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Those of us who work in retail will all share a loathing of certain situations. None of us are especially enthused to see customers the moment our doors open, but the ones that grind our gears (well, they certainly grind this meerkat’s gears) are the ones who show up shortly before closing time. In some cases it can’t be helped, and I genuinely understand that. There are occasions where you have to nip out due to an emergency, or some other unexpected circumstance. These cases usually apply to places like a pharmacy, or a supermarket. They may also apply to office supplies, car parts, and various other forms of retail. These situations are often as frustrating for the customer as they are the retail worker.

There are other occasions where the late arrival to the store is late purely because they are disorganised. They stroll in with five minutes left, amble around, show zero awareness that staff are getting to leave, and act surprised when told it’s closing time. Sometimes you can tell them that we’re due to shut in 15 minutes, and instead of taking that as an incentive to get what they need (or cut short their browsing time), they languidly drift through the store, blissfully unaware that every single member of staff is shooting daggers at them behind their backs.

This problem is even worse when it’s a showroom rather than a retail store. In a showroom, there’s nothing to buy there and then. In my current line of work, designing a bathroom is a process that takes a few days, or even a few weeks. Sometimes customers tweak their choices over a span of months. It’s not normally the sort of environment where people come in and make quick decisions. It is therefore immensely annoying when people wander in shortly before closing time, since the showroom is very much a destination store, and that means the late arrivals have made a conscious decision to be late. The opening hours of any given store are easy to find out, so their decision to arrive late is an informed one.

People, this is disrespectful. Those of us working in shops and showrooms are often not paid to stay late to deal with disorganised customers. I am on a salary, so any time spent dealing with customers after closing time is both unpaid, and also my time. I have a life outside of the showroom. I have a family to get home to. It’s incredibly aggravating to be stuck at work, ushering people who are absent-minded into leaving. If you plan to go shopping for sofas, bathrooms, kitchens, cars, or any other form of big-ticket item, look up the opening hours of the shop! In this day and age all of the information you need is available via a quick search on your phone! If you are not sure, there’s usually a contact number on the company website, so you can call and check. Think about the process of ordering something like a sofa or kitchen too. It’s not a five-minute job. Plan your time better, and it will go easier for everyone.

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I have worked in retail for 17 years, across different fields, and for companies both big and small. There is something I regard as consistent across the larger companies, and it’s a tendency for the powers that be at head offices to be come thoroughly disconnected from the stores and showrooms.

Now, it would be unfair of me to drop that charge at the feet of everyone who works in a head office. Indeed, I know people within the ranks of upper management and head offices who do understand the plights and problems faced at store level. Unfortunately, they are not usually the ones pulling the strings, and they are expected to follow instructions, just as much as everyone else. The result of all this is that staff in stores can feel somewhat isolated and ignored.

One of the biggest problems I had was at Staples. It was coming up to Christmas, and the store would close for Christmas Day, however on Christmas Eve, head office sent instructions down about dressing the stores up for Boxing Day, complete with loads of poster changes, endcap updates, and a whole load of other stuff. No one gave a single thought to how much work this would entail, nor the little detail that Christmas Eve is traditionally an opportunity for families to prepare for the big day. The powers who issued these instructions would not be the ones doing the work, and would get to clock off at a reasonable hour. No thought was taken in regards to the time of store staff.

This is sadly quite normal. Whilst the staff in showrooms and shops are effectively on the front-lines, serving customers, making the company money, and often the first port of call for complaints and issues, we can often feel among the most under-valued parts of the team (some companies also tend to look down upon their delivery teams, despite all of their hard work too). People who either haven’t worked in showrooms for years, or have never worked in showrooms, make decisions about displays and point of sale without ever pausing to think about individual store circumstances. It can be an uphill struggle to have our voices heard.

To an extent, it is what it is. The system isn’t going to willingly change, and those who sit at the top will rarely take the time to truly, properly think about what it’s like lower down the ladder. What would be ideal is for the people from head offices – especially those who occupy the roles of directors – to do a month in a showroom, dealing with all the things that make up the regular tasks we have to do, as well as tackling the numerous directions they push onto us. Then, and only then, might the powers that be realise precisely how disconnected they are.

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Hmm. I don’t know if technology has changed my job to any significant degree since I’ve been doing it. When I first got into bathroom design back in 2015, I used a very specific set of design tools, and nearly nine years on from that first experience, I am using the exact same software. Being at a different company means different order build software, but this is not, in my view, having a measurable impact on how I do my job. Now, had I started out in bathroom design as a fresh-faced meerkat, I might have found a lot of matters would be done by hand, as opposed to fancy software. This would draw out (heh) the entire process of designing a bathroom, and to do it justice, a great deal of care and time would be needed.

That’s not to say that care and time are not needed now. It’s just the computer can help interpret certain elements, and provide a sheen and polish to other elements.

If we take my other ‘job’ as an author, this has not changed much for me, because I haven’t been published long enough for there to have been an impact. In some respects, going back as far as my fan-fiction writing days, not a lot has changed with how I write for a couple of decades. I still use Microsoft Word, which is fundamentally the same as it ever was.

Technology can certainly change jobs, for better or worse. I did not experience it, but when I worked in sofa sales, I heard of how orders used to all be hand-written. Every code, for size, configuration, colour and extras, was all written down. In my time there, it was all done via tablet PCs, which certainly made life a lot easier! When I worked for my local Magistrate’s Court, everything was recorded onto a database, but there would have been a time when all the records would have been exclusively paper based. I’d argue technology changes have changed these jobs for the better. On the other hand, the rise of the internet and the convenience of shopping from home has had a negative impact on retail. It’s an improvement in the eye of the consumer, but not the retail worker. I guess, as with a lot of things, it’s down to the eye of the beholder.

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Remember remember the 5th of November… because the future of the world may be shaped by the Presidential Election taking place! Welcome to the Meerkat Muse!

Fireworks

photo of fireworks display
Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com

The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Night, when Britain traditionally marks the attempt by Guy Fawkes and his band to blow up Parliament. Had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded, it would have killed King James I, and a host of political representatives, but historians believe it would have also been far worse for Catholics in the long run. It would have certainly altered the course of British history!

Yesterday, the course of global history hinged upon how the US electorate would respond to weeks of campaigning from Vice President Kamala Harris, of the Democrats, and Republican challenger, former president Donald Trump. I have at various points made my opinions plain on how I would vote, if I could, but as a Briton, I have no power to directly influence the outcome. All I could do is offer my thoughts, and then wait and see.

The Case of the Incomplete Name

A few weeks back, I ordered a Linkin Park jacket for my wife. This is quite an amazing jacket, and it features a lovely tribute to the late Chester Bennington. Well, it should have. For some curious reason, the company that sold the jacket sold it incomplete, with Chester Bennington becoming ‘Chester Benning’. I emailed the company that sold it, and after a day they replied. Their response did not thrill me.

Upon reviewing your order, it appears that we have sent the correct item as per your request, so we cannot consider this an error on our part.

However, we want to ensure your satisfaction and are prepared to offer three options:

1. Issue a refund for these shirts (shipping not included) – £18

2. Send you a discount valued at £18

3. Resend you new item. 

If you opt for option 3, please confirm the size, type, or color of the replacement item. We wanted to inform you that there is an additional shipping fee of £10. All other costs will be covered by us.

I am struggling to see how sending a jacket with the wrong name is not an error on the part of the supplier. Had I been putting together a personalised jacket and misspelled something, or omitted part of a name, that would be entirely on me. In this instance, the company producing the jacket has made a fundamental mistake. I don’t see how I should have to pay out more money, under any circumstances, in this situation.

To add insult to injury, I received another email, where they thanked me for my business, and offered me a promo code! I have no intention of going back to them, and at the time of receiving this email I was ready to leave a review on Trust Pilot, to see if this might prompt them to be reasonable. To give them their due, they did come back with an acknowledgement of their error, though they wanted £10 towards ‘fees’. My suggestion was that I would wait to receive the correctly-spelled jacket before sending more cash their way.

Angry with Rage

In the sales game, there is the concept of ‘honour among salespeople’. When you do a quote for a customer, that quote ensures – or should ensure – that the order is yours, no matter what else happens. If that customer goes to another store, it does not matter. They should convert the quote to an order, rather than create a new order. If you have already created an order, there should be absolutely no room for doubt. That order is yours. With that in mind, it was quite galling to learn that another showroom effectively poached an order from me, in precisely those circumstances. I wouldn’t necessarily go as far as to say I am actually seething, but I am certainly annoyed!

You see, we work on an honour system, so to speak. In the past, my colleagues and I have given up potential orders at our store, since we knew there were quotes from elsewhere on the system. We have been honest, and yet it seems a few of the other local stores are not prepared to play with honour. What makes this worse is that since the company pays commission on orders, this act is effectively taking money from my pocket. One could even go as far as to consider it theft! Unfortunately it seems that some of the other nearby stores are not interested in acting with integrity, and so it raises questions. Will I be inclined to help, or even consider helping, those other stores?

Things are already sketchy on that score. Between being short-staffed and also screwed over by another local branch, the mood at my showroom is that we should not waste our time assisting other stores. We’ve collectively tried to hold ourselves to a good standard of engagement with our colleagues from elsewhere, and with a few exceptions, it seems this has been pointless.

It is better to not retaliate in anger, so however I might stew in the short-term, it is best to consider how to respond. It may even be worth taking the high ground here, showing that where we are, we hold ourselves to a code of conduct.

Last-Minute Changes

Keeping with the theme of work, sometimes customers can drive you absolutely mad. Waiting until virtually the final moment to sort out an order is as frustrating and chaotic as it gets! I understand that circumstances can intervene, and make life awkward for everyone, but breakdowns in communication between third-parties has led to frantic work for me, which is never, under any conditions, something I appreciate or enjoy!

The somewhat difficult nature of alternating between sheer boredom, and hectic stress, is starting to get to me. Work is not delivering a happy medium between these two states, and I wonder if it ever will again.

The Schism Takes Shape

A few days ago my publisher sent me the first round of edits for the sequel to The Awakening. There’s a lot of work ahead of me, but this also means I’m another step closer to publishing The Schism! What I need to do now is make the time to sit down, and go through the edits. There’s a part that dreads this process, but it’s a necessary one, and it will be worthwhile at the end. It’s also rather exciting!

Missing Shoes

Time for some random dream moments again, because no Meerkat Muse is complete without them. Firstly, I was dreaming I was on holiday somewhere, and I’d gone for some sort of walk or wander. On the way back (seemingly from a beach, but I’m not sure), I reached my hotel room, and suddenly I could not find my shoes, for love or for money. This was annoying, because I’d had them recently, and I needed them!

The next dream was altogether more interesting, because it invoked something I love: sweets!

As a cub, I recall going to a local newsagents after school, and armed with little more than 50p, I could get quite a few so-called penny sweets. These would include chocolate-coated peanuts, cola bottles, strawberry strings, and a whole lot more. In my dream, I wound up with the opportunity to get something like 28 sweets for a pound, and in my clever wisdom, I picked up packets of sweets from the shelves. They only count as one, right?! I had a little tub, which I stacked as much as I could, being keen to indulge my sweet tooth. Alas, I woke up before I could eat any!

The Quest for Calm

In a bid to soothe my turbulent mind, I have taken to watching videos on Buddhist meditation. I don’t know if they’re actually doing much good, though they certainly carry a gentle, relaxing sound. The hope is to switch off more easily. My brain tends to race at a mile a minute, even when I’m trying to sleep. I’ve often felt like I have to battle my own head, and this is but one more way that I have to do so. Any method that offers a gentle, calming influence is one I am open to.

Back Links

In a rather random moment, one of the sites to steer people in the direction of Meerkat Musings was Backlinktool.org. I don’t generally pay too much interest to where people find my website (maybe a mistake on my part), but whenever something comes up that’s outside of the ordinary, it piques my interest. Near as I can tell, this sort of site will tell you where you will find a link to your site. I can imagine this sort of service – which like most, has free or paid options – would come in handy for people who are actively marketing goods or services. I don’t know how or why it’s come to serve as a referrer to Meerkat Musings, since I didn’t know this existed! Clearly someone else has taken an interest in discovering how people can find Meerkat Musings, for reasons only they understand.

A Debt of Gratitude

I had a couple of days off last week (regular days, not emergencies or anything like that!), but they coincided with my manager being away on holiday. What with there being only two of us, this meant someone covered from another showroom, and let me tell you, they did a fantastic job. Sometimes an outside perspective can wash away what you don’t see, since I dare say all of us have a tendency to be a bit robotic with our routines and procedures. My immediate feeling is to reward this guy somehow, perhaps an offering of wine? After all, wine usually goes down well!

Card Tricks

Time for another whacky nocturnal adventure. I don’t remember much of this dream, only a sequence which involved two people using a pack of playing cards as forms of weaponry. No, nothing like Gambit from the X-Men, more… I don’t even know. The higher the card, the more physical damage it could inflict when played against an opponent, and it made sense that people would want to control more of the deck as a result.

Come the end of the dream, a team of special forces rescued the heroine of the dream, though by then she had vanquished her foe, and had been rendered quite exhausted from the effort. I wish I had any sort of context for this! Prior to this, I had another dream where I was at a small airport, which even had small planes. It was the most unusually tiny airport I have ever seen, but instead of flying out of there, I ended up on a bus into London. I only realised I was in London when I saw the London Underground logo.

This whacky adventure was swiftly followed by something to do with Scrooge McDuck having some kind of laser fight whilst flying above the snow, and a dream about Christmas (shudder!).

Halloween!

October’s final bow was of course the spooky season of Halloween! My daughter went trick-or-treating as Sonic the Hedgehog, and I accompanied her as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Leonardo. To be more accurate, I was a Disgruntled Middle-aged Mutant Turtle. Maybe it was just me, but it didn’t seem there were as many trick-or-treaters as in past years, though my daughter managed to collect a reasonable haul of sweets.

A Touch of Revenge?

Revenge might be too strong a word, but given how a couple of other nearby showrooms have been looking down upon us, it was quite nice to take a bit of a bite back the other weekend. This stemmed from someone quoting (or misquoting, as the case may be) customers, who checked prices online to discover our company has a sale on, a sale one of my colleagues allegedly declined to mention, nor appropriately price for. The customers also felt this colleague was quite rude in their manner, and made it clear to me they would either deal with my store, or not deal with the company at all. At the time of writing this, I have no idea what the fallout from any of this will be, but it may serve as a pointed reminder that arrogance and conceit can backfire.

Slightly Stressful Sundays

Lone-trading at a weekend serves up regular reminders that it’s a far-from-ideal set of circumstances. I had to more or less let two sets of customers go, as I was serving someone and therefore couldn’t help them. All I can do is explain I’m on my own, but that doesn’t stop them from loitering, or looking at you as if to say ‘hurry up’, as though I should hurry up the customer who is committed to spending money. The steady stream of customers in and out of the showroom at the weekend also interferes with lunch, and I have to consider when to use the facilities, because it will be Sod’s Law that people come in whilst I’m in the loo.

Motorbike Madness

As I brought my daughter home from school on Monday, we walked through the town centre. It should go without saying that the town centre is a pedestrian-only area, so why is it that at least one idiot decided to ride his motorbike up and down? He wasn’t going especially slowly either, and it would have taken only one absent-minded person wearing headphones, or a small child racing out of a shop, to put the rider off, and possibly into something, or someone.

There is a degree of common sense missing here. What sort of fool rides at speed on a motorbike in a busy pedestrian area? Surely they cannot be that ignorant as to how dangerous their actions are? Mind you, my daughter and I might have missed this completely, had the buses been running. Instead, the buses were conspicuous in their absence, and this isn’t the first time services have vanished into the ether. I swear public services decay over time.

The End Has Come

At the very beginning of this Muse, I mentioned that it goes live the day after the pivotal US Presidential Election. Right now, as I type, it’s the night before the big day. It is therefore the night before Guy Fawkes Night, an occasion that marks a treasonous, violent plot. I cannot help but note a certain poetic nature to all this as well. The UK held a General Election on the 4th of July, which is famously the USA’s Independence Day. Now, the USA will go to the polls on a day famous in the UK. Whilst we are dazzled by literal fireworks (well, assuming the weather is kind), the USA and the world will be dazzled by the political fireworks, and either way, it’s likely half the nation will be fuming and dismayed at the outcome.

Then again, considering how chaotic US elections can be, there isn’t any certainty that we’ll know the outcome yet. It could be days before a result is announced. There may be disputes over the results. The whole thing could get extremely messy. All we can do is watch this space.

So, with that, it is time to draw this Muse to a close, and wonder with baited breath as to who gets into The White House! Take care everyone, love to you all.

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Here we are. This is the first Muse of the new Meerkat Musings, so it’s all exciting and fresh and new! At least, I hope it is! Let’s dive right in.

Closing a Chapter

No, I am not about to upend Meerkat Musings again, so soon after doing it! I am referring to the final end of a big chunk of my working life. You see, I once worked for my local Staples store. I was there for seven and a half years, made several life-long friends in that building, and literally gave blood, sweat and tears to the place. Some of the very first blog posts on the original Meerkat Musings were about my days in that store, and some of those posts were even – rather cheekily – written there. I left in 2015, having been left rather disgruntled with the company, but I remained in touch with several colleagues – as I do to this day – and my journeys would sometimes take me to the vicinity of the store.

Staples quit the UK at the end of 2016, and the building became occupied by a firm called Office Outlet, which took on most of the staff, and retained largely the same store layout. Considering the challenges faced by many retailers of their nature, Office Outlet did well to survive as long as they did, but they vanished in the middle of 2019. The subletting tenant also left, though I don’t know exactly when, but I do know the building has been vacant for years.

Back during my time there, there was discussion of the local council buying the land, and the store relocating. The plan was to built flats on the site, and now this process has finally begun (no doubt made considerably easier by virtue of no pesky tenants!). The result of this is that the building I laboured in for seven years is no more, and that is a rather surreal, faintly sad sight.

This was the site a few weeks ago.
This is what remained a week or so later.

It makes me think of how now, that store exists solely in memories. There will come a time when no one will remember what it looked like. No one will recall the shelves, the tills, the warehouse or the office. It will all fade away, save for a few precious photos here and there. Eventually, those photos will come to hold only a peripheral meaning. It’s all a bit strange, and a part of me is thinking I should try and rope together the old band, and give the place a sort of farewell.

A New Chapter

I have some cause for celebration! Why you might ask? I have been promoted. Well, sort of…

I am now an ‘acting’ assistant manager where I work. Since there are only currently two of us, this could be considered a slightly pointless gesture, however I am certainly not going to complain. After all, I can place this on a CV (minus the ‘acting’ part), and this could come in handy during a job search. It is also nice to be recognised, considering I have put in nearly five years with my employer.

This promotion comes at a point where there will be a lot of lone-trading going on. It’s particularly useful to have a code to process refunds, since I’ve normally had to call up other stores to do so on my behalf, or had to inform the customer to come back another day (which, as you can imagine, usually goes down like a lead balloon). It also means a little bit more money, which can never be a bad thing.

I certainly earned my money the other Sunday, when I was – you guessed it – lone trading! This proved to be a busy day, somewhat more so than I had anticipated, and at times this was growing annoying. Customers kept bringing in these annoying little creatures, who were noisy and irritating. Still, several of them spent money with me, which I cannot argue about! It was nice to do a bit of business, and for all the potential doom and gloom surrounding my particular store, the day demonstrated that we can still take in the dough.

The Wet Stuff

Last Monday was quite simply horrendous in terms of weather. Not only was it cold, but it rained, so constantly and so hard that you’d be forgiven for thinking God was flooding the world again. Such were the thick layers of cloud that it remained dark and gloomy, well into the day. The rain pattered off my workplace, creating a non-stop cacophony. In the past this has led to nearby underpasses – underpasses that I regularly use – flooding. Would this be the case again?!

The Curious Case of the Good Thieves

In my current line of work, theft is generally rare. It is hard to walk out of the store carrying a toilet or a vanity unit under one’s arm! That said, it is not impossible to make off with a waste cover, or overflow ring, and on some mercifully rare occasions these have gone missing. I noticed a basin waste cover and a bath waste cover had both gone missing the other day, and reported it to the manager, who set about figuring out to order replacements. A few days later, I was upstairs changing point of sale, and noticed another missing bath waste cover. From there, my manager and I noticed something else: someone had returned the two originally missing covers.

It seems the thief or thieves decided they didn’t want chrome wastes, because the ones they returned were chrome, and the one they took was white. This is most peculiar, and all I can sort of say is… thank you? It’s not often you get considerate thieves!

Cutting the Crap

I’ve made a decision, a potentially bad one, but one I feel had to be made anyway. I have deactivated my Twitter account, and deleted my TikTok account. I fear I was poisoning my mind and soul with these avenues, and damaging my attention span as well. I have often struggled with concentration and focus (dyspraxia will do that to you), so why inflict further wounds upon myself? I might have blocked myself off from a means of book advertising, but if I am constantly distracted, I won’t be focused on writing! It’s a bold decision, one that I had to make, and all I can do now is see how it plays out.

The other big issue is that Twitter will soon alter the block function, meaning that previously blocked users will be able to see my tweets again. Considering some of the rather unstable people I’ve blocked in the past, I can’t say I’m too thrilled at them seeing my tweets once again.

Hot and Cold

Last Wednesday, something odd happened. The sun came out, and it got pretty warm! This unusual seasonal warmth continued into Thursday, though woven in-between was a thunderstorm with heavy rain. It seems we are truly into a strange autumn cycle. Still, it was nice for the weather to be vaguely pleasant for a bit.

Bothersome Beds

My wife ordered a new bed for our daughter earlier in October, under the expectation it would be delivered at the start of November. Out of the blue she had a message advising it was to be delivered… the next day! What’s worse is that it was due between 8am and 12pm, and when does the school run happen? Between 8am and 9am. With this in mind, we asked if there was any chance of rearranging for the following day, when I was off work. The response? Crickets. Silence.

Then, on Thursday morning, shortly after 6am, there is a knock at the door, and lo and behold, the bed was there! I guess the delivery team decided it was easier to be earlier. In fairness, everyone was already up (my alarm is set for 6am every morning), but it was still a bit disconcerting.

Next up was the assembly of the new bed. To be fair this wasn’t overly difficult, but there were no instructions of any kind. This meant we struggled to figure out the headboard! On Friday my parents came down with a new desk for my daughter, and a new chair, so my dad and I sorted the headboard, and assembled the desk and chair. This was a fairly lengthy process, and a tiring one! I had certainly earned my sleep come Friday night.

Latent Misogyny

Certain things should not be a part of 21st Century society, yet they have persisted. Last Thursday, whilst I was at work, I took a call from my manager, who is friends with one of the women working next door. She asked me to pop round there, because her friend had messaged her to say she was alone with a creepy guy. With keys in hand, potentially poised to use as a weapon, and with phone ready to call the police, I nipped into the showroom. The young lady there was having a conversation with an older man, who after a few minutes left the shop.

It transpires that he had started asking her questions that he had no business asking. ‘Are you married? Do you have kids? What time is your lunch break? When do you finish work?’ This guy was a fair bit older than she was, she was merely doing her job, and yet this man felt he could ask questions not at all relating to what the store sold or offered. This type of personal questioning (to say nothing of the questions around the timing of things like lunch) can be deeply unsettling when put forward in such an environment.

It speaks to a sense of entitlement. What right did this man have to ask these questions of her? None, yet he did so anyway. He believed he could ask these searching, probing questions, quite possibly in the hopes of pursuing something that was never appropriate to pursue. The presence of a woman in the workplace is not an invitation to pry into her personal life, nor to learn her schedule. I am reminded of a recent Meerkat Prompt post I wrote along these lines, which feels all the more relevant.

Gammons Fume

A few days ago, the Football Association of England announced Thomas Tuchel will become the national side’s next permanent manager. Tuchel brings with him an established record for winning trophies at club level, across several major European leagues, including the Premier League. It is said that he can be a bit prickly with his players, but on the other hand he has proven he can motivate his teams to win games and major honours, so perhaps we can let that slide! Despite all of his accomplishments, there is a small crowd who are questioning why the FA have appointed him as England’s manager. You see, Thomas Tuchel is not English. He is German.

This has led to some hand-wringing from the gammon brigade. The hard-line Brexiteers are up in arms, and one in particular, Nigel Farage, is venting on social media:

It is ironic that Farage wishes for the England manager role to be filled by an Englishman, when he once had a German wife! Surely the best choice to lead the national team to success is someone with a proven record of this, and right now, there are no good English options to fit that particular bill. I am utterly cynical when it comes to football in general, and England in particular (I don’t think God could win trophies with England), but what is wrong with appointing the right person to the job, even if they’re not English?!

Stressful Slumbers

The other night a dream came to me that initially involved designing a bathroom. What sticks out about this is that the customer’s name was some incredibly long, hard to spell name, and that the computer system kept crashing on me. Over the course of the dream, the setting shifted to my Staples days, and the store rapidly got very busy, with both myself and colleagues frantically trying to serve everyone, and deal with all the stress. Meanwhile this customer was still trying to do whatever it was they wanted to do, and in the end, after much fuss, they were able to… print off the t-shirts they had designed.

My current employer certainly doesn’t offer t-shirt printing, and from memory, Staples didn’t either! It was a very random direction for the dream’s final act, but also very typical of my mind’s nocturnal adventures.

As a case in point, I had another dream which combined elements of sci-fi shows with a creepy, dangerous, mind-invading/eating octopus-like-creature. The crew of the ship it was on had trapped it in a forcefield, but it was threatening to escape and cause chaos. As with most of my dreams, I have very little context for this!

I wish I could explain what inspired this!

It gets even better. What does a smelting plant and a Chinese takeaway service have in common? I am willing to wager very little, so why did I dream I was working a job where I had to melt down rocks and metals, and after that do a shift, for the same company, signing people up to a takeaway service?! After that, I dreamt I broke my parents’ toilet! My subconscious mind is clearly a churning, seething mass of strange.

The Formatting Issue

It hasn’t taken me very long before introducing a new theme to Meerkat Musings! I had managed to format everything how I liked, except for two pages, and try as I might, I could not figure out how to make these two pages work as I wanted! The solution is a soft reset, and new theme, and now everything is consistent!

More Work Woe

Ours is a small showroom, especially when compared to other branches. We don’t have acres of spare for new products, and yet we are expected to take on lots of new tiles in the immediate future. The company doesn’t factor in the circumstances of individual stores when making decisions, and this is a problem affecting not only us, but bigger stores as well. There is finite space for products, especially large tiles, and combined with long stints of lone-trading, this is sure to add to my stress levels.

There isn’t anything to be done about this. My boss consulted the regional manager and asked if we could be exempt, and the answer was a flat no. Corporate choices, made in an office by people without true experience of our showroom floors, never tend to benefit the showrooms, an experience I went through at Staples.

So, there we have it, the first Meerkat Muse of the new Meerkat Musings! What shall the next two weeks bring for this meerkat?

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Time for another revived post, and one inspired by my pal Bruce Gerencser. I had once written a post that delved into discussions of modesty and lust, and two years later, these topics remain pertinent. A recent discussion over at Insanity Bytes highlighted – for me at least – how there are some… let’s just say unusual takes out there. The original post that Bruce referred to has been deleted, but thanks to the Wayback Machine it can still be found. For the moment though, let’s consider this subject in more general terms.

Modesty

To be modest in the sense of this post, I am speaking of how people dress. A number of cultures – inspired by religion – place directives and instructions on people – usually women – as to how they should dress. The idea is that people – again usually women – should cover up their bodies as much as possible in most circumstances, so as not to tempt others – usually men – into sin.

What with the concept of modesty going back millennia, and being deeply ingrained on both the Christian and Islamic worlds, conventional cultural norms have told us that women are responsible for whether or not men treat them in inappropriate or even harmful, dangerous ways. It has been commonplace for judges and juries in rape cases to ask ‘what was the victim wearing?’ This should be considered entirely irrelevant, but sadly it is still something that some judges and juries are swayed by when convicting and sentencing rapists.

Through this concept comes a wider approach as well. ‘What was the victim wearing’ becomes ‘was she flirting? Was she doing something to lead her accuser on?’ These sorts of questions seek to shift the fundamental responsibility for sexual violence onto women. Society as a whole is starting to challenge this perception, but it is more of a glacial process than it should be.

There is another problem with this approach. It assumes that men are base creatures, incapable of rational thought in the presence of a woman who is even remotely showing skin. This provides another layer of an excuse to men, but is also demeaning to men as well. Apparently we are helpless slaves to our impulses, destined to force ourselves upon women who have the audacity to dress in something that hints at their skin and shape. What a great way to absolve ourselves of responsibility, and make ourselves seem hopeless at the same time.

Lust

Lust is a perfectly natural, normal feeling to experience. We all go through our adolescent years, and we all experience natural biological changes and urges. None of us are compelled to act upon them, and most of us have enough of a brain between our ears that we can control what goes on between our legs. When we are young (and indeed when we are older) we may desire sex, but this does not mean we are entitled to it, irrespective of whether we are lusting after it or not. It is up to us to control ourselves, and to not assume that just because someone is dressed in a way we consider provocative, it is an invitation for advances, or worse, outright permission to touch and grope.

Exploitation

One of the themes of Insanity Byte’s recent post was around the relationship between Democrat presidential candidate (and current Vice-President) Kamala Harris, and Willie Brown, a so-called kingmaker within Democrat circles. Back in 1994, he and Ms Harris had a relationship. There might have been genuine affection, or it might have been a case of Ms Harris being taken in by someone said to be flamboyant and charismatic. Either way, this relationship has been seized upon in certain conservative circles as inappropriate, and there has been a suggestion that Ms Harris basically ‘slept her way upwards’.

Given the general reality of the world, particularly some 30 years ago, and indeed throughout human history, and also given Mr Brown’s apparent womanising tendencies, it seems to me it’s more likely that Ms Harris was swept up with the suggestion and promise of political influence, if she got into a relationship with him. It is even still possible it was a genuine romance, that happened to coincidentally be between someone positioned to help another’s career. If we dismiss the latter, it means the former situation is one of exploitation.

It should not be a part of the world that women have to use sex in any way shape or form to reach their goals. Unfortunately it still happens, and it is entirely plausible that Ms Harris was victim of a system that treats sex as a form of currency. It is a lot rarer that men feel the need to use sex for their career advancement.

What can be Done?

It certainly seems as though Tom of Citizen Tom hints at sexual segregation as a means to solve the problems associated with sexual exchanges of power. He cites his military experience in the comments at Insanity Bytes, and cites the differences between genders, as a reason why women should not serve in combat units. Leaving aside his specific example (and leaving aside how women have historically proven themselves as competent fighters), Tom seems to lean on defined gender roles and ‘tradition’. Perhaps he views the Harris/Brown situation as a symptom of what happens when women and men work in close proximity? Maybe he thinks it is inevitable that there will be ‘encounters’ when men and women work closely, with men being led astray by the tantalising possibility of bedding a colleague? Is it possible Tom believes that men are so clouded with lustful thoughts, that they would suggest the opportunity of career advancement for sexual privileges?

Tom would have to answer those questions for himself, and to give him his due he goes on to say he does not favour the idea of generally segregating the sexes, but in the course of our conversation he did not offer up solutions to the problem of exploitation; he offered only criticism over apportioning blame, when in fact, it is merely reality that tells us men are more likely to exploit women. With that in mind, why would anyone consider removing women from the working environment? If it is primarily men who lack impulse control and good judgement, why should women be moved aside, or forced back into the stereotypical roles that many religious conservatives believe is their solemn duty?

Of course, sweeping monolithic punishments would hardly befit the real world. People are individuals, and should never be reduced to stereotypes of gender, or otherwise. It is also obviously very impractical to remove all men or all women from the working world; I doubt national economies would handle such a measure very well! The question is how to introduce or improve methods that relate to sexual misconduct in the workplace.

The bottom line would be to make sure that actions have consequences, at every level of a business or institution. Women often don’t report harassment or abuse out of fear. Their jobs, reputations and perhaps even lives can and do get placed at risk if they speak out. If they speak out, they are often implied to be homewreckers, or harlots trying to damage a man’s reputation for their own gain. Whilst some in conservative circles would argue that women lie, it is worth noting that men lie too, and women can tell the truth and not be believed, because even in the 21st Century, a man’s word means more.

‘What of celebrities cancelled over misconduct? What of woke culture and Me Too damaging man’s reputation?’

What of it? Despite the high publicity of these cases, there are countless other occasions where men stay in power, despite allegations and accusations. Look at Donald Trump. There are numerous allegations concerning his inappropriate behaviours towards women, including accusations of rape. He has been recording saying he can grope and touch women without their consent, simply because he is a star. He has admitted entering the dressing rooms of beauty pageants unannounced, catching women in various states of undress. Despite these behaviours, Trump was once elected President, which seems to prove, rather conclusively, that cancel culture is not the all-encompassing force conservatives often claim. Instead of facing consequences for his behaviour and statements, Trump got away with them. It is ironic that he is fronted by many conservatives as a beacon for their goals, when he does not respect the idea of modesty, clearly lacks self-control where lust is concerned, and exploited the young women at these pageants.

I have digressed. What can we do about this sort of thing?

Well, for one, I do not agree that a man – or anyone else for that matter – should be automatically punished on the basis of another’s word alone. Businesses – and the law – have due processes and these should be respected. That said, I do not believe we should automatically cast doubt on the victim either. We should be working towards a work where women – and also male victims of sexual abuse – feel they can come forward, without judgement or preconditions. We should not be asking ‘what were you wearing?’ We should not imply, in any way, that the victim is at all responsible for the actions of their abuser, attacker or manipulator. When we are, as a society, prepared to judge the facts and not the victim, we may find that justice is more readily attainable.

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In an earlier post, I recalled an experience with a man who grew quite grumpy, because we could not magically get his laptop repaired quicker than he would like. He was annoying, but he pales in comparison to this next ‘man’.

I actually call into question whether or not this person was a man, or a child. His behaviour certainly was not grown up! He effectively threw a temper tantrum, and here’s why.

One of the things we would sometimes do at Staples is sell off display laptops, if that model was discontinued. Display models would be discounted by 10 percent, and we would reset them back to factory settings. In our warehouse we kept the packaging, so we would reset the machine, give it a little clean, box it up and give it to the customer. Straight-forward, right? Well, in this case, the customer had come in one evening, the deal was struck, and one of my colleagues set up the factory reset, intending that it would run overnight. Unfortunately, the store’s power went off overnight, meaning the reset had to be restarted in the morning. No big deal right? Factory resets do not usually take too long, so went everyone arrived to work the following morning, the reset was restarted, and we left the laptop to do its thing.

Whilst this was going on, the customer came in. He was advised by a colleague that it would be a few minutes, and at this news, he blew up. He went off on a tirade, verballing abusing my colleague, myself, and the company at large. I wasn’t even angry that he was stomping his feet like a toddler, I was merely staggered that a grown man could behave in such a manner, in the middle of store, surrounded by strangers.

I offered to give him his money back, and since he carried with his furious tirade, I then advised him he could seek a refund via head office, as I was not prepared to deal with him whilst he was in such an irrational state. He left in a huff, though he would return later on, after I had gone home, along with his wife, would proved the more reasonable of the duo. He eventually collected his laptop and was on his way.

Was there ever a cause to scream and shout, over a slight delay with receiving a laptop? Is there ever generally a good reason to stamp one’s feet and abuse store staff? I would argue that this is never appropriate, and I am not inclined to assist people who behave in such a manner.

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Time for another tale of retail woe, only this one doesn’t go in the anticipated direction. It is not uncommon for price tickets in stores to be wrong. Imagine a wad of price tickets, a line of products that is several metres long, and then beyond that, several more rows of products! Where I currently work this is not so much of a problem, but in other locations price changes would serve as an absolute ball ache. What would make them even worse is that they would often require printing out, which would take time, and there was always the possibility a page or two would get missed.

What would usually happen is that a customer would bring an item to the till, and together we’d discover it was higher in price than advertised. Cue removing the incorrect ticket, price-matching the till to the ticket (as was company policy), and making a note to replace the ticket. On one occasion, I wound up flabbergasted by a customer’s issue with the price…

He was an older gentleman, and all I can presume is that he was in a bad mood, and looking for an excuse to be difficult. I scanned an item (I forget what it was, possibly some sort of folder), and he asked me to accompany him to the bay he’d scooped it from. The price on the ticket was higher than the price on the till. You would think this was good news (who doesn’t like the pleasant surprise of a lower price?), but the grumpy git proceeded to complain that the staff were not doing their jobs properly. He was genuinely annoyed that a bunch of human beings working for something approximating minimum wage, in a store that lurched between unbearably hot and freezing cold, whilst dealing with customer enquiries whilst having to change thousands of prices, had missed one.

I was tempted to offer to raise the price to match the ticket, but I suspect this smartass response would have triggered a complaint!

The moral of this story ‘kats? Try to have some understanding. Those of us who work in retail are not machines. We are human beings, subject to all the flaws, whims and stresses that brings. Having price changes to do does not mean we have no other tasks. Customers have to be served. Stock needs to be put out. There’s all sorts of other stuff going on. You will not find a shop that can boast perfection, and it is not a reasonable expectation.

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When Meerkat Musings began back in 2014, I was working for Staples. We sold office supplies, and this included laptops and PCs. As with most forms of electronics, laptops can be delicate, and unfortunately they break down from time to time. I have personally had laptops die on me, completely at random, so I appreciate how annoying this problem can be. In some cases, laptops can last years, and in other cases, they might fail within the first year. If that happens, the manufacturer’s warranty applies in most circumstances.

This is pertinent, believe me. Some people mistakenly believe that the retailer is responsible for replacing a defective laptop. It isn’t. There are some cases where if the laptop suffers a hardware problem within the first 30 days (at least, I think it’s 30 days), the store will agree to replace the product. Under the terms of the manufacturer’s warranty, replacing the product is never usually the first option, and instead the laptop has to go off to them for repairs. I can understand that this is frustrating to customers, but this is also the standard process for most electronic products, and it has been for many years. After all, the manufacturers are not going to merely give someone a new laptop, that would come at a considerable cost to them!

One such customer was quite disgruntled at this entire process, and he kept letting us know it. He had brought his laptop into the store due to a hardware fault (at least, I think it was a hardware fault), and thus began the process of arranging it to go back for repairs. There was a misunderstanding as to the timescale of this process, possibly brought on by a language barrier, but the gist is that he believed the laptop would be back from repair a lot more quickly, despite no assurances from us as to how long this would take. My colleagues and I had to put up with several snarky visits, despite informing this guy we would contact him when his laptop was back from repair. He simply refused to accept that the store, and indeed Staples, was not responsible for fixing or replacing the laptop. Mind you, he ultimately had no choice but to accept this, because with the laptop in the hands of the manufacturer there was nothing we could do at store level to affect anything.

What people need to understand is that with repairs, warranties etc, there is a procedure that at store level we cannot bypass, and cannot accelerate. When it comes to electrical goods, the staff in stores are not responsible in any way shape or form for the speed of repairing faulty items. They cannot snap their fingers and magic up a new microwave, vacuum cleaner, TV or phone. Yes it is irritating, and at times downright inconvenient to be without any given product, but there is absolutely nothing that store staff can do beyond processing the repair per the guidelines they are given. To do otherwise is to potentially put their jobs at risk. Whinging and complaining will not move a manufacturer to work quicker, and will not encourage a retailer to issue freebies. I wish more people would keep this in mind.

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