I'm too slow

[Mitsukara]

So I've had this perpetual problem. It's ticked people off on a personal level every now and then, but I didn't really care, but it's become obvious to me in recent time that it is somehow- a little more obviously so recently- impairing my job (and perhaps my previous job).

I think I mentioned before (or maybe not) that I was working at a Joann's craft/fabric store. This is no longer the case, because a little over a month ago they stopped giving me any hours. At all. No warning, just cut me off. Thanks.

So, I ran around and got a job. Seems McDonalds and Taco Bell are more stuck up about hiring than popularly believed, at least where minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum; or maybe they were legitimately full. Hell if I know. But the place that turned out to be desperate was Subway, and so I've been working there.

And constantly I'm told I'm not fast enough. I don't really get many complaints- or any major ones- from customers or anything like that, but a couple of the employees keep giving me crap about it. Like, sauce bottles should apparently somehow only take 15 minutes to count, get out, fill (working by manually squirting shit out of plastic bags), the entire floor must somehow be "completely" swept in 10 minutes, and other shit that doesn't really make sense. I don't really care so I try to move as quick as I can without outright screwing up, but it's never good enough for them.

Now frankly, I hate everything about food service and am trying to get another retail job as soon as I can anyway, because honestly that wasn't bad. But I keep thinking back to what happened at Joann's, as well as worrying about actually being able to get a new job and what kind of differences I may run into compared to Joann's and Wal Mart (my first job, and smoothest actually).

I know I tend to do things pretty slowly in general in life. Being organized is hard, my speed and focus tend to waver, and so on. I play videogames but honestly am not really good at action, and find portions of Mario 3 challenging at times, and truly suck when it comes to say, a real fighting game or speeds above 50CC in Mario Kart games. I feel the most comfortable with RPGs and action RPGs such as Castlevania games, and like to scrounge around for all the little details and goodies. I enjoyed Dragon Quest VII greatly, a game that takes 200 hours because of all the grinding and dialogue (no joke). To be more precise that's one of my favorite games ever. I won Zelda II, but it wasn't by being worth a crap at fighting Iron Knuckles (the timing to block their attacks seems like guesswork to me really) and avoiding projectiles (many of them are too fast) and whatnot, it was because I kept trying over and over and over again. I have loads of endurance and patience. Unfortunately it seems like no one wants that from an employee, just quick, relatively low-sloppy work. I got the low-sloppy covered I think, but that doesn't seem to cut it.

So yeah. Any advice on this? Or hell, any good guessers who think they have a feel for my mental tendencies got any recommendations on what sort of job I may want to keep an eye out for that I'd be better at?

[Dark Nation]

Well, any fast food place is probably going to be the same way, since they value "fast" over "good". Just look at any burger you get from McDonald's or Burger King. It never looks like the picture. It looks like something that was thrown together in about 3 seconds because it probably *was* thrown together in about 3 seconds, just like the restaurant wants.

That having been said, maybe being a server at a restaurant would be better. Unfortunately, you will almost certainly get paid less than minimum wage, the idea being that you should earn enough tips to make up the difference.

Another possibility could be delivery driver (so long as they don't make you work in the restaurant during your down time, as you'd end up in the same boat you are now). Depending on how the delivery drivers at a particular company are handled, you might be paid an hourly wage or may get a fee for each delivery you do.

[Archibaldo]

Well if you just started maybe thats why you're a little slow. Once you get used to things you will get faster. When I was working in the Fruits and Vegetables department at my local grocery store this summer, I would sometimes have to wash lettuce. When I first started it took me about 45 min to do a box, but by the end of the summer, I was down to about 10 min a box. Same with stocking the shelves, it used to take me an hour to do one cart but by the end of the summer I could do one in 15 min.

It's pretty much practice make perfect. When you do something enough you naturally get better at doing it with out even realizing it.

[The_Amaster]

Unfortunatly I have the exact opposite problem so I can't give any advice from personal experience, but yeah, food service sucks. Get a job somewhere that doesn't consider you a dime a dozen.

[Lilith]

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