Dreaded Inventory

Ok, so inventory isn't all that bad, but people complain about it enough as if it's a huge burden. The only people it should be a burden for are the managers because their jobs and pay (or lack thereof in some respects and cases) are riding on the results. However, some of the associates get so stressed over it. Why? It's such a waste of energy. All we have to do is count the merchandise. That's incredibly easy to do for eight hours. I actually look forward to it on some unconventional level. Maybe it's because it's the one day that I can show up to work, and I don't have to deal with hundreds of customers. I can just be in my own world. Well, if you don't count the occasional interuptions from the RGIS people yelling, "Sku check!"

One of our associates, in particular, was completely flying off the handle. I counted through some of our 12-24 month clearance before I took my lunch/dinner/midnight snack (I don't know what you call it at 8:15pm). When I came back, I saw one of our guys counting some of the 12-24 boys, and I asked where he'd counted, and he just pointed to the ends of the aisle back to where he was at. Ok, good. He didn't recount what I did. I saw he had initialed where I had already counted even though I'd marked it on the back. I should have really written on the front because only pre-counts are supposed to be written on the back, but I wasn't thinking at the time.
I probably shouldn't have done this, but I came up to him and said, "Just make sure you watch to make sure the stuff hasn't been counted by looking on the back of the sheets for initials."
"Why would you do some dumb s*** like that?"
This wasn't going good already. "Chris wanted us to write what we counted and initial on the backs of the sheets earlier."
"What?!?" He got up and stormed towards the clearance aisle where I had been.
I said, "I actually already counted through the clearance." Big mistake, Rachel.
"What the f***?!? Why didn't you mark it?!?" He checked the back of the sheets to see my initials on there. "F***! I'm sick of this s***! I want someone to f***in' take me home!" He threw his sheet of paper and pen and stormed off.

To be honest, it was only about 10 minutes worth of counting he did over mine, and it really wasn't anything to throw a fit over. Who cares? It's not a big deal.
That put a damper on some of the evening, but I still tried to have fun. I sang in between counting, cracked jokes with some of my coworkers, and ate way too much candy. Sugar rush...sugar rush...sugar rush.

Now I get to go back to regular days at Burlington. That's what I'm really dreading. I really need a new job. You know, something that's not retail.