Bookstore Misconceptions
As if I haven't already shattered everyone's notion of bookstore employment...
I'm sitting here reading Jane, one of my favorite women's magazines because it's chill, to-the-point, and is printed on this nice matte paper. And it was created by the creator of Sassy, which we just looooved when we were thirteen. It was the anti-Teen and YM and was just fabulous.
Anyway. There's a short advice column with Jordana Brewster, and one of the questions is, "How do I find a job that doesn't suck?" Ooh, I think, this could be interesting. And you know what her answer is?
"Look for something that doesn't require sitting at a desk...I always thought working at a bookstore would be a lot of fun--you'd get downtime to read and could talk to people with different ideas."
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahha. Not gonna lie, I seriously spit my tea onto the page.
First of all? THERE IS NO READING GOING ON HERE. We are not allowed to read, no matter how slow it is. I probably read more than most of the employees, only because I have to go over the NY Times book review and PW and the NY Review of books in order to try to find new, interesting titles to stock the drive aisle with. But that's not real reading. We would NEVER EVER EVER get to sit and read a book while working. So if you have some romanticized view that working in a bookstore is all fun and intellectual and nerdy? Consider it squashed.
I mean, we certainly talk about books. And we have geeky bookstore jokes that only we think are funny (like when a customer set down the Nicole Richie book under a sign that says "New trends in Science"). And we all read a lot--OUTSIDE of work. But there aren't many jobs where, when the workload is light, they'd say, "Kick back, grab a latte, read a book." There is ALWAYS something else you can be doing, and reading Us Weekly isn't one. (Except for on Friday afternoons when we tally up the results of the weekly "Who's on the cover of Us Weekly" game. This is required by the "Kate and Brian might go crazy if they have to shelve another book" statute of May 2006 and has been mandatory protocol since.)
And Jordana's romantic notion that we get to "talk to people with different ideas"? Well, sure I do! I mean, today Bible Lady told me all about the pages she lines her shoes with because the devil enters your body through your feet. If that isn't a "different" idea, I don't know what is.
2 comments:
It is curious how retail stores do not let their employees read. Would it not make sense though, to allow them to read material that atleast pertains to the store? Fashion mags for clothing stores, any *book* (perhaps preferably a new release for a bookstore), photo mags for a photo shop, etc.?
For my own part, I do not understand either. Employers probably feel that their staff is wasting money standing around reading. Perhaps they (the employers) don't read themselves and so don't understand the potency... What sort of bookstore is it? perhaps it's further back, haven't read that far yet.
IC.
Bookstores expect the employees to read however, each day contains a wide variety of tasks that need to be completed, and how would you like to come into a bookstore and not be assisted because an employee was in the middle of a chapter of an amazingly good book.
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