You have been warned.  If I don't vent, it'll stay bottled up inside, so only read if you want to.  This is not drama, this is just venting about work to get it all out in the open.  Friday was a day I want to take and put into the back of my head as far as I can.  Work currently feels like June of 2008 all over again.  When I first got injured with my shoulder, I was pulled from service deli and sent to be a queue clerk.  Standard check stands (unlimited grocery items) can have two customers and express check stands (15 items or less) can have three.  If more enter the queue, someone needs to call for more checkers.  The job of the queue clerk is to stand near the entrance of the check stands and direct customers into the check stands with little or to no waiting.  I sometimes have to pull customers from one line into another to get them checked out faster.  This is a section where I am put on spotlight the most, where the slightest mess-up will get me nailed.

And Friday, I wanted to scream like I never screamed before.  One checker was really on my tail.  He snapped at me for accidentally sending a customer into his standard line and making the queue three instead of two.  I apologized, but he wouldn't accept or let it go.  My name soon gets called on the intercom and a supervisor called me over to her check stand so that she could lecture me next, as if the first checker's lecture wasn't good enough.

Later on in the evening, a lady customer was going into the same checker's line that I messed up with.  Her going into his line made it three customers and I didn't catch her.  I turned to look and the checker got on the phone, telling the assistant manager that I let this happen!  I went to the lady customer and asked if she wanted to go to another line.  She said she was fine where she was.  The assistant manager called me on the intercom to come over to the customer service desk.  She saw what happened and said to me in a condescending tone, "I don't think you understand the concept lines, do you?"  This is where I lost it.  I was nice, but I was firm.  I flat-out told her that the lady got into the checker's line when I wasn't looking.  I asked her if she wanted to go to another one and she wanted to stay.  I turned directly to the store manager next and said to him, "What was I supposed to do?  I can't just drag the customers out of the check stand!"  The store manager just nodded and understood, so that got me off the hook.

With severely cut hours and having me do this queue clerk job, it's almost like they either want me to quit or they're watching me so close that they'll get me if I do one big slip-up.  I have never been so stressed out in my life.  June of 2008, that's exactly how it feels with the managers, supervisors and checkers all watching me like a hawk.  I have had more chest pains than I can handle.  I need to get out of this job, but I'm very limited on where else I can go.

Oh, and guess when my next day off is?  Saturday...February 4th!  Next week's schedule has me working all next week until Saturday.  Counting Friday the 27th, that's eight straight days of non-stop work and doing the queue clerk position.  Just shoot me now.