#greenwalls

🌿🌱🌾🍁🍂

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately about unskilled labor, usually directed at retail/food service workers, garbage people, caretakers, and just people who don’t work an office job in general. 

I’m not here to rant about that. Rather, I’m going to make a list. I work at GreenWalls (written that way so, oh yeah, I don’t potentially get fired for writing about it, which is a fucking thing that can happen now - thanks, corporations), mainly behind the photo counter. This is the list of things that I can do now that I didn’t know how to do before starting the job: 

1. Change receipt tape (you think it’s easy until you fucking rip the paper in half four times)

2. Make a photo book, complete with custom cover, in a heated press. And make it not crooked, pages firmly glued in. 

3. Change printer paper, ink ribbons, and repair minor mechanical errors in the photo printers. Most of my managers can’t even do this

4. Do pretty much anything on the register that doesn’t require a manager - returns, discounts, price adjustments, price checks, quantity adjustments, rewards card lookups, etc.

5. Operate and unload a baler (which requires moving and lifting crushed boxes that can, at times, weigh more than 150 pounds)

6. Recite policies and procedures regarding money orders and Western Union, including procedures on fraud and money laundering

7. Order shipments of low stock (again, seems easy - until you wind up with thirty cases of tomato soup and no cans of stewed tomatoes)

8. Make a wide array of photo items, including: print books, wood panels, posters, magnets, calendars, floating picture frames, canvases, metal prints, peel-n-stick photos, ornaments, business cards, holiday cards, etc. Again, most of these my managers can’t even do

9. How to adjust ANY photo to look good/non pixelated at almost any given size, no matter the quality of the photo or the size of the print (with a few exceptions, obviously)

10. Count money quickly, efficiently, and without hesitation, faster than most people who work in the bank down the street, so that people don’t have a chance to grab it and run. 

11. Deal with irate and upset customers and figure out the solution to their problems without escalating the situation, including armed robbers.

12. Memorize dozens of sales on both photo products and in-store products so that I can offer customers better deals (when they deserve it)

13. Properly and efficiently close the store, count drawers, and clean the front end in less than thirty minutes so I don’t get in trouble for overtime

14. Work 8-10 hours completely on my feet with only a collected 45 minutes worth of break time while not complaining, dealing with knee problems, and then doing the same thing the next day, all while customers who have been sitting all day whine about how tired they are (ironically, the customers who ALSO work retail or food service never gripe and complain to me about how exhausted they are after their equally long shifts)

You know, I’m sure there’s more, but I’m fucking tired lol. Feel free to add your own job qualifications under this. 

If you can do more than like, five of these things, congrats! You work or have worked in retail/C.S hell! If you’re still sneering at “unpaid labor,” come find me. I’ll let you in the photo lab on a major holiday and check on you in thirty minutes.