Suburban High School Blues

My daughter just started high school this year. It has only been one week and already the shenanigans have started. Her math teacher gave the kids a diagnostic test and then graded it. Majority of the kids failed it…because of course they did. I would have loved to have sent a copy of these exams to all the 8th grade teachers for their thoughts on submitting an exam that had uncovered material on it.

The math diagnostic included basic skills, intermediate skills, and content that had not been covered yet. The children that passed the test were older kids in higher grade levels and one child that was skipped up a few grades due to being gifted in math and science. Those who passed it already had pre AP courses and they are now reviewing the same course work just under an AP title. My daughter was placed into the AP courses this year with no pre AP.

Usually, diagnostic tests were used to see what you learned and if you knew areas above level. Grading a diagnostic is usually a mistake first year teachers make. I told my kiddo don’t worry about it.. after all diagnostic tests were used to see where everyone is and where the teacher should begin to bolster the lagging students. Imagine my surprise when emails start pouring in about how my daughter doesn’t know her math skills, and the defensive responses start getting dropped preemptively.

You can always tell a teacher that stays having issues when the emails start trying to wall off or gatekeep you from making assumptions about the teacher’s skill. I kinda had red flags at this point. I wasn’t worried about her skills as a teacher until she started projecting lazy…and aggressive. (She says she never stays in her seat, I never mentioned this so why bring it up?) I stayed on task and tried not to judge the personal issues that began bleeding through the email. I mentioned that my daughter has some anxiety issues and will need time to get use to her and her antiquated I mean new strategies.

My daughter and I use a computer for visual needs and so we can use khan or mathtec videos to explain problems. The instructor assumed we were using technology to solve the problems and said it would not help. I didn’t understand how being able to magnify the text as needed would not help… but oookkkkaaaayyy. She’s an older teacher and comes off as one of those that is afraid to use technology. We already went through this with a science teacher. Irony and karma, when Covid forced his whole team to be on computers for the next 2 years.

My daughter had informed me that the math teacher literally censors or refuses to address certain questions and words. You can’t say you are confused, frustrated, or don’t understand. She literally does not adapt her approach to the children with learning concerns such as mental processing, audio, or visual in her class. My daughter had already expressed that the classroom was not accommodating and she would just have to catch up at home. Seriously, this instructor could not understand that by keeping the students from asking questions in a certain way ..she made the other students effectively shutdown and give up.

My kid is not a genius, but she does like math and science. She puts the work in on her own to make her grades better. Her past state exams exceeded and or met standards for math and the subcategories. Her current instructor made some assumptions that my child could not keep up and had already labeled her as “a do nothing student”.

My response to the email.

I didn’t choke the email with a complete history of how well my daughter does in math, I just referred her to the previous math teachers, the dean, and her counselor. Besides, the teacher has access to my daughter’s previous report cards, her data, and the previous team of teachers she has worked with. We established relationships since 6th grade and some of them we spoke to weekly. They know “US” and they are all presently working at the same school. It really would be nothing to do brief chats during texts and emails to find out more info.

As a parent, I find it easier to have straight forward emails that get to the point with out a lot of bs extra details. Just say there are concerns in this area, my child needs extra help and here are all these options to get that help. Here is my contact info if these options need tweaking give me a call… the end.

In the past emails similar to this have made admin monitor the classroom management of the teacher, would be helping her to integrate technology into her coursework, the deans would be reviewing her 504 accommodations, and would do more to help her understand communication is not the enemy in a math class.

After having to deal with teachers like this in the past, I find it better not to be adversarial but proactive, document, create photocopies of work, and do as much as with in reason to circumnavigate teachers that act more like offensive guards instead of educators. My daughter knows the drill…document on her worksheets which problems she is having issues with, request a different math teacher for tutorials, and find out what subjects the teacher is going to focus on and stay ahead. Teachers like this are usually in their jobs because they know someone, not because they can teach. The goal isn’t to get them fired, it is just to get my kid through that class without getting scathed as much possible. If we find that impossible, then it becomes my job to be the buffer between my child and the offending adult. It is sad that we have gone through this so much we have an actual plan and contingency plans to prevent other problems from arising. If you are wondering why so much over thinking for such a simple thing… A I was a multigrade and multisubject educator for more than 2 decades. The drama and trauma that I have seen, and the experiences from being on both sides of the aisle shapes my actions, moves, and responses.

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Stopped Buying & Started Baking My Own Waffles

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Waffles went up to $3.00 for a box of 12. I, also, noticed that it took more portions to get full. We were slowly buying more boxes to make it through the month.  This meant anywhere from $3.00- $15.00 each trip to the store on waffles.  (Nuts to that..)

I spent $20.00 on a Waffle iron and started making them from scratch. The waffles are bigger and hardier. I can control what goes into the batter.  It takes less waffles made from real ingredients to get us full. The iron makes a bigger waffle but we only eat about a fourth of it.  My hypothesis is – we were eatting more commercial waffles because companies were using filler and cheap ingredients so that people would consume more of their product and thus spend more. (…that is a criminal waste of my hard earned money.)

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I haven’t bought a commercial made waffle in two months now. It only costs me roughly .16 cents to make a large waffle.   I am actually taking the money I use to spend on waffles and stuffing it into my kid’s savings account. (…instead of in her tummy….)

Wage Theft- Stealing from Employees

Has your employer ever given you a task they said would only take one hour.. but in reality it took two hours?Then told you that you had to be clocked out by that first hour and refused to pay you for the second hour. That boss didn’t mind keeping you there off the clock until it was finished did he?

When I was young and naive several places did this to me. I was always told that my team would be finished at a certain time. The teams I worked with weren’t slouches and we worked diligently. Then when my paycheck came I noticed my work had not been paid for. I asked my supervisors and managers what was going on? The response…I was quietly taken somewhere and my manger would explain.. that is just how the game was played. “SSSSHHHHH… don’t say anything to anyone else.”
WHAT?!!!

As I got older, I avoided those jobs. If ever any of my friends told me that a job wasn’t paying them for their time, my application avoided that place completely.

This use to be a very rare thing. Most businesses were reputable and knew a hint of wage theft would mean losing their employees. Now the tables have turned and many employers have policies that actively make it possible to rip off employees.

During lunch, a former retail manager told me how some of the companies he worked for had experts, task managers, that were willing to testify against whistle blowers. The expert would get paid to say that the assigned task takes only less time than what the grieved employee is stating or even humanly possible…. and the employee rode the clock to get more money. Truth is unless the employee has actual acceptable proof that everyone was working hard and managers were willing to back up the employee.. the business has already stacked the deck in their favor.

It is wage theft. Sadly, it has become more acceptable and common place.

Jobs are Expensive Parasites

I know that businesses come with overhead .. but more and more jobs are multiplying expenses onto their employees.

The usual expenses for employees are transportation and clothing. If it is a unique skill set training also comes at a cost to the laborer.

As of late, I have noticed businesses making it a point to shove more costs onto the employee.
For example a few years ago, I was paid enough to recoup gas, clothing, food and shelter. As of late, people, that see my job as not worthy of a living wage, have taken away my benefits, made sure my hours decrease so that I no longer have insurance, and enough to meet my family’s basic needs. Normally, my job paid half the amount of the full timer’s position. Now I make less than half. For all the education, training and time invested, I have been devalued .. not because of the actual worth of my job, but because people don’t want to pay… people that won’t starve, won’t be on assistance, go without sheltered, won’t lose their medical care or even go without insurance.. have decided out of greed.. that more of my paycheck should go back into their wallets.

I was told that my pay was so low that I actually qualify for government assistance now. ..So basically, I would be paying taxes towards my own support instead of supplying money to local and federal services that provide protection, maintenance and etc.

When I worked two jobs to make ends meet, I actually heard a customer say to her son.. ” See get an education because you don’t want to be stuck doing these kinds of jobs.”
My response ” Ma’am, I have a master’s degree.”
She looked at me with wide eyes and left without another word. Education helps but circumstances can change in the blink of an eye. If it weren’t for the fact we had gone through this with former prez. Reagan and his policies that sent manufacturing jobs over seas.. I wouldn’t have known how to survive it this time.

This time feels worse because so many people are taking advantage of unemployed and the employed.
Not too long ago, employers were required to do the background check on applicants, now many employers are mandating (already broke employees) to foot the bill for fingerprinting and extensive background checks. Applicants do not have the benefit of going to a less expensive business for their background check, they have to go through companies that charge five to seven times more than the local police station for fingerprinting and background information.

Some companies that use to rely on office casual for dress code have found they can profit from employees buying their uniforms at triple the cost. Every year the unnecessary uniforms change and more profit is made from workers that can barely make ends meet. The clothing often is made not to be cool enough during the warm months and not warm enough during the winter. The companies then mandate that everyone has to buy their extra summer or winter attire if they want to survive working through blazing hot summers and frigid winters.

Companies that make employees pay for Id’s and code keys are also just plain evil. Little odds and ends like this do not cost much. In fact if you were to make your own cards , they wouldn’t cost more than a few bucks each. Just think companies that want to squeeze every ounce out of employees won’t hesitate to share the pain with their consumers.

The latest thing my coworkers and I noticed was our job started requiring we have cell phones. Funny thing is after everything we have been told we had to pay for now we were required to have cell phone service. Mentally, we were all throat punching our supervisor. The moment she left, my coworkers blurted out..
” Why?!…Why are we paying for something that the employer needs and is not paying for???”
“Seriously, the administrators want to be able to get in touch with us and don’t want to pay for the texting or minutes they intend to use?”
Aren’t these the same people who say they built their own companies from the ground up? Sounds like they subsidized their businesses from the ground up at the expense of employees.

We had just eliminated luxuries and cut back on necessities, some of us had to let go of homes, cars and services because employers were downgrading our pay and reducing hours. It was even awful hearing other people judging what we should keep and shouldn’t keep if they were “totally” in our “position”. I love how people always have answers for these situations. As I have said back then and it holds true now.. it is always easy to yack from the safety of a recliner at home than it is to be on the field soldiering in the midst of the actual battle.

Even my husband found out his job was taking advantage of his cell phone service and car. It was okay a few times but when they started asking me to haul equipment with my truck, started asking him technical questions and advice at all hours.. even he had to admit.. his employer was being a huge parasite. A few times we lost service because the companies had eaten through our monthly amount of minutes and data.

In conclusion, I don’t understand this need to lean on employees so much and not pay. For people that have embraced those ten pillars of selfish economics… they seem more on the take than about business. Business is more about providing a service/ creating a product for profit.. not just being a parasite on employees. As of late some of these businesses seem to be more about creating and perpetuating poverty.

MMMMM……..Houston Food Trucks!

I have a new love and it is with Food Trucks! I went to the Emanuel St. Food Truck Park and had a great time with my family.

This place was located on the back lot of a club in between a bunch of vacant buildings. Oddly enough the other vacant lots served as  extra parking space. We walked across the street to what I could only describe as Food Nirvana. The lot that contained the Food Court surroundings are decorated with urban decay and beautifully commissioned graffiti, framed by neglected streets and the 59 north freeway. The second lot, next to it,  contained a minibar serving alcohol and sodas,  benches and tent covered tables.

We had a great time. The people who showed up to dine were mostly mid-twenties to young thirties, a few families with young toddlers and a few elderly folks. The customers were friendly, not very loud ..like you would normally hear in a restaurant scene , casually dressed and the kids didn’t present a problem in this outdoor spacious environment.

The vintage rock music was good. .. and this is coming from a person that enjoys  R&B.  It was actually perfect nostalgia considering we were in an area that hadn’t seen urban renewal since the 80’s, LOL. 

 The type of food trucks that were available ranged from greasy spoon to very healthy.   Fried, steamed, raw, baked,  domestic, fusion and a small variety of  foreign to name a  few types of food could be found in the lot.  We ordered food from 4 trucks and one food car…yes,  there was even a food car.

We wanted to try a variety of foods and started with a Jerk chicken platter from “Binghi Man Jerk Chicken”

            

Our second dish came from ” Nom Mi Street”. We were given a sample of marinated beef and found ourselves 100%  hooked on the fries. I knew I could not handle the hot sauce so I asked for the special sauce instead. I am glad I did.. that was the best combination of meat, sauce, seasonings, onion and herbs served over fries that I have ever had!

          

For  dessert, my husband and daughter had mini pies. My husband loved the  silky smooth  pecan praline pie. He couldn’t stop telling me that I needed to try some. My daughter loved  her sweet potato pie. She loved it so much she didn’t offer a piece to me like she normally does. That’s how I know when it is truly good. Both of these pies were procured from “The Pie Man”.  I felt bad not buying from him.. but I promised next time I would. The Pie Man’s outfit is a must visit. His goodies are as sweet as his personality, easy on the pockets and worth more than he advertises. ( I highly  suggest tipping him extra!) He is also great with the little ones.. if you have iddy bitty sweet tooths coming with you.. his snack size desserts are perfect for  their little tummies.  🙂

          

..In my defense.. I had my eyes set on something I had been dying to try since the first time I heard of it as a child….Fried Oreo Cookies made by the appropriately named folks at “FoodGasm”.

( Now that is food lovin’ on a whole nutha level…)

      

  This was better than I could have ever imagined. These were made fresh and worth the few minutes of waiting.

The outside is funnel cake batter. The inside pure deliciously grease soaked fried Oreo cookie. All I could say was yum..yum .. yummy..and AAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! ( My first food gasm…MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm…)

Last but certainly not least was “The Raw Chef”.  She left before I could grab a snap shot.. but she delivers great healthy snacks for those that are food aware  and healthy conscious.  I love banana smoothies. Her smoothies included vegetable and fruit puree’. There was nothing else added and it was great. She even gave my daughter a sample of a no bake, all natural  macaroon. I don’t know what was in it.. but my daughter was energized after  eating it. ( Parents know the difference between uncontrollable sugar rush and being energized. A sugar rush concludes with a crash and irritability.. my daughter was playful and when the energy was gone she was still sensible. )

In addition to going to The Pie Man.. we are coming back with a bigger group of folks to try “Foreign Policy’s”  Bacon, Doughnut and Cheeseburger!!!! 

….So if you are ever in the downtown Houston area , Texas drop by the 1504 St. Emanuel, Houston, Texas 77003.  

https://www.facebook.com/HoustonFoodPark

Blue Berry Muffin Helpful Tips

I have been on a blueberry muffin kick as of late.  Baking muffins often tends to lead to some trials and errors.

Successful tips:

• I have used both canned and frozen berries.  When I want muffins to look gorgeous, I opt for frozen berries. Canned berries are great, but they are tiny and often coated in sauce that will stain your muffins purple. (if you don’t mind tiny berries and purple muffins go right ahead. )  😀
• Place frozen (preferred) or fresh clean berries in a bowl of Welch’s grape juice,  it will make the berries plump and taste sweeter.  I have not had any complaints about grape juice taste in the berry muffins.
• I have tried putting the berries in sugar & water. It doesn’t taste as good. The water makes the berries plump up, but the berries didn’t taste as sweet inside (shrugs).
• Most muffins need a half cup to 1 cup of berries per batch.  To heck with that!  I take a huge  handful of berries.  However, using more berries means going without cupcake liners. The more berries that come in contact with the liners the more the muffin will stick to the liners.
• If your batter is to thick or stiff, you can add a bit of milk or oil  until the batter is pudding consistency.  Sometimes, you can follow a recipe perfectly and humidity(or the lack of it) can effect your batter.  ( I live on the coast, I am learning humidity can decide which kind of deserts you can make during certain weather conditions.)
• I add the berries  into the batter last.  I like using frozen berries for a clean-looking muffin.
• Truth is I don’t use a timer on my muffins.  I have a tooth pick.. as the muffins start to turn blonde/ golden.. I start  poking the little buggers. .. if the tooth pick comes out clean .. they are ready. .. my husband likes them a little medium golden .. so for him they get a bit darker.

Got some tips .. post them in the comments and share what you have learned!

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Elementary Potty Problem; Immature Bladder

The first time it happened, nobody noticed. The student wore a long shirt.  The second time it happened, she was eating lunch. She said she didn’t feel it and it just happened.  The third time she had an accident on herself, I asked was everything okay? I, also, sent a note home to mom.  The fourth time, I met with mom and expressed concerns. Her child could not feel when she needed to go. At first mom was upset and chewed her daughter out.  But when this happened up to a ninth and tenth time, in spite of more trips to the restroom, I consulted the school nurse. The school nurse told me that she was okay and did not have any special requirements.

It wasn’t until  the student’s former teacher spoke with me about the little girl. She said every time the girl had a growth spurt, there were problems in the potty department.  The best explanation was that her bladder was developing at the same rate with the rest of her body. It was still small, didn’t have enough nerve reaction but would eventually catch up with the rest of her body soon enough. The problem would not be having enough potty breaks, but wearing pull-ups.

The nurse made the mom aware of the situation and to bring pull-ups.  In the following weeks, the student was not embarrassed about class or her pull-ups. Although she tried not to wet herself, the pull-ups did their job and as she grew she found she was not wetting anymore…thus the pull-ups were no longer necessary.

I know now that not everything will grow we are led to believe. This particular wetting problem is a more common problem than I knew. Unfortunately, in the first grade students  are on a restroom schedule and are forced to train their little bladders.  This is not helpful to children whose bladders are slowly developing.  Until, I learn of better ways to help prevent accidents, I have increased restroom breaks, removed the rugs from under the seats, and started asking for extra clothing from parents – for just in case emergencies.

Rethinking my American Dream

I use to dream of having a big house and a few acres. It all seemed so possible back in the 80’s. But as time went on my dreams began to diminish.. or change. By the new millennia, the dream had changed completely.  I had completed high school and went off to college.  I had out grown  the physical labor- service industry and was ready for a non-back breaking job.  In 2004, I took a job working in the schools. It was physically easier, mentally challenging and for once a  respectable position.  I had worked hard to secure the job, but the job was not working hard to secure its workers. The following year, my whole department was let go. We were considered expendable and the ancillary team was gone three days after New Year’s.  Some how my principal found a way to profit from grant monies and getting rid of her ancillary team helped her secure the funds.  Unfortunately, I thought this would be the job that I would be able to start the path towards a large house, land, starting my family and helping my parents with. The three other teachers that had been let go, also, had to let go of dreams they had put down payments on as well.  The Spanish teacher had gotten the money to finally buy her house back from her ex. and had bought a used vehicle. the P.E. teacher was using his funds to pay for school.  My own personal tale  was more of relief than disappointment. I had put money down on an extra spacious 3 bedroom /bath modular out in the country. It sat on 1 acre of property deeded for  horses and farm animals.  When the bad news came, I explained to the salespeople what happened and they gladly gave back our deposit.  At the time , I discovered I was pregnant. Despite our financial loss, the pregnancy was exciting and a light during that bleak time in our lives. .. and a game changer.  My little bundle of joy meant that somethings would have to happen such as in a change in priorities, views and more creative ways to carry out getting our needs met. Fast forward to the present, we are glad, even if we had the money, that we did not step into the big house and acre. The taxes in that neighborhood  are so high that they have pushed that area into a foreclosure cycle, the electric bills are climbing up every summer and winter, and lastly, the HOA’s seem more like ticket generating Nazi’s than empowered civic clubs.  The biggest problem was many of my peers have all saw the same thing with their job markets.. the jobs that you got in your youth and reach retirement in have all but disappeared. Trying to make a 30 year mortgage is waaay more risky than what it use to be. My parents were in their last year paying on their house when the economy started to show signs of distress.  They were blessed, their mortgage company was undergoing reorganization brought on by a merger and later buyout. The representatives were trying to do the best job possible and worked with them. they paid their house off just in time. The new company started foreclosing on homes as soon as the ink was dry on the mortgage company’s finalized sale. Many of our neighbors suffered losing their homes with only months left to go towards final ownership.  the new neighbors complain that their monthly notes are higher than expected and unsteady employment scares them. My I realized the reality that was the 60’s- 80’s was not so  in the new millennium.  Having a 2000 sqft home built on a large parcel of land was cost prohibitive under the old ways of acquisition.  In Texas, a 2000sqft  new or old home home ran from 30-80k before the year 2000. Now old homes in crime riddled areas in side the loop go for $300k and up!  While I do have an advance degree and will be able to claim a job that will afford me the mortgage on that.. I am not going to be a slave to a mortgage for the next 30 years. I’ll be 60 and too old to work if I try to do that.  I’d rather take that money invest in my business and put a smaller amount on a home and gradually create the home of my family’s dreams. After all the ups and downs we have been through…we have decided to downsize our first wants and review our needs.  When we first went house shopping, we wanted two living rooms, den, 2.5 bathrooms, country kitchen and dining room.  But after living in 1000 sqft abodes, we realized that cozy was more important to us than size, and that an added large  patio room/ yard was more of an answer to the activities our family likes to do.  Keeping the house small meant less electricity use and less to keep up.  We also wanted to add solar lights for outdoor lighting, pot belly stove for heating and composting toilets to ease our utility/water bills. Our families spent more money and had more stress trying to afford their homes that less time was spent raising / preparing their children for adulthood. I would like to squeeze more time in raising and preparing my family than stressing over trying to afford our cost of living.

We have joined the tiny home trend. It’s a tiny home with big potential.

Poverty of Culture – Inhumanely Devaluing Retail Jobs

This year, I had the pleasure of working a big anchor retail store in the mall.  My job description consisted of keeping the departments replenished and getting the store ready for the next business day. It sounds simple enough to do as a side job, right?

I have a new deep empathy when it comes to today’s retail workers. I use to work retail a long time ago. It was a respected service industry job that had the perks of deeply discounted purchases from the store in which you worked. Fast forward today and that has all changed.

My job started during “Back to School”. I was not shocked by the amount of refolding, re-shelving and rehanging I had to deal with.  What I was shocked and horrified with was how badly customers treated the people hired to help them with their purchases. Their customers that charge like bulls right up to customer service rep and start rattling off the items on their lists. As the customer service person is locating these items, the customer proceeds to throw clothing to the floor, discard hanging clothing to the floor and destroy displays. The children that come in with these shoppers proceed to follow in mommy and daddy’s example. I watched as teenagers came in groups and proceeded to topple towers of folded shirts, shove other customers, curse at each other because there was no personal accountability and break the arms off of clothing racks.  Everyday at closing, I usually had to find the clothing and missing limbs off of mannequins. Many of the workers didn’t understand why were the customers getting worse and worse every year.  “Perhaps, its because people were making the personal choice of devaluing the job of the associates.”  “Minimum wage now means minimum amount of respect if any at all.

I felt so bad for my coworkers, spending hours preparing tables filled with folded clothes only for an adult to come through and pull it apart. The customer didn’t look at the tags to see the sizes, they flipped through the clothing like it was a file of papers pulling each shirt out, looking at it and then throwing it over their shoulder or worse messing up other folded items when they threw that item aside.

My patience was truly tried in the days after “Tax – Free weekend”, but ultimately my dignity suffered the most.

I have no problem with re-shelving, refolding and fixing the store back to pristine conditions after the mobs of people have left. What I did have a problem with was how people had forgotten that these associates they were asking for help  were still human beings.

The worst things I had seen customers do, aside from rip up artfully created displays, was trash the associates like they were soulless  things. I watched customers make associates follow them around, hunt and seek out items and then yell at the associate for not being able to find what they were looking for.  Many times when customers come late the items they are looking for are out of stock.  I remember trying to explain to a multitude of customers this simple truth and getting cussed out. A mom forgot she had her kids and used rough language with out regard to any of the other people with kids near her.

The absolute worse was when a woman came in and harassed every department, leaving my section for last. She didn’t go to the young men, or any of the older women, she came up to me.  She took a gruff tone from the very beginning. She informed me that she was late (something that was in her control and not my fault), that she was trying to buy clothes for her kids and grand kids, and that she needed me to search for sizes that were not available in our department. I informed her that there were no more of those sizes  available and tried to redirect her to other items. She still wanted me to help her search. I helped her search and as we looked for these non existent items, she threw clothing across tables and onto the floor. I picked up the items and folded them to keep the table neat and to “try and look” just in case, “by some miracle” we came across the size.  To no avail did we find the sizes she was looking for and at this moment she turns and yells that I was not helping her. I responded in a quiet voice that I was helping her, I also had to keep the area tidy as I went. She was even more upset and said I was not making her a priority. I responded softly that she was my priority and I was helping her the best way that I was trained to do. She got infuriated, began to talk down to me like I was a slave, began throwing more clothes to the floor, and  screamed insults. I looked to my lead associate. He put his head down and continued working trying not to draw attention to himself. It was obvious he was not going to help.  I saw that she was trying to escalate a situation, so I calmly told her I think she needed to speak with a manager if she was unhappy with the present service. She yelled, ” Well You Do That!!! You Get A Manager HERE NOW!!” I walked to the cashier and had them to call the store manager to the front.  My supervisor told me the woman tried to find me after I  left. He said it was like she had second thoughts about her behavior.

I tried to return to the table three times, but by then I was so upset I left the area. I didn’t give that lady the satisfaction of knowing the results of how inhumanely she had treated me. When I returned a forth time to resume my area, three managers came to address the problem with the woman. She tried to convince the managers that I was disrespecting her and was only interested in folding clothes. The managers informed her that I was one of their good associates, that I was following policy and it didn’t seem like it was my nature to ever be rude to anyone.  My supervisor , who had been present at the situation, informed the managers the woman was trying to provoke an argument and that she had been very inhumane. He explained to them that the woman had been tearing up the tables on purpose and making unrealistic requests.

During my third attempt to try and work , the store managers came and talked to me, they had figured the woman was getting her jollies by terrorizing the more mild mannered workers in the store.  Apparently, she had caused eight workers to walk off from the job that day.  This particular woman had an insane habit of coming to the store yelling and fighting with employees. She gets the service agents so worked up that they will do anything to get rid of her…such as offer her discounts or take back her clothes for a full refund against company policy. Lately, her scams haven’t been working and so now she is even more demeaning, crass and aggressive towards employees. The managers didn’t want me to be the ninth to quit. I was given a 15 minute break to recuperate and then allowed to return to the floor.

Unfortunately, this woman was not banned from the store, but no one except a manager is allowed to deal with her.   Currently, the store is working with most of its customer associates gone.  while I am making more hours, I ,also, carry the burden of doing more work because of the absent workers. Our managers are trying to resist hardened aggressive customer service workers.. but if the store is going to continue to allow that kind of insanity, they will have to hire hard-hearted customer service associates that can deal with a increasingly growing gruff crowd of customers. …just like Wal-Mart.

In my opinion, it is not professional to allow customers to become nuisances for monetary gain or  for an insane sense of entertainment.  I am aware that there are some stores like K&G men’s fashion in Meyerland, Houston, Texas that use to call the police department to escort nuisances out. The police have started arresting people on the charge of creating a disturbance/ disturbing the peace because these folks would do nothing more than cause a scene to try and get something for free or discount.

It has been a long time since I have set foot in anything but the small stores at a strip mall. The brutish inhumane customers that venture into big mall spaces remind of why I don’t shop enclosed malls anymore.

 

Just Married – Cost of Living Increase

Just Married – Cost of Living Increase.