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A Song of Retail and Brimstone
Aug. 30th, 2011 10:10 pmEvery night I think, "I should check AO3 for [fandom] fic," and every day I forget what fandom I'm supposed to be looking for. It's something small and finished, I think - a book series with a couple of books in it, maybe?
So I've decided that, while I'm still working on getting my cover letter and resume out to museums, I'm going to apply for some other retail jobs at the mall. They'll pay exactly the same, I'm sure, and be the same amount of hours on my feet ... but I can't take the emphasis on making each sale as big as possible anymore, and checking on each person's average dollar sales, and posting whose ADSs are below the store's for the week (hint: I'm always one of them). Yes, of course the store wants to sell things, and I do make an effort, but my style of salesmanship is to make the customer's experience a good one, and not put them into a state of annoyance by over-offering things to them and trying to talk them into buying what they don't want. I don't want to have to be angry at people for only buying a few things, or to wonder whether the management is really that stupid that they think I ought to be able to talk people looking for car air fresheners into buying jar candles. Maybe I'm wrong (but hopefully not) and all chain stores are like this, I don't know, but I'm going to find out. This whole thing is supposed to be temporary while I get a job in a museum or a more serious internship - I shouldn't have to stress about meeting goals so much.
A thoughtful rebuttal to Sady Doyle's review of ASOIAF (which has lots of stuff that's applicable to fantasy/historic fiction in general), and Doyle's even more thoughtful response.
( Clash of Kings thoughts, 7/8 of the way through )
So I've decided that, while I'm still working on getting my cover letter and resume out to museums, I'm going to apply for some other retail jobs at the mall. They'll pay exactly the same, I'm sure, and be the same amount of hours on my feet ... but I can't take the emphasis on making each sale as big as possible anymore, and checking on each person's average dollar sales, and posting whose ADSs are below the store's for the week (hint: I'm always one of them). Yes, of course the store wants to sell things, and I do make an effort, but my style of salesmanship is to make the customer's experience a good one, and not put them into a state of annoyance by over-offering things to them and trying to talk them into buying what they don't want. I don't want to have to be angry at people for only buying a few things, or to wonder whether the management is really that stupid that they think I ought to be able to talk people looking for car air fresheners into buying jar candles. Maybe I'm wrong (but hopefully not) and all chain stores are like this, I don't know, but I'm going to find out. This whole thing is supposed to be temporary while I get a job in a museum or a more serious internship - I shouldn't have to stress about meeting goals so much.
A thoughtful rebuttal to Sady Doyle's review of ASOIAF (which has lots of stuff that's applicable to fantasy/historic fiction in general), and Doyle's even more thoughtful response.
( Clash of Kings thoughts, 7/8 of the way through )
