Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Changes.

Changes.

That's something that always occurs when the new year is right on the horizon.

Fortunately for me, there will be some new changes right as we embark onto the new year.  Some of these changes I look forward to, some I have some hesitation about...but we all know that some kind of change can be good.

The biggest change right now for me is with work...my job...the one that consumes most of my time.

I just hired...ahem...my district manager, has hired 2 new people. For my location.  One of them I did orchestrate to get hired on - the other one is a wild card.  The one that I did help get hired on, he used to work for the company and he is with another premium retailer and is very good with customer service, sales and everything - I don't even have to train him!  I am SO looking forward to having him start on Friday.  (I wish he could have started sooner!) I don't mind having new employees - I'm just really burned out on training new people.  This is something I have been doing in Dallas since March.

My District Manger (in Dallas) let Andrew go to Austin immediately....I had to stay behind for almost a month to train new employees in Dallas before I could return to Austin.  I love that my DM up there had so much confidence in me and felt like he needed me so much to keep me for an extra month.  I just feel like I have been training new people nonstop since March & it gets old sometimes.

Anyways, 

The Wild Card.

The wild card was currently employed with electronics and phone sales for Target - I do have to do some training with him.  He started on Monday.  He's going to catch on quick.  One of my strongest employees that I have right now will be transferred to another store - a store that will be much closer to home for him.  I'm excited for him...but I will miss his help greatly.  He's my bilingual employee - that will kind of hurt to lose him but fortunately, I have Jean - she's my main bilingual employee and the one that is teaching me how to speak Spanish more frequently.  (Remember, my store is 50% spanish-only speaking customers).  

It's so funny - I can't speak the language that well but I can tell what my employees are saying (in spanish) when they are speaking with their customers and at the end of the conversation, they introduce themselves and let them know that they are here to help and I always chime in with a 'y llama es Megan' so that they know that I'm Megan & that I will try to help them to fullest of my knowledge of Spanish on communication with them.

Change.

I'm thinking about enrolling in a spanish class in January with the community college so that I can communicate better with my customers.  I've always loved the Hispanic culture and I do love hearing Spanish being spoken in my store.  It intrigues me.

I understand now why some people are intrigued by sign language.

I do have a couple of hard of hearing/deaf customers that come into my store and I'm glad that I'm able to communicate with them - they are always so surprised and delighted when they encounter me because it makes communication so much easier for them.  They can express to me exactly why they are there, what they want, what they are looking for and together, we can reach a solution.

My employees are always intrigued and always ask me to show them a few signs.  It's a great trade-off between us --- we are learning to be tri-lingual.  :o)  I don't know if that's even a word but that's exactly what it is.

The Wild Card.

I don't think I'm at liberty to say much about him right now - all I know is that he has a seizure disorder and his eyes flutter alot every 30 seconds when he's speaking to customers.  At first, I didn't think he was up front about it but after working a few days with him, he tells his customers that he has a rare form of epilepsy and jokes about it - He says that he's just 'geeking out' over the products we have and the customers laugh and respond well to it.

It's a new change.

A positive change.

He's going to teach me alot.  He's going to teach my co-workers alot.  He's going to teach my customers alot.  

I've never really been fully 100% accepting of the fact that I'm hard of hearing.  I feel like people focus on it too much and ask me too many questions than I care for.  This is something that I've been working on for the past year - learning how to be up front with people of it.  When people ask me where I'm from (yes, they all think I have either a British or an Australian accent) - I now am able to tell them that I'm not from another country, I'm just simply hard of hearing and that it has affected my speech in a way- the way that it sounds like an accent.  

It puts everyone at ease much quicker.

My new employee is going to teach me and everyone to not only be accepting of others -ALSO to be accepting of their flaws....

but mostly to be accepting of ourselves and our flaws.

Ending 2014 and starting 2015 on that note is going to be positive and embracing.

Accept yourself first...

and the rest will fall into place.

(If other people don't accept it, shrug it off - they're the ones with a problem - not you)

XoXo,

Meg