I've only recently turned fulltime at Kino and had just been assigned my own section this week. It's great to have your own section. It gives me something to focus on and I no longer feel homeless per se. It has also been quite an adjustment and although I've known this fact before, I've never actually realize it before. The fact is - parttimers and fulltimers live in completely different but parallel worlds!
Let me put it into perspective because most people are only in one and not the other. Only precious few have been in both and stayed long enough to tell the tale.
When I was a part-timer, my job description goes something like "to be the extra hands and legs of the fulltimers". On the ground it means my first priority of the day is to display. Sometimes you do wrapping, serve customers and other physical work. So during briefing time, you explained how many trolleys you cleared, how many you sent in, what sections you displayed, what section you couldn't display etc etc. It's important for everyone to hear because you display every category and their respective retail execs need to know. In addition to your chief who needs to be updated on what you did. Repeat process the next day.
As a part-timer I had a vague idea of the kind of paperwork the fulltimers do. Most of the time they are simple enough, and most of the time I think they spend waaay too much time than they need to with them. I am not wrong in this :P. I especially hate it when there are 3 fulltimers and I was the only parrtimer on duty because they don't do display or any of the physical shit and I would be the only doing display and later on, packing shelf. It is fucking annoying to have 3 'bosses' all telling you to do different things. Even more so when they are all telling you to do the same things. By then I'd just roll my eyes and snap back. I've always had my suspicions of people pretending to be busier than they really are so they can avoid drudge work (I know who you are :P). But as a lowly mindless slave, it is not your place to comment on them. Most of the time, their tardiness do not affect you. Most of the time.
Fulltimers' main focus is their section and their merchandise. Eventually they are expected to know everything that their merchandiser knows like ordering, warehousing, negotiating etc. And surprise, surprise, they are expected to know how to teach parttimers to be able to do their display so they can spend more time in the counter doing ordering and shit. Of course this doesn't mean you don't go to the shelf at all. It just means you have more free time thinking about how to improve your sales than doing mindless things other people are hired for.
Before I had a section, I was a homeless nomad. I already mastered the skills of a super part-timer which included some of the skills of a fulltimer. I have a strong basic and was taught the advanced things quite quickly compared to the other newbies who came with me. But because my 'teachers' were often distracted I could barely learn much at first. That was the weekend after all. Therefore in between, not allowed to display, I just stayed at the counter serving customers until I am sent out to pack shelf. It's funny how much freedom I have in my own section and how other 'people' can't easily order me around anymore. And the things they order me around for, I can see now that some of those things they are supposed to be doing anyway but couldn't mostly due to poor time management. Nobody told these people how we are supposed to work fast and efficiently around here?
Briefing time was different too, for me. Anything I had to share usually only things that effect me, my section and people who do display there. Nothing I said felt as important as clearing one trolley and sending it inside because that actually has a big impact on our day to day. I suppose I have yet to realize how important my current duties are. Sometimes when I'm doing work inside the counter, I look out and try to imagine what goes on in the part-timer world and felt out of touch because I really don't know what they are doing. I usually know exactly how the displays are going; how many trolleys are out there, what sections fill them, what sections can be cleared quickly and what sections are constipating etc etc. Now I just don't know. I still feel that I do need to know those things in addition to my own shit. I am still being taught a lot of things so I can't really work according to my own schedule yet. I look forward to working according to own pace. I just hope the slower pace of fulltime work won't make me lazy though.
To reward you guys for reading through this dry post, here's a picture of walabies from the Kristiansand Zoo in Norway.
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