After a year and a half... the search is over (for now!)

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Yep, that's right... I finally have a job. Working at Big W (Australia's equivalent of Walmart) as either a the male version of a checkout chick (checkout chuck?), a nightfiller or someone on the floor (not to be taken literally!) - which finally means a beginning to a stream of income and an end to my stepmum whinging about me...

Congrats on your new found source of income.

Advice: In a retail environment, keep your mouth shut at all costs until you learn the 5 W's of everyone your going to be working with.

congratulations, aaron!

and scoots - what are the "5 Ws"?

Good question Vetivert.

What exactly are the five W's?

Just try not to be the guy on the floor all too often.

Congrats!

(Checkout chuck?!)

BeeBee

That's very good, Aaron. Congratulations from an involved poster.

By the way, the five W's are who, what, when, where and why.

Awesome! Best wishes to you!

Congratulations and good luck

Y

i've worked in retail for five (long!) years so i am going to pass my wisdom on to you(!).

1. don't trust your colleagues (especially those of equal status to yourself). i've lost count of the times when a colleague has approached me and said something nasty about another member of staff (and i've agreed with them just to keep the peace) and then they go and tell the person they were talking about that I said it! i still don't understand why people do this to me but it has happened in more than one job by two completely unrelated people.

2. put your boss before everyone else that you work with. this has been a big problem for me as i naturally treat everyone the same, regardless of status. but i once got in to lots of trouble because i didn't show my boss "respect". this confuses me too because i thought treating everyone equally was respectful.

3. always say hello / hi to your colleages as soon as you see them everytime you begin a shift. i used to delay acknowledging colleagues if they looked busy because i thought they wouldn't appreciate being interrupted. but eventually i discovered that they interpreted this as me intentionally ignoring them and thought i was rude.

i hope what i have written doesn't scare you but i wanted to share these experiences with you because i wish someone had told me these things before i started working!

good luck with your new job.