So Far, So Good

If I would have wrote this post two days ago I would have wrote something like: I hate my job! Hate it, hate it, hate it!  But today all is better.  Day one was overwhelming (lots of stuff to learn and hundreds of anxious customers waiting in line while I learned it).  Day two was total craziness (massive lines, all of us in the cage were on our first or second day so there was no one to ask for help, counting out at the end of my shift took TWO HOURS, etc).  Day two was the day I was on the verge of quitting.  So I vented to the hubby who said, "if you don't like it, quit".
But I have half an annual list of goals that I still want to get through and almost all of them take money and we don't have a lot of extra money laying around so I wanted to do this job to make extra money to accomplish my goals and quitting would ruin this plan and plus I am a bit stubborn so I gave day three a chance.
Yesterday (day 3) was sooo much better.  I knew what I was doing, there were very few things I needed to ask for help with, and while it still took two hours to count out after my shift even though I prepped everything I needed for check out so perfectly that I thought it would take minutes (which it would have but the process for checking out was so chaotic that it took ages for the clerks to figured out what was what) that I just kicked back and figured I was getting paid nearly $40 to sit there and watch the chaos.  Plus I balanced perfectly.
Today is day 4 which I should have been working but another girl said she needed as many hours as she could get because she had a car payment due, etc so I told her she could have my shift today and I am going to just stay home and chill (plus I have been getting overtime every day since I started so I will still end up with the same out of money in this paycheck that I anticipated).  Then it is back to work tomorrow.
Here's some things I have learned:

• All new jobs are overwhelming on the first day, so even if you are tempted to quit, you should at least give the new job a week or two to determine if it really is an awful job or if you are just feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
• EVERYONE should have ZERO debt.  It is much more fun to go to work (or even quit a job you don't like) when you don't have bill collectors breathing down you neck.
• Being responsible for so much money is a high stress job.  I thought that dealing poker would be really stressful but now I think cashiering is more so.  Maybe I should be a dealer next year?
• Develop processes ASAP when you get to a new job.  We got a bit of basic training and were told that accurate counting was the most important thing to remember but I am sure everyone interprets that differently.  In my case, I quickly put together a 1, 2, 3, step process for taking money, printing out seat tickets, and giving change back that is the same every time so it is less likely I would get confused and mess up my money.
• If you are going to come to a big money-spending event (like the WSOP or even going on a family vacation), save money and put it aside specifically for the event.  It's one thing to blow through savings set aside for the poker tournament (some events are $125 each, others are $2500 each), it's another thing to cash your paycheck and hope you can squeeze out enough leftover money after the event to pay your house payment (a couple of my customers seemed to hint that that was the case).
• Be nice to people.  It is easy to take out your frustrations on your coworkers, customers, bosses, etc. when things aren't going well but if you tell yourself that you are going to be happy and pleasant no matter what, you won't do or say something you will regret and you will be remembered for being a nice person (I still go to the store where I worked last Christmas and everyone remembers me and they are very nice each time I come in even though I was tempted to ask a couple of them what prison they had been released from because their people skills were truly terrible...but I just forced myself to be nice and kind whether I thought they deserved it or not and everything worked out well in the end). 

My goal for June: keep this job so I can take hubby on a cruise in the fall (my new mantra).