praise? in Bittersweet

So my boss asked how i worked with my manager yesterday. I said well. I told her i had not been as comfortable with the manager as i have been with others in the store. But i think we are figuring it out. She said good because im not going anywhere.

Which is praise yes. Because i AM good at my job when they let me do it. When they let me stock and organize things im good with people. Im ok at cash handeling. But im good when they let me loose. I had multiple deparments praising the work i was doing. Because hey, mom skills…

What kinda gets me, is that we get minimum wage. And when you get a good worker you want to hang onto them right. But the company is a stepping stone company, they dont pay much better then minimum even for higher ups. Which means the company dosent really value good workers. I can do this work anywhere. Hell target pays 3 dollars over minimum. But the workers are good. the employees are good. If i got a good job offer somewhere where i wasnt on my feet and could do something im good at, i would probably take it. Other people working there have, and no one really faults them. Although the one manager overheard that one of the other moms is applying for internships for her degree and got upset because shes a really good employee who busts her ass. They dont want to loose the good ones, because then they have kids that fuck around and no one to keep them in line. But they dont want to pay us better either.

And literally they expect the full time employees to keep the kids in our department in line and on tast. I spent the morning explaining to the part time girl who started two months before me! Get that TWO MONTHS before me, how to do stock and soda and gloves. None of the other full timers had taught her. She said they just leave her to cash and do carts. Well what the heck. I love my projects. But i can give her some to do too. I explained about the date book where we keep track of expiration dates. We opened product, tracked their dates in our calender, stocked shelves. I showed her to match UPC codes so the product goes in the right place. Made spaces for things. No one bothered to teach her this stuff why? Because she was 17 when she started. Shes 18 now. She asked me if i thought she could carry a pocket knife. I told her why not, I do, A few other cashiers do. Use scissors or use a knife. It frustrates me when my main manager is telling my direct manager to teach me the shit to control and lead the front end, but she dosent do much. Then acts like how did you know to do that? Because main manager showed and told me months ago. And if you had been paying more attention you would know ive been doing this stuff since Christmas. I even stock on my closing shifts. If we have enough people. I stay busy as i can. We had another cart of stuff come out when i was leaving. So they had more to put away.

Im sure its nothing new. Its probably all the same old things for all retailers… It just is what it is. Ill keep on keeping on. t least its fun to be around most of my co workers.