Sayonara Shelving

Today was my last day of employment with Barnes & Noble - no more early morning shelving for me. My fellow shelvers and other coworkers set up a lovely going away spread in the break room today, complete with presents, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, treats from Panara Bread, colorful napkins and plates, baked goods, and fruit salad. Since it was completely unexpected, I felt so touched by the gesture from these people that have known me for only about a year. However, it's funny how you get to know your coworkers as if they are a family of sorts. Being in retail, we've all had to endure similar experiences which in turn creates common ground between all of us. We've all had the customer that compains because we don't carry the exact book he/she wants at that very moment. We can all talk about the time we were criticized too harshly or judged unjustly. We've all had to clean up after other people. We've all had to cope with the many changes in management over the year. And we've all had days when we were ready to simply walk out. However, through some of those less-than-pleasant experiences, we find things to laugh and joke about and ways to make each work day more tolerable. I didn't hate my job at the bookstore. In fact, I enjoyed being surrounded by books and knowing what was "hot" in the industry at the time. I loved doing storytime on Mondays and will greatly miss all the little faces that greeted me each time. I liked having control over how things were organized and coming in early to shelve the stock. The smell of the scones baking and the coffee brewing was a great was to wake up while working. But, like so many other jobs I've had, I was often frustrated by corporate decisions that seemed to create barriers and challenges, rather than invite opportunity and creativity in the workplace.

I will greatly miss my friends at B&N. I enjoyed working by each of them every morning and joking about the different elements of working at our particular store. I know that soon I'll be a distant memory for many of them, but if they happen to think about me every once and awhile, I hope that I'll be remembered as someone who was sincere and enjoyable to work with. Today, I leave with positive memories of working along some truly good people.