there are tighter border crossing restrictions in place until Thursday night ie 3 - 4 day lockdown in Queensland just before the Easter holidays over the weekend. I think I made the right decision not to travel last Friday Saturday Sunday and today. If I had returned today from Melbourne I was very likely to have been stuck down there today with the very last minute cancellation of services that started on Sunday night.

I have blogged about my remote volunteering previously and after my first unsuccessful attempt at writing to my first aged care resident who never wrote back and was not interested in participating in the program, I have continued to write to another aged care resident at another aged care facility - you may have read that I not only send her letters but cards and gifts as well with the most recent a little chocolate bunny and Easter card. She wanted me to call her some time ago ( although unsure if I could get authorisation)  so I actually did today and we had a little chat with awkward silences as we didn't really have anything in common to talk about ( I think we both prefer to write) but maybe that could be because of the line of communication - the phone was echoing and also she could not hear me very well as she is partially deaf and even joked about swapping over to her good ear as the other ear was dead ( not quite the word but close). I think I interrupted her tv time she was having. At least I know she is getting my letters and gifts. I hope I didn't offend her by thinking she was Catholic as she advised me she was Protestant. Oops. 

My other aged care resident I made an initial phone call to before the above was not as successful. It did not end well. She did not understand why a stranger would be calling her and who I was or why I was calling. I was put through to her by the manager of the aged care facility. She had been contacted prior in regards to the request for someone to converse in Cantonese with through the volunteer organisation I signed up with. I have advised the volunteer manager/co coordinator of what happened in my initial phone call.  I was not set up for video calling as the aged care facility uses FaceTime and Skype and I had neither. I do have Skype but have not used it for so long.

Tuesday 30th March 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only new added to Kronos 19th March 2021. Checked Kronos 21st & 29th March no changes to shift

I checked Kronos yet again in case my only 2 stock only shifts for this week have been cancelled. I wish they were sometimes as it is just not worth me getting up and leaving home around 6.15 am in the dark (and yes it is now still dark at 6 am in the mornings and getting colder) just to travel to work to start at 8 am just for 2 shifts which aren't even together so I can't go away mid week if I wanted to ( not that I want to at the moment as borders keep opening then shutting at the last moment and transport interstate just ceasing to run at the last minute. With QLD going into a snap 3 day lockdown and  some states shutting their borders again with other states restricting border crossings and with the lastest COVID cluster jumping over and across the NSW's border into Byron Bay a popular tourist destination, I'm not going anywhere so close to the Easter holidays. I feel a bit sorry for those hundreds of thousands of people that have waited so long to go on holidays and all the planning  and budgeting involved way in advance just to go which could now all be cancelled. Why does a COVID cluster in a different state each time always happen so close to a major public holiday to spoil it? Last time it was NSW over Christmas New Year now it's QLD so close to Easter) 

Last Sunday night at midnight ( and it is now not even 2 days ago) most COVID restrictions were lifted in NSW and people partied into the night and early morning like it was NYE again! This morning I'm on the bus and am still wearing a mask and so are a few other people however masks on public transport in NSW are no longer compulsory but recommended as of midnight last Sunday as one of the COVID restrictions that was lifted. COVID is still alive and well and we should not be letting our guards down. The people not wearing a mask are probably those that are infectious and risk passing COVID onto people who are wearing a mask. There is someone coughing constantly on the B Line I am on. I hate catching the B line it is the germiest form of public transport but it's the most reliable and slightly faster way to work. Everyone please wear a mask!!!!

There was so much gossip today from not only Myer team members but team members from Myer's concessions. The gossip started prior to 7.55 am and went on until almost the end of the day. Most of the rumours I heard related to how team member's shifts have been cut severely and how team members are not happy about it. So many complaints about how Myer operates. Why have shifts been cut for casual team member's? Is it really because of the end of JobKeeper government subsidies? or just poor management? One rumour was it had something to do with the operations manager - the online department was his baby and now that the decision to close it down completely has now been executed, all those team members that came from that department had to be absorbed into other departments somehow or transferred to another store therefore they have been retrained and taken up a lot of the shifts that are normally reserved for other casuasl team members in different departments that have worked there longer. Unfair? I think so. The other rumour O heard from another team member was that due to very poor budgeting Myer can't afford to put more team members on now because 1. they overspent on the staff budget during their last "batch" of mega sales 2. Management are saving their entire staff budget for the next scan count coming up when it will be all hands on deck ie all team members will be rostered on for scan count. Poor Electricals team leader had requested leave in advance for certain certain dates and it was partially rejected dye to scan count. He had a lready booked and paid for his flights but was told he could not go on a certain date but could go a few days later. A lityle annoying he thought as he would have liked to have spent the erntire leave with his friends and not just mert up with them half way through their holiday. That's Myer for you. still wondering if it is just the way this particular Myer operates or if all Myer stores operate Luke this. one team member advised me that It's onl y this store tgat operates the way it does. 

Now let's mention unions - I've never joined a union before but know that the SDA is the union organisation for retail workers and you have to pay a membership fee to join. Unsure how many team members are actually  members but there are sure a lot of complaints from them.

Lunch was at 2 pm again today which gave me just enough time to clean up the drink bottles, reusable coffee/tea cups, thermos etc wall and restock some more of the decor drink bottles drink cups and double walled insulated coffee cups in their range. There were a few more boxes of Thermos products however I did not have time to restock them along with tidying up the Keepcups on the wall. I left some space for these on the shelf for the next person to restock. I didn't add anymore product to the wall except a few boxes from the decore range - I just tidied and consolidated all the products together - so many reusable coloured ceramic double walled coffee cups everywhere - it drove me made so I had to do something about it. It was not the best arrangement but I at least products were all together in tidy rows.

It was interesting to see thst the rest of the leftover mats and things down in the now defunct online department of Myer Warringah taken out and upto the dock for storage or transfer  to be reused. I asked a team member from the dock what the online department space was going to be used for now and was advised maybe for the VM  department. It would make sense so it would free up the fittings and fexture room and  the VM studio to be used as as additional reserves for stock and consolidated the mannequins stored behind a screen in the staff lunch room also to be used for alternative purposes but the plans I see are not always Myer's plans which are never logical.

Since I don't need to work tomorrow, I stayed at Warringah and did some grocery shopping for items still on my shopping list to buy. Product review of photo below 

This was not on my shopping list to buy and I don't think you can get them at all Woolworths particularly the smaller lower grade or metro Woolworths as they don't have their own bakeries usually but they were on special for $2.50 a packet. Rating 8/10. You must try these try these vegan biscuits. I think I prefer them over Anzac biscuits and definitely over all the other chocolate chip milk white and dark freshly baked biscuits. They are not as sweet however sugar is still near the top of the list of ingredients. You can taste the coconut, dark chocolate chips , raisins, oats and pepita seeds in the biscuits which is sweet enough aslready no need to have so much sugar in the biscuit. No breakfast no problem!

Wednesday 31st March 2021

Day off

I am only venturing out now and it is almost 3 pm.

I slept in a bit this morning then paid a few more bills due soon before preparing my lunch for tomorrow of a duck ragu with mash potatos and brocollini ( unfortunately I ate most of the brocollini as soon as I blanched them!) as well as 4 boiled eggs for breakfast ( I didn't eat all 4 yokes just 2 of them).

I'm now off to recycle my 5 drink bottles I accumulated including 2 free bottles of water purchased with my voucher from work. Done.

Waiting for a train to Central now from Chatswood. 

After this I plan to head into town to see a  movie. The cinema showing the movie when I went online to book was empty - not a single person had booked seats to see this movie - I thought oh good I have the whole cinema to myself  however I looked again today online and there are now 2 people who booked to see this movie tonight. I am assuming there are still plenty of tickets left for tonight's session therefore instead of paying the booking fee for an online booking, I am going to the cinema to purchase a ticket over the counter to save on the booking fee. Just looked online again and the cinema is empty again! What's going on? What happened to the 2 people that had booked seats? This is a special event closing night of the  French Film Festival in Sydney for 2021 and all participating cinemas are hosting this special closing night event which I assume would be close to, if not. fully booked out for each cinema. Was I looking online for the incorrect film and session?  - there was only one 6.30 pm special event closing night session showing up at the palace Central cinema. I checked again online to look at which seat allocation i would like for the sesdion and now there are 7 people booked for the same closing night movie session! I can't work it out - what's going on? Was there another session running at the same time for the same event and the same movie at the same cinema that was actually sold out hence not advertised? I guess I will not find out until I actually arrive a few hours beforehand to purchase my ticket over the counter at the Palace Central cinema.

Now onto something announced in the news which again I question where the government gets it's figures from. It just does not make sense. JobSeeker payment recipients are now required to apply for 15 jobs a month rather then just 8 during the COVID pandemic ( or in my case 4 according to my current job plan). As of July 1st this job searches increases and returns to pre COVID to 20 per month. How can anyone be expected to search for 20 jobs a month when quoted current job figures have increased from 1 job for every 12 -13 people increased currently to 1 job for every  38 or 48 depending on which news article you read. Surely if these figures are correct the government should be keeping the job search efforts to a more reasonable and same level of 8 per month. What's the point in applying for so many jobs when there are so few jobs available it's a waste of the job seekers resources and time which most would not have goven the current rate of JobSeeker payments which has not increased yet. How about people in my situation who have ongoing casual work but not regular hours each week or fortnight? Is tge exprctation still to job search 20 jobs a month whilst working? Casual work is casual work and there seems to be an increasing number of Jobseekers who are under employed rather then unemployed who supplement their income with JobSeeker payments whilst looking for more permant work. 

Onto something more interesting It is 3.30 pm and I arrived with just enough time to see Lumen @ White Rabbit Gallery. Recommended time to see all 3 levels of this gallery is 1.5 to 2 hours ( I have 1.5 hours). I can  always come back at a later date if I miss anything. Warning this is an adult interactive art exhibition where there are flashing or pulsating bright lights, lasers, fog, dark rooms and strobes. Not recommended for people with epilepsy or other medical conditions that can be or are triggered by above.

I have to admit I don't know anything about any of these Chinese artists but I liked some of their interactive art works. This exhibition has everything lights lasers fog projections photography sculptures etc . I do have my favourites and almost missed one "mystery room". I would not go into either of these mystery rooms on my own though. I have upload some videos onto my YouTube chanbel as some interactive artworks can only be shown in video format and not as still photography. Totally enjoyable 1.5 - 2 hours. Rating 9/10 Free entry to exhibition but beware of the huge image of a Chinese man's head that projects onto the wall on the ground floor. I got a bit of a shock when I walked in sat down on the benches and it was dark then all of a sudden there is a loud bong sound a large blank white screen before the image of a head appears! ( see below photo) 

???????

nice

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nice

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???????

?????

ok so it is a reflection of the movement of tank of water in a cube projected onto the ceiling. 

One of my favourite intetactive art installations was the 2nd of 2 mystery rooms the monochromatic "strobe" room. I think I uploaded a video onto my YouTube channel a 4 years ago when I posted a coloured version of something similar when I visited the ACMI. Visitors are warned that there are flashing lights therefore unsuitable for those suffferin from epilepsy. Photo below and refer to a video uploaded onto my YouTube channel .

 

favourite!

I almost missed my most favourite interactive art installation and that was the 1st of 2 mystery doors. There was not really a queue to go into this mystery room and you have 3 minutes in there to take photos and walk around in it. It was the most fun being in there but I was too scared to go into this dark room on my own so luckily there was another couple who was waiting at the last minute curious to see what was inside behind the bog sliding door.  This was the "green laser" room. This interactive green laser beam room really plays with your mind. I suspected that as you moved around the room it followed you with a grid of green laser beam lines. I was moving around and got hit with a grid of green laser beam lines and got a shock as it feels like you had walked into something solid when there is actually nothing tangible to hit or walk into. The room is divided in quarters  and when you go into it it is pitch black almost so you can't see the height depth and width of the room you are in. My spacial awareness is really good but it just went out the window when I was in the room. It feels like there are mirrors everywhere when in fact there aren't any at all - sort of like a virtual reality version of  The House Of Mirrors I went to ( refer one of my previous blogs). Not exactly an infinity illusion roo. but you feel disoriented initially at least. This interactive art installation really plays with your mind. Think spys and thieves trying to avoid activating invisible motion sensors/detectors or trip wires by ducking  & crawling under,  climbing over and squeezing between a maze of invisible grid lines. except they are green and not red or white like they are in movies. I have uploaded a video of this onto my YouTube channel. Photo also below taken as i exited this room.

Favoutite

5 pm the gallery closes and I make my way across the road via Central park to the mall where the Palace Central cinema is. I have about 1.5 hours before the movie sesion begins so have a quick shop at Woolworths for more non perishable grocery items on my shopping list and a look in Daiso. before heading up to the cinema on the upper level. I am feeling a lityle hungry but most if the restaurants and concessions on the food and drink court floor have closed down. I can wait as I did pack a platitude biscuit which I can nibble on with my glass of champagne during the movie.. 

I joined the movie club tonight when I purchased my ticket in person to see #IAMHERE ( #JESUISLA) on the closing night of the French Film Festival 2021 from the bar of the Palace Central cinema. I did not think it was as good as Aline but still enjoyable. It kept you interested throughout the entire movie. A movie about how  online should stay online, family and respect with a touch of the French chef's obscession with duck dishes mixed with the movie Terminal Man ( however without the statelessness) Rating 7/10. I made the right choice not booking online and paying the additional booking fee. By joing the movie club for free I only paid $29 when a full price ticket was $35 plus a booking fee online. Price includes a glass of champoagne but no pre movie nibbles or entertainment. The champgne was not the best but then I don't drink - originally I was going to ask for a non alcoholic alternative but then that is not very French of me so I just slipped it throughout the movie not finishing the glass when all the others emptied theirs! ( one even wanted more and the movie had not even started yet!). There were plenty of seats left and I was wonderin

Home by train from Central to Chatswood then 144 bus home by around 9.30 pm . Lunch of mash potato brocollini and duck ragu prepared earlier today and packed for work tomorrow.

At Central Station the new overhead roof connecting The Grand Concourse (where intercity and interstate trains depart/arrive) to the rest of Central Stations suburban train lines has opened up foot access between the 2 sections of Central Station. About time! Train service tp/from Melbourne was running tonight so I wonder why I could not book until at least Friday online?

Thursday 1st April 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only new shift added to Kronos 19th March 2021. Checked Kronos 21st & 29th March 21 no changes to shift.

Happy April Fool's Day

Centrelink Fortnightly reporting done today ( due to Easter public holiday tomorrow)

First piece of news for today another brand partner concession exits Myer Warringah. I overheard about this exit a few weeks ago when I was passing the corridor of the reserves but did not think anything of it. So Polo Ralph Lauren has now gone and stock is being moved around the Menswear department to cover the space they occupied previously. This was offically confirmed by a team member in Menswear who normally did not start at 8 am and when I asked her why she was starting so early - she was helping with the move around this morning. 

F*** I was told to check mcomms again Why should I? I only have 2 shifts a week! AND not even on the floor.

Just checked Kronos again and I'm down to 1 shift a week doing stock now. I might as well just not go to work and spend my time finding another job!

Today I had lunch at 2.30 pm, the latest I have ever had lunch and I finish at 4 pm. 

I did end up seeing one or 2 of the VM team members at lunch in the staff lunch room but they had lunch a little earlier then me.

I lost count of how many cages of stock I put out today but just grabbed any half full cages of stock and went around other cages full of stock and selecting anything I saw definitely needed refilling on the tables or shelves. Anything to get empty cages back onto the dock for the pallet loads of stock arriving in. I haven't had to go down to the reserves much as there us for one thing no more space to put any stock on shelves except for MV stock and we are not allowed anymore to put any stock on any of the top shelves in the reserves which has probably reduced our storage space by a good third capacity as well as being told to leave any excess stock in cages on the dock. I don't get it -

I ask the following questions

1. Why are we leaving excess stock in cages on the dock if the team members on the dock need every available empty cage to fill all the pallets of stock arriving? If excess stock is taken to be put straight onto the floor and the excess taken down to reserves on the now empty top shelves in reserves, wouldn't this free up the number of empty cages needed insteas there is now a backlog of excess stock piled up in cages on the dock some only less then half full so i just consolidated these and returned any emptied cages I could to keep the flow of stock going.

2. Sorry my blog crashed yet again. It seems to always happen when i have something negative to write about Myer. Let me start again as it is an important point. I'll save as I go so I don't lose what I write again. So I keep hearing how goid sales figures have bern and still are and a team member from Electricals al so on stock advised me tgat this is an excessive amount of stock where there is just no room for it on the floor or in the reserves and that it never used to be like this and tgat there was just enough stock previously to refill on the floor and reserves were partially empty for excess stock arriving. I don't get it if sales are so good and Myer can afford to buy so much stock then why  have they cut quite a few casual team members hours including mine? That's no longer poor budgeting but extremely poor cash flow managaement and allocation of cash resources. Is expense allocation to staffing not important to increase sales generation? No wonder I always get the same feedbasck from customers of " There is never anyone around to serve me!" over and over again. The "Do you work here?"or "Can you help me?" I am tempted to answer with something along the lines of " No i'm just putting stock on shelves for fun! OF COURSE I WORK HERE!"

Treat all customers the same way - with respect and tgey will respect you back. 

Friday 2nd April 2021

Day Off 

No new shifts added to Kronos as at 20th March 2021.

Checked Kronos again 24th 25th & 31st March no new shifts added.

Easter Friday Public Holiday

Happy Easter Everyone!

Today is really a catch up and do nothing day.

I slept in until 11 am wow!. It is really hot and sunny today after a few weeks of continuous rain and bursts of showers - one Myer  team member said to me yesterday that there is more Winter rain to come as it always rains in Winter.

I would like to go to the beach but I don't want to get caught up in the crowds and have a bit to do around the apartment today.

All my bills are paid but I still need to update my hardcopy diary - done  and staple any receipts into it - done , clean the apartment - half done I vacuumed , take the rubbish out -  done , wash the dishes - done but I missed a pair of scissors , do my laundry, iron fold and put my clothes away,  change my sheets - done  upload all my YouTube videos that I have quite finished uploading yet - done and finish all my blogs that are all half done this week - still working on it. Then there is my shopping list I didn't quite finish doing and another attempt at booking a trip to Melbourne to see the Triennial at the NGV and there are still quite a few places of interest and events to book and visit for later this year. So I do have a lot of life admin to do today.

I also trying to recover from a severe allergic reaction I had yesterday. My lungs may be 100 times better now as I have been constantly wearing a mask everyday - hardly any coughing fits ( except when I eat a particular type of nougat that contains some type of nut in it) or asthma however my skin is really sensitive to anything and everything I am working with and my eyes are even worse. There seems to be a pattern since working at Myer the air conditioning has been drying out my skin severely and since working on stock not only am I covered in cardboard each day, I am coming up with really itchy skin and my ezcema has flared up 200 times worse. My eyes can hardly open because the skin around them is so dry, itchy and flaky but my eyes are watery and my nose runs all the time. It's all the dust and dirt from the stock.

Just checked Kronos again and I'm now on stock 3 days in a row Tues 6th - Thus 8th April 21 & the following week  2 days Mon & Thurs all 8- 4 pm with 1 day only Tuesday 10.30 am - 5.30 pm on service ( I won't take this shift very seriously as Tuesday shifts NEARLY ALWAYS GETS CANCELLED ! Refer all previous blogs track record).

Saturday 3rd April 2021

Day Off

Easter Saturday

Daylight Savings ends turn clock back an hour - yes it's getting dark!!!

Still not feeling the best. It's a beautiful day outside but today I am again not venturing outside.

I spent today researching and booking a day trip down to Melbourne for later in April - I hate flying but due to several factors I am unable to take the snail paced XPT overnight train Sydney Melbourne return this time round. I have decided to fly Virgin airlines Sydney Melbourne return and even taken out travel insurance. it's been so long since i have flown Virgin but it was the cheapest fares I could find for the day i wanted to fly ( except for REX which I have never flown and am not wanting to try as I read some pretty bad reviews on the airline in regards to reliability of it services). Jetstar had some cheap flights but they were more expensive then Virgin and don't include checked in luggage only 7 kg carry on like Virgin ( not that I would nerd 20 kg or 23 kg worth of check in luggage for a day trip but you never know) . I would loved to have flown Qantas but at $200 a flight minimum one way it may be a lot more reliable then Jetstar and also include check in luggage, all airlines are the same so Virgin is my choice as it is middle of the range although can still cancel flights. I am still a little scared of flying particularly interstate but I really want to see the Triennial @ the NGV before it ends the following week so made myself commit and booked a return flight for Friday 9th April 2021. The only session for tickets available for that day online to see the Triennial was at 12 pm so I booked a free ticket for that time hoping to get in much earlier upon arrival. So flights are booked, travel insurance taken out, ticket to the Triennial booked. I  have now registered for a travel permit to cross the NSW Victoria border online. Final thing I have to do is purchase return Skybus Airport Southern Cross transfers online but I can do that closer to my flight. 

Now to decide whether to go to the Royal Easter Show or take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains to see sculptures at Scenic World & Sculptures Otherwise  @ the Cultural Centre.

So many things  to see and do but on a budget! I am trying to register and apply for one of the dine and discover NSW vouchers so  I can visit Sculptures @  Scenic World for $25 less. this is suppose to be an incentive scheme by the NSW government to encourage people to go out and explore NSW and visit it's attractions  or dine out in NSW to boost the economy in the tourism and hospitality industries which have been doing it tough during the COVID pandemic as well as a series of other natural disasters bush fires and floods. I am having trouble logging on to register and apply so will try again at a later date.

Sunday 4th April 2021

Day Off 

Easter Sunday

Another do nothing day today. I am saving all my energy for next week. 

Monday 22nd - Sunday 28th March 2021 - Week 52 Of Under Employment , No JobSeeker Payments, End Of JobKeeper , One Year Anniversiary Of My Redundancy & Possibly Back To Square One Of Unemployment

Monday 22nd March 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only new shift added to Kronos  12th March 2021 rechecked 24th & 20th March 2021 no change to shift.

Another week and it's still pouring with rain. Warragamba Dam has spilled over and there is major flooding in the Western Sydney suburbs. Roads are cut off. The heavy diwn pour is expected to continue for quite a few more days. It has already affect QLD and Northern and North West NSW coast as well including the Sunshine and Gold Coast and even parts of Brisbane has not escaped.

Everything is soaking wet even the mask I am wearing on public transport. I am wearing an alternative pair of sneakers today to work which are black with white laces and soles - I will probably get in trouble for it as we are suppose to wear fully black enclosed shoes. I don't have my gum boots as they are in my off site storage and they would be to heavy and chunky to wear and change at work. The normal black sneakers I wear will just get soasked whereas these are a little more water resistant. Ironically I purchased them at Myer and I'm on stock today not on the floor so if anyone says anything I won't be happy and have something to say to them. I have a pair of  black toggle laces in my bag which I intend to change on my sneakers as the original white laces that came with the sneakers are too long and are the flat cotton ones that get wet really easily therefore changing them over to the black round shorter nylon toggle ones are not only safer but will not get soaking wet. Laces now changed over in about 15 minutes. These sneakers are not as comfortable to wear as they don't have memory foam and my feet may start to hurt standing all day.

It's 7.55 am and I have been waiting at the staff entrance exit for someone to let me in. Doors not open. I rang the store no answer and used the intercom no answer so I punched in at 7.55 am on my phone as I was here. Not my problem no one is answering.

Finally at around 8.10 am a manager from the cosmetics department arrives with a key and let's me in. I put my stuff in a staff locker and lunch in the staff refrigerator after telling him about not being able to contact anyone to let me in. Funny when I walked passed the store manager was in his office yet noone answered the phone it just rang out and the intercom at the door was on voice mail.

I was alone on stock today but not really another team member from the Electricals department arrived earlier but wasn't sure why and the Homewares team leader arrived by 8.30 am. 

Really funny because it was around 8.30 am and the team member from Electricals who was also rostered to be on stock as well today starting at 8 am also had not showed up so the Homewares team leader gave him a call and he was still fast asleep and asked who was calling. He did later show up and told me he had set his alarm but fell asleep again.

The Super Sale Weekend tickets were all taken down on Sunday however the Mid Season Sale now continues until 6th April along with the Bakeware Bonanza Sale. 

The store is really quite again although there are still 2 permanent team members on in Homewares and team member "ticket girl" on lunch cover for 5 hours. There are 1 and a half team members on in Electricals and 1 and a half team members in the dock. 

There was a small pallet of stock delivered today however it was not being unloaded so quickly that 2 people on stock could not handle. I think I still emptied my 5 cages worth of stock from the dock today onto the floor but I did have time to remerchandised stock to make the shelves look neat and tidy and not have too much excess stock left to take down to the hard reserve which is full. Someone is still putting boxes of Stanley Rogers cutlery sets in the wrong reserve - they should be in the old tv reserve not hard reserve now!

Below are photos of my remerchandising efforts today. ( don't ask how one display looked like before after an "initial incomplete ,  let's just hang anything on it and think about it another day" decision ,  they were completely abandoned to date)

This hang sell diplay which is just 1 of 4 was a complete mess and so overcrowded with gadgets all mixed up ,  I spent time reorganising it and moved the below products onto the abandoned hang sell display to make room for new products that arrived. The hang sell products that were randomly displayed on it dud not even have to be hung and were part of another display table full of Mastercraft bakeware. 

There is more of this in the hard reserve that can be put onto this display and excess can be hung behind it as it is a double sided hang sell display with an unused draw. I think this should be made into a silicon bakeware display.

Finally I'm going to write about the pillow price situation. Just like the Krosno glassware ( mainly Harmony & Avant-garde ranges) situation where boxes of incorrectly priced glassware were just put on the floor without checking if the prices were correct or removed before putting them on the floor. The same was happening with certain  Heritage range pillows. So instead of adding a bnew batch of pillows onto the floor from the dock that were in a cage that came in, I pulled all incorrectly priced pillows off the floor and reorganised them so they were all together after their incorrect prices had been removed. I notified the team leader of Homewares. I did not go down to the pillow reserve to check the pillow prices down there. Someone else can do that. I Don't want customers returning to complain that they have been overcharged.

Straight home at 4 pm by 280 bus to Chatswood and 144 home as it is too wet and I'm too tired to do anything.

I didn't even take my rubbish out as it is just too wet. A great night to sleep and curl up in bed with my stuffed possum,  quilt and watch tv.

Tuesday 23rd March 2021

Day off

It is still so wet and I am happy to stay at home and sleep eat and watch tv. Maybe just catch up with stuff to be done. 

One thing I did do today which I haven't done for a very long time now is look at the analytics of my blogs. 

I once again thank all the readers who have continued to read my blogs and I  have just noticed that the number of readers for March has surpassed the number of readers for February and it is not yet the end of the month. I have not looked at which countries around the world readers are from yet but will do so at a later date. The other thing I have noticed is which blogs are being read. I have noticed that since it is the one year anniversiary since the pandemic reared it's ugly head , readers have gone as far back as my blogs from March 2020 to read them. 

One of the reasons I started this blog was to record history. This is my contribution for the archives and a gift to the future generations. I can imagine my great great grand nieces for example asking about what life was like for their aunt back in 2000s just like we ask what life must have been like living through the 1900s. Bush fires, floods, pandemics , droughts and other natural disasters - we have all lived through them - time does not discriminate.

I forgot to mention but difficult to believe tgat I have now been living in this apartment for just over 2 years now. How time flys!

There are now only 2 or 3 other tenants in the apartment block. Everyone has moved out.  Only other long term resident is the guy who moved downstairs I mentioned in an early blog after I moved in in apartment 1A. 

So apartments 1B 2 3 4 5 7 8 11 & 12 ( if there is one) are all vacant. So glad the stinky guy from room # 3 has moved out - he was just disgusting smelling. His room smelt worse then a homeless person! Now there is another guy living in # 9 or 10 that is a little smelly and has a habit of sweeping his hair or whatever it is into the Hall way upstairs and down over onto the ground floor hallway. Yuk! He has hung some type of ornament on his front door and a door mat is outside his apoartment. I need a to get diffuser outside my door and a door mat as well to freshen It!

Wednesday 24th March 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only new shift added to Kronos 12th March 2021 and rechecked 14th & 20th March no changes to shift

24th March 2020 was my very last day on reduced hours with my previous employer  before being made permanently redundant exactly one year on since COVID started to rear it's ugly head. It's an anniversary but not an anniversary I want to remember.

So what now? Eight months on from when I started working for my current employer Myer, and still a casual my shifts have been reduced yet again with the end of JobKeeper government subsidies and no JobSeeker payments to support me. I'm back on stock and my only lunch cover service shift on Thursday has been cancelled.

Still really wet today. 

Lunch was at 2.37 pm today.

I tried to ignore all customers and did not serve any customers at the POS. 

I didn't wear my name badge at all today and no one said anything about my white soles black sneakers.

It's after 5 pm and it has finally cleared up a  bit outside and stopped raining. Bird are chirping outside my window in the tree. I wonder how long tbis will last? Will it rain again tomorrow?

Nope forecast is mostly sunny days ahead which is not what the forecast for Melbourne is. Looks like the showers are now heading South!

Nice and dry today but yep the showers are heading South.

Saw the customer service manager arrive and go through the staff exit/entrance - she didn't wait for me but locked me out. I am pretty sure she saw me as I was walking towards her with my mask on. How rude. Now I have to wait until 7.55 pm for someone to let me in. I'll punch in now on my phone It's 7.50 am. I had to wait until the assistant manager arrived to let me in and by that time it was open from the inside at 7.55 am by the dock manager. 

I wonder if she noticed my little silicon cake and chocolate moulds display. Nope I had to point it out to her and the incorrect pillow pricing situation. 

I spent most of today reorganising the Kitchen Aid, Zylizz , Dream Farm, Oxo, Joseph Joseph , Mastercraft & Chosen a kitchen gadget stands. I could have done it all on my own but the customer service manager wanted to do it. It's a one poerson job and I could have finished it on my own without her help. In fact she kept abandoning it making it take longer to finish. I have done it on my own before It's not rocket science.  She just left a trail of mess all over display tables and on the floor and I was the one who had to clean it up and she told me not to leave a few boxes of stock next to where they were suppose to be merchandised. At least mine were in boxes - hers were just display arms full of gadgets everywhere which was a tripping hazard to customers. I grabbed a shopping basket on wheels and quickly dumped any display arms I saw on the floor or on displays into it before going to lunch.

Why was the fixture room and every other room locked today when it is normally open? There is nothing to steal from the fixtures room believe me! It's a complete mess - a dumping room. I had to wait for someone with all codes to the rooms. Noted on my phone the code in my calendar. 

Lunch was at 2 pm today and upon returning nothing further had been done to the display of kitchen gadgets - totally abandoned so I just finished it off, put the excess in the reserve and took the rubbish ( empty cardboard boxes) to the compactor aand returning the trolley I was using.

I sold a glass kettle to a customer before a team member on the floor took over the sale as the customer was also looking at air fryers.

I did some restocking from cages of stock on the dock but not a lot today because I wasted most of my time doing the stupid gadget display. I wasn't allowed to do the Kitchenaid table display but was asked just to find a display stand to bring up. I am being treated as if I can't anything. So brain dead. I am really falling behind everyone else that started working at Myer at the same time as me. 2 shifts on stock only next week. Hardly worth getting up and leaving at 6.25 am each morning just to get to work.

One final thing I would like to write about and is  an indication ofhow the customer manager treats me. So I mentioned how the customer manager was working on (more like fluffing around with) the Kitchenaid baking display table and she was taking her time doing it and kept abandoning it and not letting me even touch it ( I did make it look much better on the bottom two shelves as what she did with it looked so untidy as it items were just dumped there) at all constantly insisting that she do it, well when it was finally complete, a team member from VM goes up to her and makes a comments ( knowing full well that I had not done it and had seen the customer srrvice manager spend all morning doing it)  " Did Dulcinea do that?" She sprung into defense mode with a response " No I did!" How difficult is it just to hang some Kitchenaid kitchen utensils onto a display stand that I found and bought up from the fixtures and fittings room and add a few new dish brushes to the display in some red utensil holders? Not difficult. I could have done it in half the time.

Out the door a little after 4 pm and onto the next 280 bus before 4.30 pm. No shopping at the mall this afternoon - just a quick stop at Woolworths Metro Chatswoid for dinner as I could not be bothered to cook before heading home.

Thursday 25th March 2021

Myer 11am - 5 pm service new shift added to Kronos   

Checked Kronos on shift cancelled in Kronos 14th March 2021

Another day off today but I spend my early hours of the morning between 1 am and 2 am awake applying for jobs - barely 2 shifts next week is under the 24 hours I specified that I wanted to work per week on my original employment forms. I am not receiving any JobSeeker payments either at the moment.

Today I only managed to take out the rubbish and am trying to dry out the mould that has made itself at home around the apartment. The sun is out although earlier this morning there was a patch of rain again. All dry now. 

I haven't ventured out yet as it is late night shopping I can later tonight but not too late as I have to work tomorrow. 

I wrote another letter to Centrelink as I still can't continue to report my fortnightly income. It is important that I conti me to in the event I am once again made redundant.

I also wrote a very long letter of complaint to The Salvation Army Employment Plus.

I made lunch for tomorrow - in the fridge ready to go. 

I still need to do my laundry .

I applied for a permit to travel to Melbourne although I am unsure whether I still need one in case I want to travel down there over the weekend

Next a shower wash dishes and pack my bag for work.

Friday 26th March 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only new shift added to Kronos 12th March 2021 and rechecked 14th & 20th March 2021 no changes to shift.

It's Friday yay!

Just checked Kronos again and I only have 2 shifts stock only the following week as well. It is getting unfeasible for me to travel to and from work with only 2 days work a week.

There are "advantages" to doing stock duties on some days especially when the managers are not around ( in particular the customer service manager and assistant store manager) - you can take your lunch break when you feel like it instead of having to squeeze it in at a scheduled time as organised between team members and team leader's cover and you are left alone some of the time ( not all the time as you can see from my blogs ) and then there is the gossip amongst departments and team members! Heaps of gossip. 

Today there was quite a bit of gossip I managed to gather. No wonder Myer is up s**** creek - I am still wondering ifevery Myer operates in the way Myer Warringah does or if it is just the way this particular Myer operates. If every Myer operated like this Myer -  Myer will not suvive as a publcally listed company for long. I just wish Solomon Lew and his possey of connections or Wilson Asset Management would actually action a "hostile takeover" of Myer and whip it into shape - Do something what are they waiting for ? the share price to fall even lower then the current 36 cents or so per share it is today? OK so it's gone up 4 cents since I last mentioned in my blog but it will never return to the original public offer price per share of $4.10  or so per share that I purchased them for back in 2009. If they share price falls any lower I can afford to buy the company out myself - umm maybe not quite!?! First thing I would do would be sack the board and form a new one with members who are more "relevant" and seek recommendations and advice from all stakeholders - maybe call an extraordinary AGM and Mr King the CEO has to go - off with his head - I just don't like him. Next flatten the hierarchy of management at Myer the look at all other areas of Myer's operations such as financials reviewing and scrutinizing everything partuclarly suppliers buying inventory flow holding costs etc to reduce or eliminate unnecessary costs people and culture including salaries and wages, how Myer recruits and eliminating the Myer Metrics works  and technology updating hardware and software which is so outdated and improving communication channels as examples. Instead of the current cheesy "Myer Mystore" campaign I would scrap that and promote Myer as an Australian Company that's bern around for decades and encourage a much greater % of Australian made and owned stock to sell. Maybe "Myer Australian Owned & Australian Made"

I had quite a few customers still approaching me today ( I wasn't even wearing my name badge - it is safety hazard when on stock duties magnetic and catching on things) and had a few good sales however because I am not on the floor for the next 2 weeks and hardly have any shifts I have been giving all my sales to other team members who are on the floor. Today I had one large sale enough to overfill a small wheelie trolley for a lady and her little daughter but gave the sale to the team leader mentioning that I am giving her this sale as I "tookover" her large sale the other day. This is why the current Myer Metrics system should be scraped- it should be a based on a departmental team effort not a  individual team member effort - I don't know which school of management Myer went to ( and I am not referring to the Myer Academy) but it's definitely not the management school I went to!

I have listened to a few team members and these are the complaints comments and feedback I got today ( or more like interesting gossip notice for privacy reasons I never mention any team members' , team leaders' or managers' names in my blogs)

1. The rumour was that the customer service manager of homewares has the ambition to become an assistant store manager however in order to be an assistant store manager ( as mentioned in a previous blog) at Myer you need to have worked in all departments - is that so?! So when I mentioned this to a team member from menswear who also works in other departments , she makes the comments " Do you know how many people have complained about ?" and " She does not have the people skills to be a manager" and finally " if she was a manager too much power would go to her head" ( currently already true - she seems to think thst she can control me and I have no respect for her in return and just tell her straight out if something she is merchandising looks bad - and I am the only one who thinks she can't visual merchandise when she thinks she can) which is a little more diplomatic then the comment from another manager in my previous blog about how she can be a manager at a different Myer store but not at this one.

2. Almost every casual team member had had their shifts cut and the above team member is now on on 2 shifts a week like me. My 24 hours a week I specified on my original employment forms is out the door. Some casuals do actually have increased shifts which is not fair on me as I have been here longer and worked harder. Everyone knows this but it seems the harder you work at Myer the more work you get and the less shifts you get - it just does not make any sense but then again nothing makes sense at Myer. We all know it's due to JobKeeper ending however the other rumour floating around by numerous team members is that all the hours cut now is for the next scan count when everyone is on. That's just outright extremely poor budgeting! Every department is trying to save the staffing budgets they have especially the VM department who have already lost 2 staff members who both resigned and were not replaced as well as the VM staffing budget attempted cut and reallocated to the dock for a VM team member currently on leave for 2 weeks.

3. I really don't kow how managers recruit team members and roster which team members on when. Even the team leader questioned how a few particular team members (that had their Christmas Casual contracts extended at Myer) are still working at Myer as they are so lazy. She even said although it doesn't matter so much as she is a permanent employee that if she was a casual she would kill for an extra shift right now instead these few particular team members are not pulling their weight while we are basically working our butts off. One particular team member ( the ditzy one) arrived 15 minutes late yet again. The team leader was complaining to me about it as apoarently it is not the first time she has turned up to work late like another team member from the electrical department who has a "I don't care" attitude. Why are these team members still employed at Myer? The team leader also mentioned how she knew this particular "ditzy" team member lived alone had 4 other jobs,  has no family ( not exactly true when I asked her later she does have a sister)  and therefore needed to work but thought it was really not an excuse and  that she should really get her life together. Well if she intends to atrend the police academy in Goulburn to become a constable then she has to get her act together as well as not be so lazy and ditzy.

What I got upto today - the rest of the table display ( photo below) has gone a very rogue since my inital attempt at merchandising it but some new gold coloured Heritage stock just came in and this is how I have started to  ( not exactly visual) metchandise it in with the existing table display.

My last stock duties of the day which a VM team member passed onto me from the VM manager in a text message as not many team members have my phone number was to restock glassware - unfortunately tgey is not much glassware to restock. None on the dock at all and only stemless white wine Krosno Harmony and decanter sets in the same range were in the glassware reserve ( with the incorrect prices on them which I blacked out but only the ones I put out on the floor).I moved some of the remaining duet glassware sets up onto the tabletop to make the display look fuller and filled up some black & pink boxed heavy decanters in another brand that I also retrieved from the glassware reseve on a another shelf to fill it up. No time yo fix any other glassware displays up as it was almost time for me to finish my shift. I asm trying not to stay back as you don't get paid for any second ( not minute)  of overtime you do.

There has been more postings of inappropriate text messages on the What's app team chat again by the customer service manager. I wish she would be more professional

"Hi just a reminder that you need to give notice if you need a day off. It is not okay to ask the day before the shift or the same week. It is not okay to email or text me. You can see your roster for 2 weeks I should be notified at least 2 weeks prior. Please even give the details to "team leader's name" or "team leader's name" and I will let you know if we can do it. Please don't assume it is okay also please check the leavesheet at home as other staff may have already asked prior. I don't like saying no but I cannot have everyone of at the same time. 

Can everyone please check kronos as I haves had to change kronos again. Thanks for your support on this."

Firstly I have not seen anyone use the so called "leave planber" she is referring to in the back cupboard for so long - I was the one who used it correctly and she left me off it. I have not used it since because my shifts keep changing so much I can hardly keep up with the changes, I give her so much notice and when my leave has been aporoved and I go to take it I find that I have been rostered on to work on those leave days on Kronos anyway and finally I hardly get 2 weeks notice of when I am rostered on to work - if I am lucky I get 1 week notice! I think team members are just sick of Myer's rostering system. By the way I had nothing to do with prompting the customer srrvice manager to send the above group text this time! It will be interesting to see what happens on my next leave dates I have already requested way in advance.

Straight home on the first bus to Manly 199 and then connecting on (144 bus stop has been moved acrosd the road and the 199 terminating bus stop at Manly moved to where the old 144 bus stop was) home. I was trying to get home the fastest way but all modes 280 to Chatswood and 144 home n the opposite direction verses 199 or any bus to Manly then a 144 bus home verses Bline to Spit Junction or Neutral Bay Junction then 144 home all take approximately the same amount of time a minimum 1 hour and 30 minutes each pair of bus routes. I could take the B line or other bus to Dee why in the opposite direction then catch the "express" 160x bus to Chatswood then 144 bus home also in the opposite direction however I don't believe it would make any difference - maybe it does as it is 3 connecting buses eventhough Dee Why is just around the corner.

Home & sleep I was so tired - forget my trip to Melbourne by train tonight maybe tomorrow.

Saturday 27th March 2021

Day off

No new shifts added to Kronos as at 14th March 2021

I only have 2 shifts both on stock next week. One was cancelled again I believe - it was only on Kronos for a very short period of time. 

Not feeling the best today so unsure if I am still going anywhere over this weekend. I was planning to travel to Melbourne but unsure now.

Checked Kronos again today and my 2 shifts originally on Tuesday and Thursday week ended 11th April has been changed to Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th April instead. Myer is doing it again constantly changing the rosters. 

Sunday 28th March 2021

Day off

Today is again a do nothing day. I wish I could block the What's app group chats frrom coming through on my days off. 

The below are text message as that came through today - this is the lack of communication that happens at Myer Warringah

Posted by the Electricals team leader below

"Hey guys please do not leave roll cages full of stock in the reserves. We also found 2x sunbeam electric blankets worth $400 each with no spider tag. Please check before putting out on the floor. Thanks"

Response from Homewares team leader

"VM team member's name ( omitted for privacy reasons) put them out Electrical's team leader's name ( omitted for privacy reasons"

Response from Electricals team member on stock duties - thank you to him for clarifying communicating and posting the below information. Management should take full responsibility as it was their decision & team members should not be blamed!

"The roll cages in electrical reserve downstairs were put there because the operations manager ( name omitted for privacy reasons)  didn't want stock on the top shelves and said if there is no space to leave them on the cage."

Management should take full responsibility for decisions made about placement of all excess stock and communicate it to everyone. The dock should be tagging all applicable items before placing them in cages to be put onto the floor or to reserves. Items are still arriving without correct pricing, no pricing and/or barcodes - the warehouse should be responsible for this yet no responsibility is being taken. I waste so much time blacking out and or relabelling products that arrive incorrectly priced and placing security tags on them because someone else can't be bothered. Not good enough.

The text messages continue this time the customer service manager responses to the Electrical team members text above refer below

"They were in hard home and soft home. I will follow up with the operations manager I think he means leave them on the dock. He is back from holidays tomorrow I will check with him.  Thanks "

No rain for past few days and I hope it stays that way!

Deja vu - one year on from when the Corona virus reared it's ugly head and 1 year on from when I  was made redundant , I have now been with Myer for about 8 - 9 months now and I see myself being made redundant a second time as my hours are again reduced as JobSeeker reverts back to it's original payments and JobKeeper ends. Thousands of people including myself will become unemployed again. I read my my original blogs that I wrote back in March 2020 and history is repeated. As COVID restrictions and relations are lifted including the co. pulsing wearing of masks in close contact or confined spaces where social distancing can't be avoided I once again predict that history will repeat itself. COVID is still around and we can't be complacent.  Even if COVID does not cause another lockdown or is responsible for asnother eco comic disaster, the ending of JobKeeper and the JobSeeker reverting to pre COVID oayments will result in another economic downturn  - what is the government thinking? If you read my original blog Australia can only be the lucky country for so long it can't last forever. Stuff up this time and it will be the unlucky country.

A very quick shop at Woolworths Metro Chatswood in the late afternoon followed by Aldi then Coles. The quickest grocery shop I have done - bumped into my cousin again at Aldi. 

No new products purchased to try this grocery shop but I will mention something that happened at Aldi that should have been "On The tickToks" ( if only I had captured it on my phone's camera). I purchased a carton of  room temperature dozen 700 g caged eggs from Aldi , paid for them and put them back in my trolley. I then took the carton of eggs out and repacked them into my own shopping bags however when I was about to place the eggs into my shopping bag I spotted that the egg carton in the bottom corner was wet so I opened up the carton to inspect the eggs. The one egg in the corner was indeed stuck to the carton hence the wet stain at the bottom of the carton. As I was in the middle of packing my groceries I asked my cousin to go to the cashier and ask if she could swap it for another carton as one egg was stuck to the carton. The cashier either did not believe me when I told her or she did not understand why I wanted to return the carton of eggs for another carton. Anyway she opened the carton of eggs and inspected every single egg in the carton one at a time - lifting each one out and putting it back in until she tried to lift the final egg in the corner out of the carton ( the one that was stuck) - what do you think happened next? I cracked up but the cashier did not! You should have seen the look on her face - she was unimpressed and had egg on her face literally.

Home just made it on an awaiting 144 bus at Chatswood around 7 pm.

End of another week.

Monday 15th - Sunday 21st March 2021 - Week 51 Of Underemployment & French Film Festival Sydney 2021

Palace Central Cinemas located on the floor above the foodcourt @ Central Park Mall.

Monday 15th March 2021

Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th 6th & 10th March 2021 no changes to shift.

Boring day no Myer One sign ups as they are already on the system and those that were not did not want to join. 

Another 2 good customer feedback scores which means I am now sitting on a 90% customer satisfaction score. I hope it stays that way. 

I think I am going to get a bad score today because I had a problem putting a faulty item exchange through as they had a discount on the original from the item being on sale and it is now no longer on sale. 

I had a few weird customers today and I gave team member "ticket girl" 2 of my sales totalling $600. Team member "ticket girl" also won a second recycling challenge and now she has 2 bottles of wine - she doesn't even drink and she also got a black jacket from the customer service manager that apparently did not fit her  -  all in a calico bag to take home but no fry pan. 

My last customer was also my very first customer today and I signed him up for a Myer One membership. He was a very strange customer who just did not have a clue about kitchenware or had OCD. I must have spent an hour with him looking at various MW dinner sets and cutlery sets . He didn't purchase anything and tried to phone his sister who I thought was his wife for advice. She did not return his call so I left the MW Diamond boxed dinner set  & MW Cosmopolitan 16 piece cutlery on the back counter for a few hours before putting them back on the shelves when he did not return before lunch. He actually returned about 15 minutes before closing and apologised and wanted the dinner set & box of cutlery. However he would not take the sa me boxes I had picked out asnd put back for him. He wanted a whole new box of the same cutlery and the same with the Diamond dinner set - which he picked up but was the incorrect one as it had mugs and he did not want mugs but cup and saucers and I suggested he buy these later as they were individually purchased and unavailable in box sets. I was trying to get him to "hurry up" as the store was about to close in 5 minutes and he still had not finalised his purchase. He paid for his purchases right on closing at 5.30 pm and wanted to ensure that everything was in the boxes as he was not opening them for 3 months. I had checked the boxed dinner set and the boxes were all taped up inside apart for the one I opened to show him and check which did contain 4 side plates in p effect condition. As for the fresh box of cutlery - I took the top off and gave it a shake to ensure the remained of the cutlery was in the box but did not open it. He had so much trouble getting the 4 pieces of cutlery displayed in the tight fitting foam in the top of the box I convinced him that what was at the top was in the box below it. He was just really weird - not at all rude but extremely cautious and thorough.

My blog crashed yet again therefore I will start again

Lunch at 2 pm today which is better then 3.30 pm. 

In the afternoon an Mcomms comes through advising team members that Myer is trialing a new POS system to replace the current hardware and software system which is 11 years old! The pilot program is being tested at 4 stores initially Myer Sydney Myer Melbourne Myer Belconnen and Myer Chadstone I believe and team members there get to give feedback on the new system. Why didn't Myer Warringah get chosen to be in the pilot program? Wouldn't it make sense to use a smaller "concept" store as the time a pig or test store for a new POS system. I am disappointed as I was the one who bought up the aging IT issue at the last Myer AGM!!!! Will this new POS fix the existing ordering issues on the ancient Ipads currently being used? Will it make it easier to seach Myer One memberships? Will it make Myer operate more efficiently? or will this be another total waste of resources just like the failed partnership with Australia Post for more efficient online deliveries which did not make any difference in delivery times and resulted in quite a few breakages and non receipt of deliveries resulting in an increase of customer returns and complaints, the failed use of Myer as an Amazon pick up Hub which was suppose to bring in more customer foot traffic but resulted in almost zero usage due to non existant marketing of the service or HUMM the alternative buy now pay later payment method to the existing alternative methods of thr more popular Afterpay and less popular Zippy pay. Layby still exists although not really used by customers as debit/credit card is the most popular form of deferred payment methods still especially the CBA rewards program. If you have a CBA rewards card and a Myer One membership card - you are set. Myer One membership alone is not really value for money but the CBA rewards program looks like it is really value for money although it is a credit card not just a free loyalty card that accumulates reward points.

Again we had to put sale signs up for the "Daily Deal" sales for tomorrow only. It seems that team members are constantly printing out sale signs putting tgem up taking them down and putting new ones up again. It's so confusing and constant. It makes Myer seem like a dollar store or op shop and  not a department store!

I caught the 280 bus to Chatswood and stopped off in search of dinner as I could not be bothered to cook tonight. I decided on GuzmanyGomez again. My usual a spicy chicken burruto with a side of chimi mayo. I didn't look to ensure I got the right sauce and when I did it was too late I was on the 144 bus heading home. They got the sauce wrong yet again. What is it with the chimi sauce? It was not even green, when I saw it, it was a pink orange sauce and the taste it tasted like some seafood cocktail sauce diluted with mayo. I just had to lodge a complaint online to GuzmanyGomez this time. The Chatswood store must hate corriander if they didn't they would know what a chimi sauce is. I ate it anyway but was not impressed lucky the combination tasted ok together. Photo below

Spicy chicken burrito ✔

 Chimi mayo sauce ❌

Tuesday 16th March 2021

Day off 

Slept in watched tv and YouTube

It was not that nice a day today so I did not venture out.

Finally did my laundry & cleaned the apartment as well as prepared for a shorter day at work tomorrow.

Wednesday 17th March 2021

Myer 11 am - 5 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th 6th & 10th March 2021 no change to shift.

It is so wet today I am so glad that I have a day off tomorrow. 

It was another very busy day today with not a minute to spare from when I started to when I finished - not even time to take my 15 minute tea break - yes that's right I didn't have a break today again! Not even a toilet break until after 4 pm. - just as well I went just before I started!

I signed a customer up to a Myer One membership today but again forgot to scan the barcode therefore did it afterwards. So annoying having to remember to do this. This was probably my first customer of the day and probably the customer with the largest purchase.

Things look as if they have gone from  bad to worse at Myer. Firstly a customer rings up and is looking for a pair of Seed knitted boots and I take her name and number down and said I will  get someone to call her back. I ended up calling her back within 10  minutes as Seed had just exited Myer Warringah as a brand partner and were in the middle of packing up their stock when the customer rang. I have a feeling other brand partners or concessions are exiting Myer Warringah as well. It is not communicated when brand partners or concessions exit Myer we find out when they have actually exited. Who will be next? I suspect Polo Ralph Lauren .

Checked Kronos again today and still no more shifts added after next week which is a bad sign especially after the customer service manager asked me to take some excess scales and bath mats back down to the soft reserve for her and bring more mattress protectors up to fill up the shelves she had just cleaned up so she can do the rosters. Looks like I'm not on the rosters she has done - JobKeeper ends next week and quite a few casuals that have left have not been replaced.

Current Myer share price is 31 cents per share ( which is slightly up) which approximately 10 times less then what I originally paid for them with no dividends for at least the past 4 years. 

Not looking good at all. 

So today I signed up a Myer One but again forgot to scan the barcode so did it later.

I also gave another sale of mine of a fry pan to the Electrical team leader as I was busy with something else ( scratching the incorrect prices of Krosno Harmony & Avant-garde glassware again with a black marker to avoid further incorrect price overrides on the POS system) 

I had a really weird customer who tried to convince me that a certain MW cashmere side plate which was 19 cm was on sale online on the Myer website when both another team member and I could not find it at all just the 16 cm one. The customer was not happy and she abandoned  her entire purchase of 8 coupe cashmere side plates 8 MW white woven placemats 8  Bus pink coasters and 2 Hertiage towel sets. 

I hung around the Mall after I finished at 5 pm today until a little later doing a small grocery shop at Coles before waiting for the 280 bus back to Chatswood. Because I don't have to work tomorrow, I also stopped off at Woolworths Metro for just a few basics ( which I checked the expiry dates for and which are my regular purchases and not on special) as well as a peri peri chicken pizza ( not frozen just refridgerated) before going home to pop it in the oven for dinner with leftovers for tomorrow. 

Bed not too late as it is dark wet and slightly cold - a good night to curl up in bed with my stuffed possum and a quilt.

Thursday 18th March 2021

Day off

No sleeping in today although it is still really wet outside.

Lots of catching up to still  do again today.

Another great day to stay at home and back in bed.

Friday 19th March 2021

Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th, 6th & 10th March 2021 no changes to shift.

Gee it's been a long week and it's not over yet.

So I just checked Kronos again the following 2 weeks I am on stock again - that's 24 hours per week for 2 weeks without a single shift on service. I am quite annoyed - I spent 6.5 years studying at college and uni before working in the corporate world for a few decades and now am working as a stock girl! Not only have my hours been reduced to 24 hours a week , I was employed to work on the floor serving customers in the Homewares Department not in a brain dead stock job as what a team member described as " stock girl" - retail is not moving stock around on the floor all day every day.

Today all the crazy customers are out and about because it is yet another super weekend sale. So far Myer has had a Mid Season Clearance Sale on until 6th April, a Mega Bakeware Bonanza Sale currently on, a Daily Deal Sale which was a one day only sale on Tuesday and now a Super Weekend Sale all in the space of one week! That's 4 different sales in 1 Week and the week is not even over. Confused? Not only are team members confused  hence all the confusion of which tickets have to be printed and put up, covered up or taken down but I am and more so almost every single customer I have served this entire week are confused! To make things worse all the ipads were not working today therefore sale signs and tickets could not be printed out and team members could not do any product availability searches or enquiries, online rerurns or do any click and collect orders. The Wi-Fi was actually down not the system aparently.

I had lunch today at 1.30 pm and made sure I had it outside of Myer. I just had to escape from all the craziness of customers complaining of incorrect discounts and sale prices advertised, misreading the exclusions on sale signs in very small print, unclear what items are or aren't on sale as they have not been included in any category on sale signs, return of faulty, soiled or damaged products, change of mind of un returnable, non refundable or  non exchangeable products due to NSW Health Regulations or clearance items and even dealing with cancelled orders , rude and frustrated customers in general due to Myer not delivering in general ( and I don't just mean their orders).

All the customers I served today wanted my attention for very long periods of time because they just could not decide on their purchases.

I signed up 2 Myer One memberships today - both times forgetting to scan the sign up barcode during the transaction and having to scan it afterwards before recording them on a tally sheet ( waste of time - should just print out a receipt and staple it to the tally form).

I want to return this and exchange it for something else ( 2 customers did this one was a faulty online order of fry pans and the other was a pair of pillows which we don't even take back due to NSW Health Regulations). Both customers took so much time deciding what to purchase. But both really appreciative of my patience and assistance. Another couple decided against the photo frames they had chosen after I told them the items were actually not on sale. 

At one stage I had 3 customers all wanting my attention at the same time - mainly with questions. 

The day just became more weird. The customer service manager was not exactly the nicest today towards team members or customers. A lot of the time I think she is on drugs. At the end of the day she asked me to put a floor lamp together and as I was taking it out of the packaging and boxes with team member "ticket girl" she deliberately asks me to abandon it to get a heavy wool underlay from the soft reserve so she could put it together with team member "ticket girl" . When I returned it  was out of the box but it still had not been put together and I said let me do it. I said all you have to do is match up one of  the 3  slots on the ring with one of  the 3 screws on the tripod stand and use the allen key to tighten it then line up the other 2 and repeat. It was a simple task that a monkey could you yet she complained that every time she tried they would come out. That's bull shit - the Allen key was not even out of the plastic packaging. I put it together in a few minutes for her. After I did it all she had to do was screw the top lamp cover in. I then put it on the floor next to the queen Australian House & Garden bed. This was a customer hold from yesterday who never returned today.

Why did I even collect the keys and the iPad this morning - the network was down ( no WiFi  apparently) and the lock on the cupboard is still broken.

There was flooding everywhere this morning so I missed the team huddle and called the cleaner for buckets. There were buckets everywhere! Myer is below the car park so the store gets flooded severely when there is a heavy downpour.

Super weekend sale - team leader text via Group Chat to wear a touch of pink so team member " I want to be team leader" arrives to work with a pale pink top but is told by the customer service manager to remove it as it is not the super weekend sale until tomorrow  - petty! I Don't get it the super weekend sale started online today but not in store until tomorrow and the sale signs and tickets that were printed out yesterday started being put up at 10 am this morning as requested by the customer service manager. This really caused an unfair confusion to customers which caused almost every customer to question if  and what items were on sale and the price. If it wasn't on sale they would not purchase it and if the online price did not match the current price ( sale or no sale) team members would have to honor the sake price and do the extra price override and item discount POS process. I gave up and just checked the current sale price for customers however if they questioned or chaljenged, I  it did check the sale sign or online and if correct honoured it for the customer.

I was still giving away free MW greeting cards however if you put more then 1 per customer in the system the customer is charged 1 cent for each additional card.

Saturday 20th March 2021

Myer 10 am - 5 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th, 6th & 10th March 2021 no change to shift.

My blog crashed yet again.

I just checked Kronos again and I only have 2 shifts now both on stock on Tuesday 30th March and Thursday 1st April instead of the original 3 shifts ie one shift has been cancelled yet again. JobKeeper ends on 28th March 2021 and it will only get worse therefore I really need to look for a new part time job. I am not getting JobSeeker and it is minimal anyway. I have some savings but Don't really want to dig into them. I have managed not to touch them for 6 months but may have to. First thing I would like to do is pay off my credit card in full first then I will mot owe anything. It looks like I may have a lean Easter but I don't really celebrate it anyway except go to the Easter Show. 

It has been raining all week but today it was pouring with rain. There were buckets everywhere not just around the shopping centre which is half open and half enclosed but I think every single bucket Myer owns has been used to catch any leaks within the 3 floors of Myer Warringah. Appoarently there is a huge known leak on the ceiling above the decorator area which extends all the way back to the menswear department which leaves the floor flooded ( yep on Friday morning there was indeed water damage around the decorator area) as Myer is situated below a carpark which has a porous structure.I'm not surprised is there any shopping centre that does not leak?

So loads of things happened today. Firstly I spent most of my time around the floor serving customers mainly spending time with them assisting them by pointing them in the right direction, assisting them with product information, recommending my favourite products and serving poeople waiting in queues - more at the electricals counter rather then at the Homewares counter. 

I put through a really huge sale a customer had made which the team leader had gathered in a trolley. It was ready to go - she had the purchase was put on suspend but the customer was still in the store shopping and when they returned with a few other products what was I suppose to do? All team members were serving customers and the team leader was nowhere to be found. I didn't want to keep the customer waiting so unspspended  the purchase transaction and finished it off. I spot the team leader and asked her about the transaction which she was a little annoyed about because I had put it through under my team member ID ( note it is a real hassle to put in another team member's purchase using their team ID every single item has to be manually scanned followed by tgat team member's ID it is a very laborious process therefore imagine typing in the team member's ID number for every single item that customer purchased!) . It was wrong for me to do it but I did not want to keep the customer waiting and it was only over $1K of purchases. She does not know that I had already given about the equivalent worth of sales in bedding - the family who purchased quite a few pillows and protectors to another team member as I was not present to process them. Remember the 2 sales previously I gave team member "ticket girl" after spending so much time with them in assisting them to make their purchases worth at least $600 and all the sales I made and gave to 3 different team members whilst I was on stock. I don't complain because I know I am a good sales person really honest and not pushy with loads of patience with them, goid product knowledge and recommendations from personal experience.. This is where the Myer's Metrics systems goes wrong. I have always believed metrics should not be based on individual team members but a true team or departmental effort. That way there is no " you stole my sale and my customer" or what I have witnessed other team members trying to interfere with customers I am serving so they can get the sale. It is not a good look and customers think it rude.

Biggest sale of the day did go to a team member from the Electricals department - it was around a $10k single purchase and the entire area around the POS system counters were full of items. I think it filled up 3 shopping trolleys to transport it all to the customers'car.

The ipads were out of order still today apparently it is the Wi-Fi not the system - yes whenever it rains the towers get flooded I always say - and I thought it was only Vodafone towers that had outages in the past. So no tickets or orders could be done however team members in Electricals advised me that there was 1 single ipad tgat was working. Really? So It's not the Wi-Fi that is down but the system. Which also caused the POS to slow down and almost crash because it could not handle the amount of transactions being put through. I had one customer return and it would not process on 2 of the POS systems in the electricals department therefore went back over to the homewares department where it was still having trouble processing the single item return but eventually did it. Manual returns are no fun to do on POS as there are so many steps to process just a single item returned.

I may have had 2 Myer One sign ups yesterday but none today - team member " I want to be team leader " finally got her 5 Myer One sign ups but no free coffee for her from the customer service manager - competition is over I believe and she missed out on participating in the recycling challenge we had.

For the first time I actually wore a pink cardigan to work - wear a touch of pink for super weekends. All Homewares team members did except the last one to start her shift spoilt it by not turning up in a touch of pink today.

My shifts have been cut and I'm on stock for the next 2 weeks with the minimal shifts I do have. I am falling behind as I am not getting to do the things other team members are doing and learning especially on the POS system because I am not serving on the floor as much and just doing brain dead stock work most of the time. I suspect the other team member from electricals feels the same as he is mostly on the dock or restocking on the floor.

I did not complete 6.5 years of study to be demoted to a stock girl at Myer. Myer is not replacing any staff that have resigned. The 2 staff that were doing stock in VM thst have resigned have not been replaced externally and the 3rd VM team member doing stock is currently on leave.

Time to do a little experiment. What would happen if I started ignoring customers on the floor and just did stock for the next 2 weeks and recorded my observations? What would happen if I pretended and started telling customers that I didn't work for Myer?  It would not matter if I don't wear my name badge and don't make any sales against my team ID then when customer feedback scores are returned to Myer I can't get any bad feedback. I just have to disceetly tell one team member that is not hired to serve customers of my experiment. 

Sunday 21st March 2021

Day off

I have booked online to see the 3 pm session of Aline at the Palace Central seat F10 - a movie based on the story of Celine Dion . It is one of a series of films screening during the French Film Festival on from 2nd - 31st March 2021 in Sydney at various cinemas. 

I am also planning to visit the Lumen exhibition on at the White Rabbit Gallery nearby. A new art exhibition that just opened recently and showing between March and August 2021. 

It is still raining therefore I will leave the White Rabbit Gallery for another day since there is also trackwork AGAIN on the Metro and Northshore/Northern train lines this weekend.

I can't work out if it is quicker to take the normal scheduled bus from Chatswood into the city or take the rail repla cement express bus to Wynyard direct. I'm waiting for the rail replacement Wynyard express bus. It does not seem to be very regular. All buses only stop at Wynyard then terminate anyway except for 320 which starts at Gore Hill then turns onto the Pacific Highway a few blocks down and continues onto Town Hall therefore I would have to walk about 10 minutes possibly in the rain. 

Bus to Chatswood connect with a bus to Wynyard connect with train to Central then walk to the cinema. There around 2.15 pm probably hence no time to go to the gallery to see Lumen today.

If you don't live in Sydney and are wondering just how wet it is in Sydney well here are some photos

Outside Central Station Grand Concourse & Coach Terminal

The Glass Ceiling  above inside Central Park Mall - no  leaks inside this shopping centre and It's mot a glass bottom rooftop pool - or is It!?

5 pm and the movie has ended. It's still raining outside. I walk back to Central Station and catch the City Circle train back to Wynyard or Townhall. Then as bus to Chatswood and another bus home.

So what did I think of the movie Aline? Although the movie is fictitious it is still based on the story of Celine Dion. The music is brilliant however the actress who played Aline in her teenage years was unconvincing because she was and looked too old for the role unfortunately but as the movie progresses and as Aline grew older she became more convincing. Not a bad job from the actor who played Aline's manager come husband although I thought his relationship with Aline was a bit intense at times which makes you question whether they were actually in love or whether it was just all about business and even a hint of exploitation of Aline's talent.  And the rest of Aline's family were pretty convincing however the actor that played Aline's personal makeup artist I thought stole the show eventhough he was not a main character and did not appear until midway through the movie right to the end. Fictious or not his character did "soften"  the tragic end after the death of Aline's manager come husband just a little - you get to realise how lonely it can get being at the top as a super star. French with English subtitles eventhough they were not needed as it was in Canadian "Frangaise"  . Look out for scene where the hideous brownish taffeta looking puffy dress and big hair outfit is swap to a sleek black tight fitting high neck floor length dress just before one of Aline's live performances - what were they thinking? Yes so glad the dress was changed!  Rating 8/10 . Aline not Celine as per movie. Enjoyable but then again I haven't seen a movie in over a year and this is the first movie in the series of movies included in the Sydney French Festival 2021 that I plan to see ( I hope).

Home catch up on my blogs sleep. Work again tomorrow.

End of another very long week.