In response to my last post, I've had some Devil's-Advocate bluntness thrown my way. I'm a reasonable person, so I admit these are all fair questions. For example:

• i'm going to be blunt..but what do you expect them to do? retail usually involves being flexible and able to work a variety of positions for the establishment.
• 
  
• i agree they should give you another shot at register (perhaps with increased supervision), but it's unrealistic to expect to not be scheduled in kids.
• you said you hadn't been in there for awhile and then you threw a fit the first time they put you in that section? honestly, suck it up. if you can't handle it, then Bookseller is not the right place to be working.
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  did you have any luck with that museum job?
  

And to this I respond:



You're going to be blunt, and I'm going to be blunt right back:

• 
  There's a difference between flexible and being a doormat. I am open and ready and willing to whatever they ask whenever. I'm always one to buck up and pick up extra shifts when people need off, or if people need something. I'm perfectly happy to do it, and I've done it on many occasion when management calls at the last minute needing help. Working in Kids on a regular basis is the ONLY thing I'm not flexible about. I'm flexible about my schedule. I'm flexible about who I work with and duties I'm assigned.
  Working in Kids on a regular basis is the ONLY thing I'm not flexible about. I'm extremely uncomfortable working in Kids, and when they had the chance --even before I got yanked off the registers-- they'd shove me back there because I was a woman. Before I spoke up, I was getting there every damned weekend, which was nightmare.

• 
  Basically the bottom line is that I can learn to work around the dyscalculia, I believe. But I didn't get the chance to do so, because my Store manager was flipped out. And now because he's flipped out, and using some rather sketchy business ethics to justify his decision, I highly suspect I'm going to be shoved into a crappy position.
  I honestly would help out in Kids for awhile if I knew that it was short term. But absolutely I am not becoming the solution for That Problem for them. I know it's an easy fix, but I'm not that person. I wish I were-- but I don't have it in me. I really don't. Why? I've explained it before, but I'll summarize again: I don't mind working in Kids on rare or random occasion. But I won't work there on a regular basis. I will not. I cannot. That sounds ridiculous to you, fine. But I have limits, and that's mine. I am not paid a paltry $8 an hour to be a babysitter for 25 kids running around ripping things up, screaming, and being unbelievably ill-behaved while their parents sit and read magazines or just drop them off in there altogether; I am not paid $8 an hour to be the Token Girl when there are 4 males up at Customer Service standing around shooting the shit while I'm busting my ass doing a "female job". And yes, it's viewed that way.

• I can handle working with the public/retail in alot of ways, and believe me, I do. I bitch here alot, but I keep it together at work, 90% of the time. You wouldn't believe the shit I deal with on any given day. All day. Many, many days. But that department is not one of the ways I can do it and keep my sanity or be a good employee to the company. Period. And yeah, I admit it: I lost my shit and threw a fit because I saw it in my mind as the beginning of what I had feared would happen all along once I found out Hannah was leaving. I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, I'm not even justifying my losing my temper with a manager. ( In my defense, she then lost her shit on me, and had to apologize, too.) The smarter thing to do would have been to do the shift, complain little and keep an eye on how things began to pan out. But thats not how it panned out, and well, shoot me. I'm human.


• 
  I've heard nothing from MOCA despite my calling HR AND the Education Department and speaking to assistants to get a bead on what might be missing in my resume, if there was someone I could talk in a strictly informational interview, etc. I've been persistant and tenacious to the very edge of annoying with these people, and now I have to let it go.

If I had another choice other than retail, I'd certainly take it right now.