The week that was

Dear diary what a week it has been especially at work.  Today was the last day of my working week and I was glad we finished at a reasonable time and that it was a trouble free day.  I’d actually say that the last week was more intense than the Christmas week.  Being an online shopper is not an easy job in the sense that it carries a lot of responsibility and it can be tiring work, especially doing it 8 to 12 hours a day some days.  But it is very rewarding and even after 6 months I am still enjoying it and a few said that I would not last or that the novelty would wear off before now.  Well I am glad to say on both counts they were wrong, I love my job it is so rewarding.

The actual job of shopping is very straight forward where the effort comes in is making sure that we shop to the best of our ability keeping the customer in mind, I call it shopping with integrity.  This includes thinking about the other shoppers, our goals and the company’s image and integrity.  One wrong decision can lose a customer and given the competitive nature of grocery shopping every customer matters.

I was asked indirectly today whether I found the job boring as it was repetitive and lacked scope.  After all we are selecting the same products from roughly the same places, following simple procedures day after day and bar shopping different sections we basically shop.  I answered no as the job is more than just shopping, we are trusted by people we do not know to do their grocery shopping and that is a huge responsibility and one I take pride in.  Then there are the variations in each shop which let the imagination run riot, who orders 19 four pints of whole milk or 30 carrots?  But the best part of all is helping the customers in the shop with their queries and generally meeting and greeting them or getting involved in their shopping.  It is such an unbelievable experience especially as for the majority of my working life the expectations of my customers have been very high and demanding and mainly associated with computers and IT.

Our lives are governed by IT whether we like it or not and today I read a news article that made me realise just how much.  A retired art teacher ended her own life at Dignitas clinic in Switzerland because she was no longer able to cope with modern life.  To quote she had had enough of swimming against the current life.  She said that she had had a full and rich life but felt adapting to modern day living was becoming a struggle.  She felt that society had become slaves to TV, the media, computers, the internet and that we were slowly losing the ability to interact with each other.  Whilst I do not have the ability to understand taking one’s life over it I can certainly relate to her feelings concerning modern life.  The majority of us are all slaves to the internet, information overload and the blinkered and restricted methods of communication that are email, texting, instant messaging and media in general.

I often get very frustrated at having to communicate over any medium other than letter, this blog or in person.  Everything else just does not allow me to express myself fully and that is partly down to my lack of education and partly down to the method of communication.  We send a text or instant message we get frustrated that no reply is forth coming in minutes, we start to create frustrations or concerns of our own.  Which brings me back to my job and that it allows me to interact with people on a personal level and not just those I work with.  My frustration with modern life is also one of the reasons I left the IT industry and vowed never to go back.

I have spent the last few years trying to get myself in a position where I can manage my life.  I have tried to make my life as simple as possible in order to keep my head above water.  In order to do that I have to embrace technology to a certain extent with my photography and although I could write a diary with a pen and paper I’d struggle thanks to my lack of education.  I rely heavily on spelling and grammar checkers to even get my message across and often they give up on me too.

Having managed to get the job front sorted my next battle is with alcoholism a battle that I am struggling with but I know I am better placed to fight it this time.  I am also facing monetary problems that I now need to address and yes not drinking will help that too.  The next couple of months are going to very difficult fore sure but I have got this far I am not going to give up.  Talking of alcoholism I brought myself something to drink today and on the way to the checkout I bumped into two of my bosses and do you know what I felt so ashamed of myself standing there talking to them and holding on to the alcohol.  I did not feel very proud of myself.

I do not want this battle with my alcoholism to take as long as my other battles, I am in danger off losing everything at this rate.  I think tomorrow is going to be about contacting companies can cancelling contracts and services and explaining why I cannot afford them or need them.  Also as things stand there is a strong chance I will not be able to complete my professional photography course but I will worry about that later.

Well that is all for now, until the next time take care.

Si