We had the usual pre-xmas staff meeting at Joseph-Beth this morning where the managers talked a lot just to hear their own voices and feel important, then run out of time before they actually say anything important. The GM had the gall to tell us that they saved money payroll-wise ($91,000), and that we the booksellers are great and doing great even when we have less help. In other words, we're working your butts off even more and saving money while we do it. Then they go on to espouse customer service values, which makes no sense to the 10 customers waiting in line because there's no one else on the floor to help them while I help a customer find 10 different DK travel guides (book series are notoriously difficult because no one catalogs/inputs them into the system in a systematic way).

I wish I could think of another word to describe the work there other than "demeaning" because there are booksellers that have been there for 10 years or more, while I am just working there for the money and ready to leave as soon as I can, but how can I when the managers talk like this? I do enjoy (to an extent) helping customers, but not when 10 of them are giving me the evil eye for doing the Joseph-Beth thing and paying this particular customer special attention. At least this makes me appreciate other customer-service people.