Yesterday’s shift at Green Hell is good example of a bad day as a stocker.

Day started as it normally should on truck days. Awoke at 3:30 Antemeridian. I showered. Had a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter. Got my mp3 player/bluetooth speaker updated with a new tracklist, and made sure it was charged. Packed my silly green shirt, black apron, and box cutter, and off to work with James Darren blasting on the car stereo.

Arrived at Green Hell twenty minutes early. 4:40 Antemeridian. The early morning cleaners were making their rounds in the parking lot. I listened to more Jimmy Darren and looked up some vocal booth rigs on eBay. I can’t afford this stuff.

The assistant manager arrived ten minutes later. We got in, I put on my silly green shirt and apron and began to clean up the warehouse, preparing for the delivery truck to arrive, who is supposed to be there waiting, parked and ready for us as soon as we open up the warehouse door.

Well he wasn’t.

He arrived an hour and forty-five minutes late. In fact, he initially drove to the front of the store, not in the rear where the warehouse is. I went out and calmly pointed out where he was supposed to be, out came the excuses why he was late. I said not to worry about it, we’re already behind schedule, let’s just get this done.

My new schedule was supposed to start yesterday. I come in to help unload the delivery truck. When the truck is finished, I clock out for the rest of the day. Then I return in the evening to begin a late-night stocking shift through the early morning..

Unlike my night crew schedule back in California, this is essentially for 2 nights a week, as opposed to 4-5 nights. Another plus is that it keeps me away from that damned cash register, and I won’t have hordes of people asking me questions while I’m stocking. Bonus-I can play music while I’m working.

Anyway…

This truck driver being late ruined that whole schedule. Not only was he late. He had a hard time figuring out how to line up and park the truck properly. It took him some some fifteen minutes to do it. I was really starting to get really upset at the point and smoked a cigarette while I was watching this fool.

Eventually it was lined up, and we rigged the rollers and finally began by about half an hour before we usually finish unloading the truck.

To make matters worse, that driver was pretty slow to load, and he seemed to take many short breaks. I suppose he figures at this point, he knows he’s already in trouble-Knows he’ll be getting written up, possibly fired. Maybe he was beyond the point of giving a damn about his job. Whatever the reason is, we didn’t get finished until eleven o’clock.

At that point, I had basically two breaks to take and a lunch. All of which is mandatory. And in the end, I basically only had time to stock items for less than an hour, which means hardly anything got stocked.

The night shift was canceled that night because we’re only allotted so many hours. If my night shift parter/manager and I were to come back that night, we’d only have 2 hours. Ridiculous. So we both just finished a full day shift instead.

I truly hope we don’t get that driver again. Yes, he was new. I understand that. Unlike California, we often seem to get new drivers, and none of them are ever this late. There was the one who was an hour late because he had legit steering problems. Not like this clown that said he was falling asleep.

It only takes one…