Freewrite: March 04, 2011

I got a job yesterday! I'm so excited! I'm going to be an employee of SportClips. My title will be "coordinator/receptionist," but I'll do a lot more than that. I will check people in for their haircuts, check them out, dust shelves, stock shelves, sweep, vaccuum, do laundry, clean the equipment, and much more I'm sure! Bri was the one who told me I should apply because she already works there and I'm so glad I did. Instead of only working 10 hours at the most each week, I'm going to work 20 to 25 hours! The constant flow of money will be really nice considering I'm making hardly anything right now. The owner seems very sweet and caring and I'm glad for that. One thing she told me really stuck out. She said, "You will take something away from this job. In my 40 years in the workforce, I can honestly say I have learned something from every job I've had, and you will be able to say that, too. You will be able to use things you've learned here and apply it to college and just to life in general." I hadn't really thought about jobs like that before- and by that I mean the fact that they can teach you a lot more than you realize you are learning. From the pool, I learned how to be an employee. It was my first job, and hopefully I'll still work there this summer. I learned how to take charge and do things before I was asked. I learned that there are many, many personalities that you have to learn to deal with and sometimes that frustrates me. The Rec Center has taught me how to deal with people and make sure the customer is happy. Bass Pro didn't teach me a lot, but they did teach me what a good company is like.

WORD COUNT: 315

Freewrite: November 29, 2010

So, last Friday was Black Friday. I was recently hired by Bass Pro and one of the things that I had to do was work sometime that day. I chose to work in the morning so I could get the experience of crazy shoppers and seeing what it was all about. It was crazy. I guess there were people lined up around quarter to 5, and the store didn't even open until 6. I got there around 5:15 and got ready and got to my cashier station. It was kind of stressful because my supervisors and coworkers were kind of stressed, but it was fun trying to imagine what the day was going to be like. When the doors opened at 6, people came flying through the doors. People were running from either entrance trying to get to the things they wanted most. Around ten minutes went by and I had my first customer to ring up on my own. A lot of them had vouchers for items they would pick up later, but a lot of stuff was really cheap so people would fill carts and check out. The day was insane. It went by really quickly, too. I think my highest total was around $500... something I cannot imagine spending at a store like Bass Pro, but a lot of people did it. There were tons of really good deals. I got a few breaks, but they went by really quickly and didn't really give me a break. There were lines going out to the middle of the store and people trying to squeeze in everywhere else, so there wasn't really any room for anyone else. I had a few people ask me the locations of things in the store, and I felt really helpless because as a new employee, I really didn't know where anything was! It was awful. The day ended up being really fun, though, and I was exhausted at the end. I went home and took a nap! That was my first Black Friday experience :)

WORD COUNT: 342