#that means introducing myself to my coworkers from various departments

[daydreamerspeaksout]

Day 3: The Witch

Let me tell you the story of the worst experience I had with a manager who was just miserable every single day of her life.

A Bit of Background:

I started working my very first job in 2014 at BJ's Wholesale Club, I will not mention the club number or the location for privacy reasons. Let's just say that it's still pretty newish since it's been there for 7 years. Moving on...

So I have had a lot of managers move through here and have experienced bad and good managers. But the witch topped them all. I met this woman about 3 years, almost 4 years ago [had I stayed there but I didn't]. When a new manager comes in, you expect an introduction from them and expect a nice meet and greet. Yeah, this woman was never shown how to do that or she just didn't care to introduce herself. My first time meeting her, she started off on the wrong foot because she thought I wasn't doing my job. I was in the liquor store part of our club and it was almost holiday season. So we had shelves being set up to sell gift sets of various liquors that we sell. My coworker told me to not worry about trying to put the bottles/boxes up, he still had no clue of the lay out. I was like cool, no problem I won't touch anything.

So when the witch was doing her walk through to see the club and "meet" the employees, she popped in here and already was making demands. "Why is this not up? Why are you behind the counter and not fixing this up?" She proceeded to fix the only gift set we had there which was Jack Daniel's with a 2 Liter Coke bottle. I was gonna tell her what my coworker had told me but she just kept rambling on about how I should be setting this up. I never did set it up, to be honest because the layout was still being discussed.

My first impression of this woman, she thinks she owns the place and she never formally introduced herself to me or any one for that matter. I didn't find out her name until about two weeks later when I spoke with coworkers. They all had the same thought and I'm sure the other managers had those same thoughts as well but they had to put a mask on to hide their true feelings.

The Witch:

Most likely around my age may be just a bit older than me, so mid 30s. She is second in command so when the GM is gone, she becomes the temporary GM. Personality: bitchy and miserable and she can suck the life of you at work. Married to a nice man, don't know how he puts up with her and her attitude. When she smiles it's fake because when she walks away the smile automatically disappears. She knows no happiness and she has no clue what that means.

My Worst Experience Ever:

I wore many hats at BJ's and worked in almost all the positions they had there. This job position I was in felt more like a punishment and if you end up there, you are bored out of your mind. The job title: Front Door Loss Prevention, basically two people at the front door of the store, one to check the receipts and one to greet the customers. I hated that job with a passion because my feet would hurt badly, I would be bored most of the time, just standing there sometimes waiting for the time to go by. Time went by really really slowly.... like a turtle, a sloth, just pure agony for me. This particular day I was stuck with a lady who worked in the clothing department but she was placed to close at the front door with me. She had some training but at least I could talk to her whenever it wasn't busy.

She had told me about a regular customer that comes in almost every day with her daughter in a wheel chair and her reusable bags where she places her groceries in. She told me of an incident that occurred about a week ago with this customer. Apparently she stuffed some deli meats in her purse and the deli lady had seen it. The deli lady told this to her (the clothing lady) and told her that she needed to check the purse which was a command that I believe the witch had said to tell the clothing lady. She was at the door for some reason probably covering a break or what not, she told me that she had to check the purse and there it was deli meats that were not paid for. The customer claims that she had forgotten she stuffed them there and tried to pass it off as not a big deal. In the end, they let her go but whenever she would come they would check all of her bags including the purse.

So this customer tries to avoid this by coming in close to when the store would close. I was the one who had to check it that night because the clothing lady would not do it again. I was placed in an uncomfortable position, something I didn't want to do. All EYES were on me because believe it or not, the witch was there and so was the HR lady. I had to force myself to do it, in a polite way too. This, of course, offended the customer and caused her to ask me "who is the manager?" I answered the witch's name. The customer wanted to know the witch's name she even nodded her head in that spot where the witch was standing at. This did not go well for all the parties involved especially for me because when I left that night I felt like I was the one who was at fault, when I truly wasn't.

All hell broke loose when I left to do the walk around of the store which is part of the closing time routine. When I came back I was interrogated because of what I said and what I mentioned. Number one I was instructed and told that I needed to check her purse and yes I had mentioned that to the lady because I didn't want to lie. Again I was uncomfortable and nervous to do something that is against my nature. The Witch said that I should've pointed at the sign by the door that we check all bags and lunchboxes. It doesn't mention purses, besides isn't it illegal to check someone's purse? Number two I said the manager's name which she wanted to know and according to the witch I should've said the GM name. The GM never works at night time and the manager she was curious about was the witch who was the closing manager. Number three the customer did try to twist my words and thankfully I had a supervisor who defended me on that. The HR lady took my side at least and because of how I am, why would I put my job on the line for a stupid customer. I had this back and forth with the witch trying to make her see that I did not like the situation I was in and she needed to man up and take the responsibility that you commanded an employee to that act.

Her words to me "You shouldn't have said my name and I am not a manager....." I am sorry but you wear a manager tag and walk around like you rule the world. Now when this situation has happened you should've put your big girl pants and take it. A manager is suppose to have their employees back plus this customer wasn't stupid. She has seen you walking around the store and at the front talking to cashiers and taking care of the line at self checkout. Don't be an idiot and try to blame an employee for this. I almost wanted to tell her so why are you a managers? Why wear the tag? I wanted to leave there quickly so I didn't stay to argue and prove my point with this woman. The HR lady tried to defuse the problem and tried to make her see that I did things by the book, at least. One thing the HR lady saw was I was close to tears when I was punching out. I didn't want to break down in front that woman, the witch. She didn't deserve the tears or to see them. Honest to God, I almost quit that night.

I sped walk so fast to my car and didn't look back. When I got in my car, the tears just came out.... I just let it all out and I know that this lady didn't deserve them but the amount of frustration I had that night. The fact that it was the worst day ever.... it's seared in my mind. I had never felt that bad for something that wasn't my fault. For being putting on the spot over checking a purse. For the witch practically believing and almost taking the side of the accused customer. For feeling like I did things wrong all the time with this woman. I had a long conversation on the phone with my boyfriend, he just let me let it all out basically. I told him everything about the night and how it all went down. I drove home with tears coming down nonstop and just cried angrily while talking about it. It showed me some people in this world are just miserable and enjoy spreading it.

I didn't quit. I waited... Timing is everything for me.

I bid my time and waited for a better opportunity. A better option. It's like God sent it to me when I needed it the most. Amazon is a breeze compared to what I went through at BJ's Wholesale Club. I have a feeling that a lot of the managers there thought I would be back but nope, 3 almost 4 months strong at Amazon.

The take away from this story.... Don't let someone like that get to you and wait for the perfect time to leave. IF I had quit that night, I would probably have been jobless for a good couple of months. I won't have been able to buy a car (twice, that's another story) or even have saved up money to travel places. Yeah.. may be... eventually... I would have ended up at Amazon but still trying make ends meet. So timing is everything too. How I managed to stay there and continue on... the witch left to deal with some family stuff. So they sent a lady to temporarily replace her. So when it came time to give my two weeks notice I was able to give them to a nice person. They thanked me for my years of working there.... the witch would probably not have said anything.

Good riddance to her.... Yeah this scarred me for a bit, I have healed and moved on. You guessed it, I did get emotional thinking about it but that's just who I am. With that I leave you with "What's the Big Idea?"

[hearttenor7-blog]

The Woman Giving Homeless Women Hope in Downtown Los Angeles

GOOD SAMARITAN

Making the world a better place is no easy feat, and those who devote their time and hearts to helping others often do it with very little fanfare. That’s why at goop we want to feature the remarkable people who are doing remarkable things—in their communities, in society, and for the greater good.

About twenty round tables fill the day center at the Downtown Women’s Center. Women sit around eating, talking, listening. It is, in other words, a normal afternoon at this center where hundreds come and go daily, stopping in to have a hot meal, take a shower, maybe change clothes. They come here to find respite from Skid Row.

The Downtown Women’s Center is a day center, a health clinic, a supportive housing facility, and an educational and training enterprise in downtown Los Angeles. Founded in 1978 by Jill Halverson, the center provides care and empowerment for female-identifying people experiencing homelessness. Halverson, an outreach worker, started the foundation after becoming friends with Rosa, a longtime resident of the streets of Los Angeles.

Women make up almost one third of Los Angeles’s homeless, about 16,000 of the 53,000 homeless population according to a 2018 count conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. (The LAHSA conducts annual counts; the 2019 numbers are expected in June.) The overall 2018 count took a dip from the previous year—a 4 percent decrease—but there was a 35 percent increase last year in the number of women on Skid Row, says Erika Hartman, MA, LMFT, the chief program officer at the Downtown Women’s Center. “And we have seen an increasing number of women accessing services at the center this year.”

Hartman is incredibly kind and measured. As we walk through the center’s upstairs offices with her, coworkers smile, and when she gets on the elevator, residents of the permanent supportive housing facility always greet her with an enthusiastic “Heyyyy!”

“A lot of the barriers of funding, staffing, and actually supporting individuals experiencing homelessness are misperceptions,” says Hartman, who leads a team of over seventy employees and oversees the DWC’s various departments, including permanent supportive housing, health and wellness, workforce development, community-based housing, and evaluation. So often people are quick to make misguided judgments about the homeless, she says. They think all people are on the streets because of drugs or mental illness when those are more often results of homelessness than the cause. Mental health issues affect between 13 to 30 percent of the homeless population. “And with women who are using substances, most reported that they started using after they became homeless, to stay awake at night to be safe, to cope with trauma,” says Hartman. (Research shows that the biggest driver of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing, followed by unemployment or underemployment. And the main cause of people filing for bankruptcy and losing financial stability is medical bills.)

That sort of misjudgment has directed Hartman’s career. A licensed marriage and family therapist, she started her work at a methadone clinic. She heard story after story about how people fell into homelessness and why they started using drugs. The stories were haunting, unexpected, and common. Hartman gives the example of someone who fell off their bike and didn’t have insurance to pay for a visit to the doctor to get pain medication. That’s how heroin came into the picture. “What chance did this person have?” she asks. That humanized the issue for her. She went to work in gang intervention, then in child welfare. She saw the systems fail so many people. There were “pretty solid pipelines to homelessness,” she says. “When I would hear someone making misguided comments, I would feel myself getting defensive: You don’t know that person’s story. I started to see that this is my responsibility. This is everyone’s responsibility.”

Hartman says the onus is on all of us to see and treat homeless people for what they are: people. “It’s very strange how it’s somehow acceptable to not talk to people who are experiencing homelessness,” Hartman says. “It’s somehow acceptable to not treat them as human,” and that does not motivate people looking to better their lives. It perpetuates the problem. It also strengthens disproportionalities between communities, whether it be because of race, sexual orientation, income, or something else. “You think of people who may have been treated differently at some point and how that’s contributed to their homelessness,” she says, explaining that their homelessness causes a continuation of their mistreatment. So how do you stop the cycle? Basic interaction helps. Having a conversation or even making eye contact can make someone feel valuable, deserving, worthy of pursuing a better life.

Volunteering also helps. The DWC’s pool of 5,000 volunteers touches upon nearly aspect of the center. People come and serve meals at the day center. They translate documents and host mock interviews for the job-readiness programs. Or they host enrichment activities, work in the specialized veterans’ program, or restock the libraries. The DWC has many umbrella departments to offer women support and the means to get back on their feet. Because people become homeless for so many different reasons, “you need different approaches to work with all these different populations,” says Hartman.

That wide scope also means that the staff is incredibly flexible. Hartman describes employees as needing an all-hands-on-deck mentality. “The work is hard enough that the people who don’t have the heart for it don’t stick around,” she says. “We’re in the trenches together. It’s a different level of commitment to come to work every day on Skid Row.”

The women who come here are survivors. Their stories and experiences are often unfathomable. But they are still incredibly vibrant, says Hartman, who introduced us to Dotti. Before coming to the DWC, Dotti was homeless for five years, moving from from shelter to shelter” with her two children. She was a successful hairdresser. But a drastic change in her employment, as well as issues with her daughter’s father, set her down a hard path—and that “is when the pain began,” Dotti tells us. Her children went into foster care. Dotti found shelter and eventually permanent supportive housing at the DWC. She credits her case managers for helping her find hope. “I have contact with my kids now,” Dotti says, getting emotional. “My daughter wants to be a nurse. And my son, he’s doing so good. It gets better.”

Dotti has lunch with the other women in the day center, many of whom are just beginning the cycle of homelessness. “A lot of them have had a lot of loss,” she says. She wants to help them, to give them guidance and let them know that they’re not alone. She wants them to know they’re worthy.

Which brings us back to the dining tables. They’re circular for a reason, Hartman says. This setup encourages community, a feeling that you’re having a meal with your friends. It goes back to what Hartman says about destigmatizing notions about homelessness: Whether or not a woman has a home doesn’t matter. Everyone is equal. What are unequal are the paths that brought them here. That is why the DWC has, for decades, helped so many women. Women “who know how to find a silver lining in anything,” as Hartman says.

To learn more about the Downtown Women’s Center and ways to volunteer and donate, visit downtownwomenscenter.org

Source: https://goop.com/work/civics/downtown-womens-shelter-los-angeles/

[nwbeerguide]

Think of it as your remote desert island mixtape but consumable. Dogfish Head introduces It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It.

Press Release

Milton, Del. ...The brewers at Dogfish Head solved the age old question all craft beer fans ponder, “If you were castaway on a remote desert island and allowed to bring only one beer to enjoy in blissful solitude, what beer would and should you drink?” Meet It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It, a Dogfish exclusive made from a complex mix of nutrient-packed superfoods resulting in the ultimate and definitive survival beer.  Deep purple and hazy in color, It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It is a Belgian-style fruit ale, chock full of essential amino acids, micronutrients and vitamins. 

According to independent, third party lab data, Dogfish Head found that It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It contains more than 8 times the amount of Vitamin B Complex than one of America’s best-selling light lagers, including over 90% of the daily recommended serving of folic acid.  “Myself and six other coworkers from various departments at Dogfish set out to brew the most survivalist-oriented beer Dogfish has ever made and packed it with a bunch of delicious culinary ingredients resulting in a ton of goodness in the form of essential vitamins and amino acids,” says Sam Calagione, founder and CEO of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. “We’re also pretty pumped that a super-unique, nutrient-rich ‘survivor’ beer was born out of a brew day amongst friends originating from one of my favorite conversation starter questions- ‘what’s your desert island beer’?”

To make this off-centered ale, Dogfish blended an intensely fruity mixture of blueberries, acai and goji berries along with an assortment of ingredients including purple sweet potatoes, rose hips, chia seed, flax seed, spelt, oats and quinoa.  While It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It is nutrient-rich, Calagione says, “We are not making any health claims in association with this beer.  We are merely sharing our brewing process and the culinary ingredients we chose for the recipe that are rich in alluring aromas and flavors.”  Slightly tart and subtly sweet with jammy blueberry, cranberry and cherry flavors, this medium-bodied beer clocks in at 9% ABV and is a critical off-centered ale to include in your survival bunker. 

This first of its kind beer release will be available beginning January 27 at 11am as a ultra-limited (and super special) bottle release at the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (6 Cannery Village, Milton, Del. 302-684-1000).  A true survivalist kit, It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It is hand-packaged in a 750ml bottle and includes all the essential necessities needed to potentially outlast the apocalypse (beer included, obviously).  You’ll find a limited-edition Dogfish branded Swiss army knife tied to the neck of the bottle which will aid in opening your beer bottle or whittling a fishing spear to capture a conch for dinner. The bottle itself comes snuggly wrapped in a big’ol solar blanket you can use to protect your beer (we mean body) from changes in the weather. Lastly, you’ll find a length of paracord securing the blanket to the bottle which can come in handy if you need to make a tourniquet or if you accidently drop your survival beer in quicksand and need to quickly jump in to heroically retrieve it. Safety first. Beer recovery second (or maybe it’s the other way around). Priced at $45, only 200 packages of the once in a lifetime (probably) It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It kit will be available for purchase, so be sure to get yours. (Only two packages available per person, folks!) It will also be on tap at the Milton brewery while supplies last.   For more information about It’s The End of the Wort As We Know It and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery visit dogfish.com

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Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head has proudly been focused on brewing beers with culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened as the smallest American craft brewery 22 years ago. Dogfish Head has grown into a top-20 craft brewery and has won numerous awards throughout the years including Wine Enthusiast’s 2015 Brewery of the Year and the James Beard Foundation Award for 2017 Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional.    It is a 250+ coworker company based in Delaware with Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, an off-centered brewpub and distillery, Chesapeake & Maine, a geographically enamored seafood restaurant, Dogfish Inn, a beer-themed inn on the harbor and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a production brewery and distillery featuring a tasting room and food truck.  Dogfish Head supports the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, the definitive icon for American craft breweries to identify themselves to be independently-owned and carries the torch of transparency, brewing innovation and the freedom of choice originally forged by brewing community pioneers.  Dogfish Head currently sells beer in 38 states and Washington D.C. and will expand into additional states in 2018. For more information, visit www.dogfish.com, Facebook: @dogfishheadbeer, Twitter: @dogfishbeer, and Instagram: dogfishhead. 

from News - The Northwest Beer Guide http://bit.ly/2AL7Fsq