Fidget Spinners?

[lostpony]

Briefly,

Workers at big stores aren't tasked with stop-loss.  That's not their job.

I've often been disillusioned by working environments not only failing to appreciate my integrity but even punishing me for it.

Yes the whole situation sucks.  It's not the workers' fault who, once something is missing, can do nothing about it.  It's not like security can scrutinize video to see which customer tampered with the blind bags, and if they did they'd see people like me trying to peek in the little window to see who's in there, not the guys sneakily slipping the ponies out.

When it comes to such things, remember:  Don't squeeze the Charmin.  eh....play with the spinners.

[Emberly]

I worked in a fabric store for only six months, and after the first two months, I stopped caring about the company's bottom line. I did try to stop things like big scams still (even more disheartening: my boss allowed two scammers to rip us off repeatedly for hundreds of dollars at a time, though we warned her otherwise). Because it was my job, I did my best, but I stopped trying to push "above and beyond" because there was no point in it. Life doesn't reward you just because you work hard. Your employers do. In an ideal world, karma would come around and help out, sure, but in a company you know is rotten? Nope.

One of my co-workers and fellow managers was given an assessment for a raise. She passed said assessment with flying colours. Full marks. Worked her butt off to get high marks, and was working unpaid overtime, hoping they would see her effort and reward her. They did. They gave her a pat on the back: a raise of five cents to add to her already-too-low wage of $8.25, and told her that the store's shrink was too high for them to give her anything better. When she protested that our shrink was so high because we didn't have enough staff to walk the floor and prevent shoplifting, the GM and corporate both shrugged and said "tough toenails, that's the rule".

So if a company expects you to prevent theft, but doesn't give you the resources or means to prevent theft, and then continues to punish you because they didn't provide you with the means of preventing the theft, you get pretty bitter, pretty fast. They spent more money trying to keep employees from stealing on the job than they did on preventing blatant shoplifting.

About a month into having started working there, all employees were suddenly required to carry store-provided, clear plastic tote bags to and from work; all employees had to have their bags checked by management before they were allowed to exit the store for break or to go home; these costs could have been relegated to hiring more people on per shift to prevent shoplifting and shrink, and instead they put it towards making our employees feel like they were criminals. And most of our employees were already working another job on top of this one. Several quit, and went to work for our competitor when they opened a store down the road, because they didn't treat their employees like garbage.

I also worked at a big fabric store, I applaud your commitment. I workd there for only three weeks before it wasn't worth it to me. I was in college and was working for pony money essentially, and I would come in every evening to hear my manager talk about how this was going to be the best job I ever had and I should drop out of college to stay there and maybe some day I'd be a manager like her.  In the same breath she would berate other employees. She must have thought I was particularly special or something, she took me into the back room and showed me a chart. On it was employee hours. Every month she and the other two managers were challenged to reduce staffing hours. Each got an extra $1000 monthly bonus if they reduced the number of staffing hours- so if they could go from 6 employees getting 25 hours to 6 employees getting 23 hours a month they got $1000 each, while the employee lost hours which was like gold- hours of work time is how you feed your family. So maybe the manager gets $1000, employee can't afford lunch this week.

We also had bag and coat searches coming to and from our shift. And there is a prevailing problem where many retail stores when they actually DO need you to work will cap you at part time cut off and re-distribute the money onto future checks. So maybe you worked 60 hours during the holiday- your paycheck is for 29 hours and the next 31 hours are spread around like grains in the wind to avoid being paid overtime. Wage theft is real.

I am very happy that I have moved on to bigger opportunities.

[tulagirl]

Oh boy retail is rough.  My husband use to manage in retail and I have a handful of injustice with that, but his work ethic remained the same through out.

[lostpony]

Eh....I found this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDJCG6A29k

[Ponyfan]

Ponies with Fidget Spinners. I bought a Fidget Cube today.

Ponyfan

[tulagirl]

Oh that is priceless.

[Majesty]

I saw some at CVS on a counter near the photo department.  I have ADHD but I haven't been in need of something to calm me down or distract me luckily.  I've never seen them in action either. I should check on youtube for a demo or something.  I head the cubes are super expensive though.

[Ponyfan]

I found my Fidget Cube at Walmart for $10 .


Ponyfan

[Majesty]

I found my Fidget Cube at Walmart for $10 .


Ponyfan

Wow, I didn't know they could go that cheap.  I saw on the news or something that people get them for like $500 or something.

[Lore-Lei]

I honestly don't get why is this a trend... but it's starting to really piss me off.

[lostpony]

Maybe you  need a cube or a spinner to calm down tee hee.

[Hannah66665]

I'm not really happy that things like the cube have become a "trend" either because it has spread misinformation that they are an instant cure for a lot of things... when I was first researching them I spent a while reading opinions by people on the autism spectrum and times they've basically had to deal with people telling them "hey, have you heard about the fidget cube? it'll fix you and make you tolerable."
Had to do a little digging to find it but it was actually this article that I first heard about them from... then I did more research myself.
(hope this isn't too terribly off topic... I kind of assume the spinner was made after the popularity of the cube)

[Ponyfan]

I was interested in the cubes and spinners for the anxiety benefits as I sometimes suffer from really bad anxiety over small issues and thought these might help. So far the spinner hasn't seem to have helped me at all and it's too soon to tell about the cube but I agree that they shouldn't  be considered the instant cure/a solution for everyone as everyone is different

Ponyfan

[lostpony]

The kids store I frequent has cubes and spinners for $5 each and the one with lights was I think $8. 

When I get anxiety I have to stop whatever is triggering me (usually something that brings me back to a bad place) and curl up with plush ponies for a while to feel better.  If I must stay on task, symptoms get worse and I end up totally de-focused, dysfunctional, twitchy and irritable.  You don't want to be around me when I am working on something like that with a difficult deadline, and since I don't reach for things I already have for relief i don't think cube or spinner would help me. 

I am guessing they are more likely to be helpful for people who already get some relief from fidgeting with things but get bored of those things and need something more complicated or variable (cube) or more active (spinner).  But that's just a guess.  As Ponyfan said, everyone is different.

The concept that they are going to make you less annoying to everyone else is unfortunate (and apparently inaccurate judging by some of the comments in this thread), but someone who says something like that isn't necessarily being mean, they might really be trying to help and just not understand how that comes across...hopefully.

I'm sorry the spinner hasn't helped you, Ponyfan.  Have you tried putting some pony stickers on it?

[Pinkie21]

Back in my day, we had rulers and pencils.  The old person inside me thinks these fidget spinners are ridiculous and a waste of money.
...then I remember, I had Pogs...