The new Super Wal-Mart's up and running. Has been for a few weeks now. When it was preparing to open it's doors, there were protest posters on campus inviting people to assemble in the parking lot to protest. "Fight Cut-Throat Capitalism!" was the brilliant header. I was first told that only three protesters managed to make it, but someone later told me that it did eventually grow as the day wore on. It's true that I viewed it as an unintentional joke, but I'm sure the protesters' hearts were in the right place. I think laughing at it made me feel better about applying for a position there. But it also made me reflect on why I'm attempting to apply there.
The Hounds at the Student Loan Offices have been snapping at my heels, demanding my three month delinquent payment which is undoubtedly ruining my credit rating and the need for a second job is becoming more and more pressing. While Wal-Mart is an awful coporate monster that is becoming too big for its britches, it's still an employment opportunity for poor people like me. Call me a sell-out, I don't care. I'd rather do that then have a black mark on my credit rating that'll follow me for the rest of my life.
Jobs are mighty dear in this country and beggars can't be choosey.
But what's really getting me torqued is their new application process. I went in there, happy and unassuming, thinking this'd be easy as pie. Boy, was I wrong. I go to the Customer Service Desk and I'm directed to a terminal in the corner near the carpet shampoo rentals. The screen says: "Cannot find page"(Like the kind you get on the Internet, asking you to try refreshing or going backwards to try again). I turn to the clerk behind the counter, who's pressumably a Customer Service Representative, and ask him if it needs to be refreshed or reloaded some how. He shrugs, punches some buttons, shrugs some more and admits he has no idea. But I'm welcome to try the terminal back in Layaway.
So I get to navagate my way through the vast forest of consumer goods, keeping a hopeful eye out for a hanging tab that reads "Layaway". I felt like Jack Torrence searching through the shrubbery maze for his son, Danny. Only not as cold.
When I get there, there's a young girl there--16, 17 tops. Her little sister and mother are there watching her struggle through what must've been her first job application. What doesn't help matters any is how slowly each page is loading. Almost an hour had passed and as I shifted my weight on my aching feet, I loosed a sigh. The girl looks up at me and says: "You know, there's another terminal up front."
"I know," I answered, fighting the bitter frustration, "I've been there and it doesn't work.
"This one's barely working," the girl's mother said with exasperation.
I don't recall how much longer I waited, but behind me there was a team of clerks trying to figure out why the register's weren't accepting debit cards and to the left of me was a line of mother's with their devilish wee-walkers anxiously awaiting for the rest rooms to open up. They seemed a bit prickly to find out that they were closed for cleaning.
Eventually, the girl's mother at the application termial tells her to abort the mission because they'd be there forever and a day waiting. As it was, the terminal froze up on the girl when she tried choosing the "Exit" Option which was supposed to save what she'd done so far. It was at this point that I silently cursed the incompetence of technology and left the store. Maybe another time.
Another time, indeed.
I returned just yesterday(Tuesday) to find the Customer Service terminal accessable and was plugging along with it at a pretty good clip. Then I hit the 'Customer Relations' Questions. Providing a scenario (an angry customer, a difficult co-worker, etc.) with a list of possible solutions, and asking me to rate the effectiveness of each solution. What I found unique about this was that these questions seemed to be 85% of the application making it 3 times longer than a regular job application.(Or maybe I live a sheltered life and haven't seen enough job apps).
ANYway-- I'm on page 13 of 67 of these suckers when the terminal freezes on me.
I try to be patient. Really, I do. Shit, I waited 20 minutes on that beast. No dice. I asked the Customer Service Clerk(who was a different clerk by the way and she seemed to be a little more on the ball--And exceptionally pleasant, I might add). She tells me they're having issues with their satellites, apologizes and calls someone for help(as opposed to just standing there and shrugging dumbly-- She was definately more with it than the previous clerk). She's told that the only way to refresh/reset it is to unplug and replug it. Which she does. When it finally finishes rebooting, I get the dreaded: "Cannot find page."
~~Insert Charlie Brown "AUUUGH" here.~~
The clerk apologizes, clearly empathetic and sorry that there isn't more she can do. We both shrug in defeat and I leave. Maybe later, I told myself again.
I've been conditioned to the '3 Strikes' idea--Which is a queersome phenomenon I can't begin to explain--But it basically means I'll go back there one last time. If I strike out, I'm going to give K-Mart a shot. Maybe they'll be using regular paper applications that won't freeze up on me or take 20 minutes to load the next batch of questions.
