Emails, We Get Your Emails...

I've received a few emails recently that all had a similar (and good!) suggestion for this blog. Several people have noted that my last post "Help! Help Wanted!" had collected quite a few comments (by the way, thanks! again to everyone who continues to leave comments); they mentioned that it was taking a long time to scroll down the list of comments left by others and suggested that I start a fresh post so a new series of comments could begin. Or words to that effect. Anyway, it sounded good to me so here it is. From reading the comments that are being left at this blog I can tell that a lot of important information for all RGIS employees is getting out to people everywhere here and that's why I think it's important to keep this blog going.

Also, every once in a while, even though I fight it, frightening RGIS memories of mine surface now and again and I recently recalled another rather amusing incident that happened in my district. Something having to do with toilet paper and a DM's house. I plan on recounting it here so stay tuned...

Help! Help Wanted!

A friend of mine was searching through the classified ads in the local paper recently and spotted something very near but not dear to my heart. "Hey, look at this," he said, as he handed me the newspaper. "Didn't you used to work for these guys?" I looked at the ad and nearly vomited. It was titled "Inventory Counter-Apply and Train now." The ad went something like this:

• $8.50 hr to start
• No experience necessary
• Paid training
• Medical benefits after 90 days
• Flexible scheduling
• Must be 18 years +
• Reliable transportation
• Part-time inventory counter positions available
• Call now for an appt.

Just the sight of that ad brought a shudder of horror and disgust to my heart. Also mixed in was a certain amount of amusement as I went over the ad. "8.50 an hour to start"? Hmm, interesting, that's down from a high of $9.00 not too long ago. "Paid training"? Of course what they don't mention until said training has already begun is that the training pay is at least $1.00 less per hour than the starting wage.

"Medical benefits after 90 days": Well, when did RGIS finally do something halfway decent and give the auditors back their benes that they took away so abruptly when I was working for them? How are the benes? Any good?

"Flexible scheduling": Ah, a creative way of saying, "Well, one week you'll work 30 hours, the next week 5 hours, the next week 0, and the week after that 1 1/2." That's very flexible!

"Must be 18 years +": "However, if you're 50 years + we will immediately classify you in our minds as a 'feeb' or 'goober' and you'll rarely be scheduled for any stores. Probably the only time you'll see work is when we have a big store like Kmart or Target to inventory and we need every available warm body, even the ancient ones."

"Reliable Transportation": "We wish. Actually, since we're so hard up for people to work for us we'll send someone to your house to pick you up on the way to the inventory, especially if you're a hot chick that one of our managers hopes to someday score with."

Very amusing. But it left me curious. Have you guys seen any RGIS help wanted ads in your local papers recently? Do they sound a lot like or identical to the one that I saw? I'd be interested in hearing what RGIS ads are like around the country. Or world rather, as RGIS is global now. So if you see any help wanted ads from RGIS lately please post them here. Thanks!

P.S. Well well well. Looky what I just found on craigslist.org!

$8.50/HR COUNTING stuff at LOCAL RETAILERS (santa rosa) [sic]

"This is a fantastic job to fill in any gaps that you might have in your normal routine. Make us a secondary source of income or your primary source of income...RGIS is the world leader in Inventory Retail Services...We have...40,000 employees...

Desired qualities:

• Team Player
• Competitive Spirit
• Dependable Employee
• Prompt Arrivals

Learn more about us at (the RGIS website url) and see why 40,000 employees love what they do!"

Okay, two things about this craigslist ad makes me laugh. One is the 'Desired Qualities' section. RGIS 'desires' employees who are team players, have competitive spirit, are dependable, and who can manage prompt arrivals? Then why don't they treat their employees decently and pay them a living wage? Why don't they treat their employees decently and not subject them to ridiculous pay decreases based on their EAPHs when said employees are unable to meet unreachable or unknown EAPHs? Why don't they treat their employees decently and not give one small group of a district's pets more favorable treatment (raises, more stores) than the rest of the district? If RGIS could do the unthinkable and treat their employees decently then maybe they might hire and retain more employees who have those qualities that they so desire.

The second thing in that ad that's a laugher is that last line. "Learn more about us...and see why 40,000 employees love what they do!" Oh, that's priceless. "Love what they do." Hey, RGIS employees, does that sound like you?

P.P.S. : I just checked the San Francisco Chronicle (June 20, 2007) and RGIS has a "help wanted" ad there. Their starting pay is $9.25 an hour. Okay, I know S.F. is larger than Santa Rosa but .75 larger? Doesn't sound fair, but then little about RGIS is fair, IMO.

Nicknames Are Nice. No, Seriously!

First of all I just wanted to thank everyone so much for reading my little ol' RGIS blog. I've had a fantastic time writing this blog, and an equally wonderful time reading all of your comments. It's been very educational and entertaining, reading everyone's stories about their own experiences working for RGIS. Without this blog I would have never been able to hear from Auditors and Team Leaders and Managers all over the U.S. and Canada too. It's become apparent to me and probably to most of you as well that no matter what district we're in, and regardless of which state or even which country we're in as well a lot of our RGIS experiences are quite similar. It's helped me a great deal to write about my time with RGIS, and I hope it's helped (and entertained) you to read this blog, as well as the comments left here. I feel like for some it's become a sort of catharsis. This blog has been for some a place to vent their frustration with the way a lot of things have been going with RGIS lately, and I'm very glad to provide a place for people to do just that. I know all too well how unfair things can get sometimes when you're working as a RGIS auditor or TL or even a manager. Sometimes you just want to scream with frustration. Aw, group hug!

Secondly, I have a tiny favor to ask you guys. Don't worry, it's nothing major. When you leave your comments here at this blog, would you please use a nickname instead of commenting as "Anonymous"? It's just that it would make it so much easier for me (and others) when leaving a reply. It doesn't have to be a terribly clever nickname; you could use something like "123" or "Shoe" or "Fungus", whatever. You can even change your nickname every time you leave a comment. It's just that when myself or someone else leaves a reply to your comment it's much easier and quicker to reply to a "Handbag" or a "Dog" than to have to type out "anon. at 4/7/07, 11:35 pm". Choosing the nickname option is very simple. When you leave your comment, you'll see that just below that box there is an option that says "Choose Your Identity". Just select the "Other" option instead of anonymous, and then you can have some fun and pick a nickname. Like I mentioned before, it can be just about anything and you can use a different one every time you leave a comment, if you like. And don't worry, just because you've used a nickname doesn't mean that anyone will know who you are. Unless you use your real name and then you're screwed. Of course you can always still post under "Anonymous" but wouldn't you rather have some fun and pick out a nickname? Of course you would! :)

Where The Hell Are The Archives?

Just a little info in case you were wondering. My dear little RGIS blog has been updated to include some advertising (see links at the top of each page). This has caused the "archives" section of my blog to change locations. The archives used to appear near the top, on the right hand side. You can still view each and every post here (lucky you!), but you have to do some scrolling. You can find them all the way down near the bottom of each page, on the right hand side. Depending on which page you're currently on, and depending on what Blogger feels like doing on any particular day, the archives will be listed by either titles or by which months the posts were published in, or sometimes both. To view the earliest posts, the ones from the very beginning, just click on the last post listed, the one at the very bottom of the list. Keep doing this until you reach the first post, which is titled "Coming Soon To A Blog Near You". Happy reading!

BTW, about the advertising. If you've enjoyed reading this blog, and want to show your support for it, please take a moment to click on one of the ad links at the top of the page. If you do so it will be most appreciated by me. If you haven't enjoyed reading this blog, well then, what are you doing here? Go away. Now. Scram! Beat it! Take a hike! ;)

Comments And More Comments

Recently I've encountered some difficulties in publishing new comments at this blog. Blogger is going through some changes in their system (again!) and that's resulted in several of your comments not getting published. I'm hoping that situation has improved and it will be smooth sailing from now on (well, I can dream can't I?). Thank you for your patience and happy reading!

Running On Empty

Well, when we last met up in the continuing storyline of District 414, Area manager Joe had been named the new District Manager. This bad decision was made very quietly and with little fanfare. Perhaps even the Division office realized how unpopular and unsuccessful this decision was going to be, and wished to draw as little attention to it as possible.

Now, normally I would continue here with how bad Joe was as our DM (he was terrible), and how miserable a time I and everyone else had while working for him. But in going over my notes that I took during the time I worked for RGIS, I realized that I have very little material for this blog left. After Joe was made DM, I wasn't with the district for much longer. All the problems that had been prevalent in my district before Joe's ill-fated promotion remained and in some cases intensified after Joe became DM. Any appeal that my job as auditor held deteriorated to such a low point that I simply could not stand working for RGIS any longer and I quit.

So there's really not much left to tell you. Joe didn't last very long as DM; he stepped down from the position after only a few months and returned to his old AM job. A new DM named Chris moved in. He came from a district in another state, which one I can't remember. In fact Chris was so bland and colorless that I can't really remember anything about him other than he was bland and colorless. Joe was fired a few months after Chris' arrival, and a new AM named Josh arrived. Josh was a horrible AM who had a nasty habit of donning a RGIS grey polo shirt and masquerading as a Team Leader, all so he could count unobserved and unbothered by a store manager. Josh was eventually caught by RGIS higher-ups doing this and was moved to another district. I left my job as auditor shortly thereafter, and that's where this blog ends, more or less.

It's been a lot of fun writing this blog, and I've enjoyed reading most of your comments. You can continue to leave your comments and questions here, and I'll publish them probably two or three times a week. But there most likely will not be any more new entries, as I've simply run out of material. If you don't want to leave any more comments here, but still want to communicate with other RGIS people, I might suggest starting a RGIS auditors discussion group over at Yahoo Groups. I checked and there are already two such discussion groups, but not much activity at either. So someone might want to start their own group.

Goodbye, and thanks for reading.

More Shorts

The following items are just little incidents that I remember from my glory days as a RGIS auditor. They don't really fit into a specific storyline, but I didn't want to leave them out of this blog. So I've just included them here in no particular order.

1. One afternoon after we finished a Long's Drugs inventory District Manager Kevin, on the way back to the RGIS office, drove a vanload of auditors to the Sear's store in San Rafael. We were doing the Sear's inventory in a few weeks, and Kevin told us that the store's manager had asked him to stop by the store for a quick discussion of the store's layout in preparation for the upcoming inventory. As Kevin parked the van outside the store's entrance he told us that he should only be gone a few minutes.

We sat in that van for over two hours. Two hot, uncomfortable, smelly (Mondo was in the van) hours. I don't know about you, but sitting in a crowded van parked in a Sear's parking lot on a hot summer day for over 2 hours was not my idea of fun. Nor anyone else's. Bedroom slippers Erin had dozed off at one point. When she woke up a short time later she was furious to find out we were still at Sear's. "Gimme the time sheet!" she yelled. "I'm signing myself in again!" Finally DM Kevin came out of the store. He climbed into the van and sheepishly apologized for the delay. He claimed that the Sear's manager had insisted Kevin do a full tour of the store's two floors, plus the basement storage rooms. He then did a rare, halfway decent thing and added two hours for each of us to the Long's Drugs time sheet.

2. The districts in the Northwest Division did a lot of inventories together, and each district usually brought a bag or two of their own equipment to each inventory. In order not to get our district's lasers and audit machines mixed up with another district's, orange dot stickers were placed on all of our equipment, including the few stepstools that we had. The idea was that if a District 414 laser or audit machine were accidentally placed in another district's bag it would be easy to spot by the orange dot.

The dots usually helped keep the audit machines and lasers in our district, but not the stepstools. Lots of times I would go into the back room of a grocery store or department store and find a little two-step metal stool with an orange dot on it, left behind from an inventory that we had done months before, and in one case a year before. The first couple of times I found one of my district's stepstools I notified the person running the inventory. The Area Manager or Team Leader each time expressed a little surprise but no other reaction. No "Oh wow, so that's where it was." No "Hey, thanks. Can you grab that one for me?" Just a shrug and a "Hmmm." Well, they didn't seem to care too much about it, so why should I? I would use the stepstool in the store's back room and then leave it there. Accidentally, of course.

3. TL Heather had become disillusioned at working for RGIS and decided to quit. This was around Christmas time, and I had stopped by her house to say hello. I told her I was on my way to the district office party to pick up my January schedule. Heather got a gleam in her eye and told me, "Wait just a minute." She left her living room and came back a short time later with a couple of RGIS polos, a leather belt and a large piece of Christmas wrapping paper. She neatly folded the polo shirts and placed the leather belt on top of them. She wrapped the bundle in the Christmas paper and handed it to me laughing, "Give this to AM Dave and make sure to tell him it's from me."

I got to the district office around 6:00 pm. The Christmas party was in full swing, meaning the lights were on and one cookie platter was visible on the front counter. I picked up my January schedule and spotted AM Dave. I handed him the brightly wrapped package saying, "Heather told me to give you this." Unsuspecting Dave seemed surprised and said, "Oh, well, how nice. Please tell her thank you." I said I would and then I got the hell out before he could open it.

4. AM Joe told a bunch of us this story about when he was an auditor and going through a particularly grueling schedule. He said that it was during one of those interminable Long's Drugs inventory runs (approximately 2 week's worth of Long's stores, one (and sometimes two) per day. In addition to these early morning inventories he was also doing a number of late night stores as well. Joe was so tired that at one point during a Long's inventory he went to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet and promptly fell asleep. He told us that he was asleep on the toilet for about half an hour, and the only reason it wasn't any longer was because someone woke him up by banging on the door outside the bathroom and yelling, "I need to get in there!"

5. Once I was standing on a little plastic stepstool (provided by the store) in a Long's Drugs, counting some OTC on a top shelf. Just as Ops Manager Sai walked by behind me I dropped a box of aspirin. Before I could step down and retrieve it Sai stopped, picked up the box and handed it to me, saying in his sing-song Eastern Indian accent, "Oh, you white people are always expecting me to pick things up for you." He then walked away before I could say a word.

6. A small crew of us were doing a port-fn inventory at a grocery store called North Shore Sentry in the little town of Nice, about 2 hours north of our district office. We were short-handed to begin with, and the situation got worse as we arrived at the store because blob Mondo immediately developed a mysterious nosebleed upon exiting the van. He bailed out of counting with us because of this nosebleed and spent the 7+ hours that we were there asleep in the van. Jerk.

TL Eric was running this one, and Eric under pressure was not a pretty sight. He always had difficulty handling "frying" in a store. We were woefully behind schedule, when Eric suddenly said, "I'll get us out of this store." He took a copy of the store's previous inventory, checked the areas that hadn't been counted yet, changed some of the numbers in those area's totals, plugged those new totals into the portable and...ta-dah! We were finished. Eric printed out the whole thing and handed it to the store manager. He was satisfied with the results and we packed up and left, bloody Mondo included. Another quality inventory done by RGIS.