Welcome to the working world of HTG.
If you've read my Surrounded  Page, you've heard me complain about my job.
This is where I share the rest of the story.

Working in a pet store is not all bad.  At my last store, the atmosphere was great.
I was surrounded by animal lovers, people with degrees in animal related fields, serious animal experience
and interesting products and magazines (which we were allowed to read).

I had some great customers too.
People who really wanted to learn about their pets and people just researching potential pets.
In fact, I still have a sticker on my computer monitor that a little girl gave me.
She was the cutest thing, spending the day with her father, who lived quite a distance from her.
Her mother had sent them out to get a fish for her tank before he left.
But her tank wasn't really suitable for anymore fish, so I talked her into a dwarf frog that would be ok.
She decided that this was just the greatest and I had to have a sticker in thanks :)
She was such a cutie!

I had some great regulars there too.
Last time I was in the area, I stopped in to say hi to my former co-workers.
I ran into a favorite regular of mine, someone seriously into goldfish.
She recognized me and even asked how Rob was doing.
She had heard that he had been sick from my former co-workers.

At my new store, my co-workers are definitely different.
In general, they're no less devoted to animals, but they're a lot less educated.
It's also not nearly as friendly of an atmosphere there.
 

We have some great regulars here too.
We also have many more reptile keepers, and big fish keepers.
People are also a lot more open to learning too.
I meet much less resistance to the idea that pet turtles require heat lamps
and big fish, or fish who get big, need big tanks.
I find this really interesting, as the area I work in now, is much worse off financially.
Maybe that's why they value their pets more though.

Unfortunately, the attitude of the customers does not reflect the attitude of the store.
I've found that most of my department doesn't know much about animals.
This is incredibly frustrating for me, but it's never going to change.

So to reduce my stress, and improve my health, I'm working there less and less and doing other things.
Right now, I mostly keep house, but I'm also working on making crafting profitable.

ANTISPAMMER LINK