Parks Place

Welcome back! At the end of Part One, I said I jumped at the chance to take on a full-time position. That’s what this post is about.

I had applied for several full-time openings and been passed over in favor of longer-tenured employees—no complaints there. They’d put in the time and earned their shot. About six months in, Princess was transferred to be the Department Supervisor of Paint. She knew how hungry I was for more, and the moment there was an opening, I was her first pick.

I was ecstatic, to put it lightly. I loved learning new things, and I had been cross-training in Paint whenever Home Decor was slow. I liked it. It was fast-paced and sometimes felt like it never stopped. Needless to say, I loved it. Not much feels as good as working with your team and crushing a long line quickly with no mistakes.

I was the newest person on the Paint crew, but I had good company. Obviously, you already know about Princess. We also had an old-school paint merchant who used to work for one of the big paint companies—we can call him Bob. Then there was a really quiet but efficient guy who never said much, but when the paint shipment came in, he was always the first to start breaking it down. We’ll call him Anchor, since he always kept us grounded.

And then there was Screwy. I’m not sure who loosened his screws, but they did a damn fine job of it. He was reliable when we were busy, but the moment we weren’t, he would start rambling about this, that, and everything. I honestly couldn’t keep up, and I don’t think it would have mattered if I did—he probably wouldn’t remember anyway.

That was the Paint crew. We worked well together, and there was a lot for someone hungry like me to learn. Because we always had a dedicated day for paint freight, I got to learn about inventory control, managing paint tint levels (one of the few items in the entire store that was sold at $0 to handle inventory adjustments), and I began to learn how to lead a team.

I spent a decent amount of time with Princess building the schedule and learning the specifics of running a department. No one else wanted to learn it—and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone wants to be a leader or take on extra responsibilities. But I knew I did. I also knew Princess wouldn’t be in her position forever, and I wanted to be ready to step into her spot as soon as she moved.

Well, as it turned out, things didn’t go the way I expected. About eight months after I started in Paint, the Store Manager called me into his office along with one of the Assistants. We’ll call them Ivan the Terrible and Bubba, in that order.

They told me they didn’t think I was in the right role for the store. I told them I wanted to be a Department Supervisor. They had a different idea: they wanted me to be a Specialist in Appliances. I said yes immediately.

So, in about fifteen months, I had gone from part-time help to full-time Specialist. I was ready for this next step and eager to learn some new things.

But we’ll cover that in Part Three. Thanks for reading!