Argh! She's back *WARNING * WARNING * LONG POST / RANT * WARNING * WARNING

SOOO.... the lead sales associate (Mariam) has been gone since before Thanksgiving on a leave of absence. Hooray! Let's all throw a party! Well, she wasn't supposed to be back until almost the end of this month. Unfortunately, she came back early and came back to work on Sunday. Boo!

On her second day of work, tensions are high and so are emotions! My boss (the store manager) came in and asked how were things going. I told her, that was yet to be seen. Later when I talked to her on my way out, she said she could sense that things were tense. First, let's start with the whole "I'm not capable of being in petite" attitude Lesa has towards me. Every time. I was already in petite and Sarah was in front. So Mariam was supposed to be in front right? Not according to her. She sends me up front with two bags of shipment (which by the way, I only finished like half of one) while she rings people up. When I went on my break, I told her that I had TWO customers in the fitting room trying on SKIRTS. Later on, she asked me to sign a return because the customer bought TWO skirts on a charge card, but changed her mind and wanted to open a store charge card with us. So, she returned the items onto the original charge card and rang up the new sale. It was my customer, but she took the sale. Do you have any idea what two skirts cost in our store? That had to have been like a $220 sale.

Things got busy and it was just Mariam and me on the floor. Naturally, I handled the customers while she rang and rang ... oh yeah and rang up some more customers. So tell me. How did she get to have a 1300 dollar day when she didn't help that many people and all she did was ring, and ring ... oh yeah and take sales that should have been mine? Did she put things in a fitting room for a customer? Did she go in and check to see if anything was needed? Did she tell customers where to find things and found things for them? Did she clear the fitting rooms and fix the go backs and actually put them back on the floor? Noooo because she was behind the register the whole freaking time. Then she has the NERVE to get mad at me and glare at me from behind the register because I was leaving the floor to check on my customers. She has eyes. She can watch the front of the store while I'm ASSISTING my customers. And the whole glaring thing? Not appropriate. In fact, I had one customer once come up to me to say it was wrong the way Mariam had spoken to me. I bet if she was there, she would've said the same thing. In fact, one of the customers I was helping asked me if I was going to be able to come in and help her. On the sales floor she had mentioned that she was going to need help putting together some outfits. She ended up buying like three or four outfits. If she was a secret shopper, I hoped I would gotten a good review. Because I can guarantee you ... had there been a secret shopper today ... it wouldn't have been good. Unless it was her.

That same customer had a large sale because I helped pick things out, pull things, suggested things ... basically gave her the best SERVICE possible. Because that's what I'm supposed to do. And while I was doing this, I talked up the store's charge card with her and she said she was interested in opening one. I totally anticipated Mariam taking credit for opening the charge, like she took credit for putting the "out of order" sign on the bathroom door (which Sherisse did. Well, Mariam did put up a sign, if you can call it that. Sherisse took it down and put up a REAL sign). Thankfully, Sherisse came out and noticed there were like five or six people in line and I was still in the front of the store. She came out and I told her what was going on. So, she took over in front so I could take care of my customer.

1300. Are - you - serious. 1300. Just from standing behind the register for four and a half hours. Four and a half. I was there for seven hours, on the floor for a little over six. I made twice as much, but then again, I was running all over the store helping customers. I was doing my job. And being glared at and talked down to while I was doing it. Someone explain to me why SHE is still there?

Not only that ... but while the rest of us mall employees have to park on the roof of the parking structure (which is only three levels), she parks on the second floor. Every time. I don't know what she's doing now with the holiday restrictions. But I am glad I don't close with her any time soon. And then there's the issue with the back door. It's the door in petite that leads to the parking structure. The one that people LOVE to use as a mall entrance when the mall entrance is only a few feet away. Lazy dumb mall people. Anyway, we're not supposed to use this door when we come into the store. But lately, that rule hasn't been enforced. One time I used it because I was late coming to work. I was coming in from that side of the mall because I had parked on the street because getting into the parking structure was crazy stupid impossible. I was already late and I didn't want to go into the mall entrance walk the entire length of the store to enter through the missy entrance. Did I mention I was REALLY REALLY late? I walked in through petite, put my stuff away, and came out and clocked in. Mariam asked me which door did I come in and I told her and explained why. She tsked tsked, frowned, and said I'm not supposed to use that door. I bet she doesn't do that to the other Armenian associates. In fact, she NEVER talks or acts the same way towards them as she does me and Sherisse.

And, by the way ... just this week I was running late (but I actually made it to work just barely on time) and I used that same entrance that I'm "not" supposed to use. My boss was right there and she said it was okay, she understood. Hello? See the big difference there? She didn't tsk tsk or frown at me. In fact, she smiled!

Speaking of parking (okay I know this is getting pretty long. But I just need to rant) ... I am so glad we're down to the last week of no parking at the mall. It is stupid really. Can't they reserve a section on the roof for employee parking? After all, they have a section of the mall for VALET parking. Valet parking. Are - you - serious. It's funny because customers get so offended for us when we tell them that we're not allowed to park at the mall. Yeah, sure, they do have arrangements for us to park somewhere else and then shuttle us to the mall. The L.A. Zoo, in fact. Hello. Most of us drive past the mall in order to get to the zoo. I know I do. It'll take me longer to get from the zoo to the mall than it actually does for me to get from my house to the mall. That came up because I had a customer today who said it was crazy to find parking. I told her I was lucky to find the spot I did. She asked me where i parked. I told her on one of the residential streets. She asked me, "the mall doesn't let you park here?" She thought it was ridiculous that we have to park either at the zoo or find something on the street. I will be so glad when all of this is over. No more stupid parking situation. No more stupid hours.

Speaking of hours ... now we're open till ELEVEN. Who goes shopping at ten o'clock at night? Apparently no one because we only had one person come into our store yesterday night after nine. And guess what? Our lights in the store are set on a timer. One set turns off automatically at 10:15. The next set goes at 11:15. So, the store is closed and we're still in there ... practically in the dark. Now how stupid is that?