Upside Down

A quick lunchtime post...

Earlier this week, I learned that I'll soon be out of a job, probably sometime in early February. With the state of the company, I've been waiting for this day to come for some time -- our team has been untouched by the cuts that have been going on all around us for months. Because of the nature of my contract, I'm the one to go this round, but it has nothing to do with my performance; indeed, my boss has been trying to prolong this reality as long as possible.

I'm taking advantage of having this much notice to get my resume updated and am earnestly looking for a new opportunity in my field (web content management and/or training). In addition to getting my resume up on Monster and CareerBuilder, etc., I'm on LinkedIn, and have been spending my breaks and evenings getting my profile updated. I'm also trying to get some endorsements, and one of the best ways to do that (besides just asking for them) is to write them for others. I found a great little gem that some of you might get a kick out of: linekdIn endorsement generator. I think it's meant in all seriousness, but I'm serious when I say: Do not use this to create endorsements! There is no punctuation, it does not recognize gender, and some of the phrasing sounds trite. However, it is fun, and can - occasionally - produce a phrase that will at least trigger a kernel of an idea you can put to use.

I am grateful for the folks that reviewed my resume for me and made suggestions, as well as for all the good wishes and prayers coming from friends and family.

In other news
The only grocery store on my best route home is just dreadful (of course). The fact that it's small and doesn't have the greatest produce - or general selection - isn't a deal-breaker; we can do our main shopping a distance away at a Meijer or Kroger. For convenient stops on the way home, however, it finally became a no-go last night.

I stopped to get a couple of things, including kitchen garbage bags. Store brand, because that's almost all we buy lately (I also got hit with a pay cut earlier this month), the box was stickered $7.49, but rang up at $7.99. I pointed out the discrepancy to the clerk, who turned, peeled off the sticker and said, "Well, it's wrong."

I told her that the scanner law in Michigan required that if the scanner rings up higher than posted price, the posted price had to be honored, but if she didn't want to do that, she could just remove the bags from my order. She stood there for close to a minute, debating, then deleted the bags and re-rang them at the labeled price, scowling the entire time. When the credit card receipt printed out, she slammed it down on the counter with a pen.

One thing is really sad... they have seriously excellent bacon at the meat counter. That I'm going to miss.

Quick response to Jess, and anyone else that's wondering: the $5 bonus applies if you complete the transaction. Then they owe you the difference plus 10x the difference up to $5. I only ever attempt that when the staff at a store seems like they could comprehend. In this case, we've dealt with their quasi-shady dealings in the past and I knew it wouldn't do any good. Once, we had a store manager (at a Best Buy of all places) threaten to call the police on us. So a small-town grocery store wasn't likely to comply. (I also only press it if I don't notice the error until after I've paid.)