Travelogue of the Temporary Worker

Last week I had the opportunity to work at one of the many Williams-Sonoma stores, Pottery Barn Kids. If you have never been in Pottery Barn Kids or looked at their website, you will be unaware of how adorable - and how outrageously expensive - most of their products are. A very tempting place for a mother of three girls. Although, some of the neatest items were the Star Wars sheets and Darth Vader and Storm Trooper decorative pillows. I made it through without purchasing anything even though I did receive a 20% discount.

I was working at the store because a friend of mine is in management at the Tampa location. They close all the stores across the country on the same day each February to complete their inventory check. They hire a few temporary employees in order to make the day go faster. I have never worked retail before or been in the back of a store to see where all the goods are kept. When I first saw the rows of floor to ceiling shelves, I was somewhat daunted.

Our task was relatively simple, we just had to go shelf by shelf scanning each item's bar code and then verify the number of each item. I am kind of a weirdo int hat I find that kind of work fun. ALthough, I would not want to do it on a daily basis. I was pooped by the end of the day. We worked from 6 am to 4:30 pm.

Working for that day reminded me why I love being an entrepreneur. No getting up at 4:30 am, no 30 minute commute, no supervisor, better pay. It also reminded me why I love working someplace other than my home office. Mainly being around other people and knowing work was done when I left the building.

That day was a fun diversion. It was good to be back in work environment. However, I would not trade it for my small business for anything.