How I Worked (Continuation)
Socialization
One of the reasons for working somewhere was the desire to gain experience in communication in the country, adapt to the language, and try to understand people. However, working in the warehouse doesn’t provide much language skill. The thing is, there are people from different countries working in the warehouse: from Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Bosnia, and Indonesia. None of them spoke English particularly well, but by interacting with them, I realized one thing — you have to try to speak. Right or wrong, — just speak. My main difficulty in the conversation process is that I try to construct sentences correctly, as taught in textbooks, but it doesn’t come out quickly, so I’d rather stay silent.
While working in the store, I formed the opinion that Americans are very tolerant towards people who speak English poorly. Perhaps it’s because there are so many immigrants here, or maybe they simply don’t pay much attention out of politeness. At first, I was very scared when customers asked me questions, but then I began to understand that they were asking and pointing out where to find a certain item. If I really didn’t understand what they were asking, I apologized and said I didn’t understand. In response, I heard, “It’s okay,” they smiled kindly, and stopped questioning me.
Moreover, I was quite stressed by the weekly meetings on Mondays. It was something like a briefing. The store manager gathered us before the store opened after our 15-minute break. She announced some new changes and reminded us of behavioral norms: that when distributing clothes, we should greet every customer loudly while smiling. Before leaving, we had to check the areas in the store where thefts most often occurred. These areas were called the “top five”, and they changed every month. So she would quiz us on our knowledge of these areas every time.
And what’s the point of knowing these “top five” areas if, according to the rules, even if you see someone stealing, you cannot grab the person by the hand, check their bag, and accuse them of theft? Even the store manager cannot do that. Only a police officer can detain a thief. You just have to smile, greet, and show with your demeanor that you’re watching and seeing everything. The only comforting thing in this situation is that the store’s losses from theft do not affect the employees’ salaries. There was even a case when, while unpacking goods, one employee accidentally broke a glass from a set, and no one said anything to her; they simply sent the entire set to the defective items.
Time Tracking and Payment
As someone who had dealt with labor accounting and payroll for a long time, I really liked the process of tracking worked hours. Warehouse workers came to work at 5:15. In the break room, everyone has their own locker with a code lock. We left our belongings there and went to the register to clock in (you press the “Punch In” button and enter your number). After work, we retrieved our belongings and clocked out (you press the “Punch Out” button and enter your number). That’s it, the workday was recorded in your electronic time sheet. After that, you could walk around the store like a regular customer.
In the break room, there’s a computer where each employee logs in with their code and password to check their hours from the previous week and confirm their agreement with the data. In the electronic time sheet, the employee marks the days of the week they are available to work, and based on these markings, an automatic weekly schedule is generated for the employee. If an employee wants to take time off on certain days, they need to mark it in the electronic time sheet two weeks in advance. If there’s anything wrong with the data in your time sheet, you go to the manager, and they can correct the information, and the employee must confirm their agreement with the corrections made in the electronic time sheet.
…when distributing clothes, we should greet every customer loudly while smiling
Most employees are paid by the hour, while only management is salaried. Salaries are calculated by a third-party payroll organization, which immediately withholds taxes for the federal budget and state budget and generates a payment check or transfers the total amount to the employee’s bank account. Salaries for most people in the US are deposited on Fridays for the previous one or two weeks. Therefore, on Fridays, there are always a lot of customers in the store. On the day salaries are deposited, early on Friday morning, you turn on your phone, and you already receive a notification about the deposited salary.
A printout of the salary calculation for each employee comes to the store in an envelope, which is handed to the employee. No one knows the salary of their colleagues, and it’s not common to ask about salary amounts. In each state, there’s a minimum hourly wage. For Arizona, it’s currently $11 an hour. It can increase annually for each worker individually, depending on their work experience and position. Hourly wage increases sometimes amount to just a few cents. Converted into Russian money, it seems like a high rate, but that’s not the case at all. The cost of goods and services here is also high. For example, my glasses, including the optometrist visit, cost almost equal to one and a half months of my Russian pension.
Commutes to and from Work
As I mentioned earlier, almost all of America travels by personal transport. It’s rare to get to work by public transport. In the morning, Valya drove me to work. We got up at 4:15, got ready, and left around 5 o’clock. She would drop me off at the store, and then she would go to her job, which was 5 minutes away from mine. She worked with people in other time zones, so she always had something to do in the morning, and many in the office started work at such an early hour.
I worked part-time, and the end time of my shift depended heavily on the volume of incoming goods and the number of employees involved. Sometimes I worked less than four hours, and sometimes more. Then I would call Levy, and he would come to pick me up from work. He would take me home during his break and then return. The drive from his work to mine took about 12 minutes (if you go via the highway). But sometimes he couldn’t leave work immediately, and I had to wait longer. That was really hard, and I kept thinking about how long my children could withstand such a routine.
Resignation
The children had already started saying that it was time for me to quit this job. Moreover, Mark’s school year had come to an end. He was, of course, happily sitting at home and playing computer games until I arrived. Also, it had already become very hot, and when I came home from work, going out for a walk was unrealistic. The last reason for my resignation was that Valya found a new job in another part of town, and it had become very inconvenient for her to drive me.
At a family council, we decided that I should resign. I even felt a bit sorry to leave the job, but I understood that it was very difficult for the kids to maintain such a routine. The resignation process was also very interesting. I didn’t write any statement. Valya called my store manager and told her that I would be resigning, and the manager asked me to work for two more weeks since the vacation season had begun and many employees were absent. I could have left without notice, but I didn’t want to damage relationships, so I worked for another two weeks. On my last working day, I approached the store manager and asked what I should do. She wished me all the best and said that my paycheck could be picked up the following Friday. No paperwork. It turned out that she had already noted in the time sheet that I was resigning, and my schedule for the following week was not formed.
Now I am free. Mark and I go back to the pool or library in the mornings. Actually, we don’t go anymore; we ride our bikes. The bikes were bought a long time ago, but we were somehow hesitant to leave them near the pool. This year, renovations were made to the areas around the pool, and special bike racks were installed. The children bought us a lock, and now we attach both bikes to these racks and go swimming ourselves.
