Monday, December 15, 2008

Back To Work


At 8AM today I started my new job at the local ShopNBC order capture call center. Like all new jobs I went there not knowing exactly what to expect. I’ll be doing some training for the first 3 days this week. I’ll be working until 3:30PM all those days but I don’t start until 10AM on Wednesday. I’m off Thursday and Friday and then I work the weekend.

The most interesting thing I learned about my job today is that employees are not allowed to wear anything metal into the distribution center. They are serious about this too because you have to go through a metal detector to get to where you work. However this is not like going through security at the airport. These security portals are set differently to detect metals different than what airport security would.

The reason for this is that the majority of product ShopNBC sells is jewelry. Jewelry can be stolen with relative ease. The Loss Prevention division is in charge of all aspects of security and safety in the distribution center. They have the final word on whether you pass through into the warehouse or not.

The rules on being “metal free” are very strict. You can’t take any cell phones, or wallets, or even loose change into the warehouse with you. I’m not even going to be able to wear my dress pants or anything with metal on it. This probably means I won’t be wearing my leg brace into work either. I can take it off and let it be inspected by the loss prevention employee without it going through the detector, just like I will have to do with my glasses but that will be such a hassle. I may not even wear it to work. I probably will also have to get a wooden cane.

In regard to clothing the HR manager suggested that we wear sweat pants and T-shirts to work. Many of the employees who already work there were dressed that way.

It’s hard change my mindset in regard to such a different dress code after 8 years of being subject to the rules of “business casual”, “business dress” and “jeans only on Fridays” But believe it or not my new job encourages me to go to work dressed like I’m relaxing in my recliner on Saturdays.

Don’t get me wrong the dress code is the only thing about the job that’s going to be like being home on Saturday. Taking orders from customers, while an easy process, is going to require knowledge about a lot of different type of merchandise. Just check out the ShopNBC website (shopNBC.com) and see all the different things you can purchase. I’m going to have to know details about all of them. I look forward to the challenge.

One final thing I’d like to tell you about my first day on the job. Back on December 4 when I posted about finding a new job I wrote that I wasn’t sure just why God had given me this job at this time. Well, I think today God played a little bit of a joke on me.

One of the first people I saw when I got there this morning was a guy I would rather not have seen. I know him because he’s the parent of a couple of my son’s football buddies from high school. For reasons I’d rather not go into this guy is probably in the top 10 of my least favorite people in the world. This morning I found out that I’ll be working at the same place with him. Not in the same department but for the same company. He works in the Loss Prevention division so I’m sure our paths will cross somewhere along the way. I guess being around him is going to be one of my first tests while I’m working there.

Anyway I’m back to work and I’m rather excited about getting the opportunity to do something new. If nothing else, much to my wife’s delight, I’m going to learn a lot about jewelry.

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