Next time someone comes to your door like that do the following:  Smile, go over and shake their hand.  Then while you still have their hand gently guild them into the room and shut the door behind them.

If they ask you what you are doing, calmly tell them what you've said here.  If they try to argue with you, ask them if they would like it if you went to their office and did the same thing.

Could you maybe post a sign on the door that says something to the effect of 'Please close the door behind you promptly, so all the cold air we're holding hostage doesn't escape'? (Or maybe something funnier and wittier that is escaping me this morning, due to lack of caffeine...)

I hate when they keep pointing at somebody else, that will point at somebody else again and again, avoiding purposefully to give you the straightforward answer!!!

Got sold on taking this job in June that was made out to be something it was definitely not with a company that was overstated in every way.

Here we are almost at the end of July and on Monday I'm going to be co-running this company for an absentee company president who will most surely fire me and my soon-to-be co-manager for keeping the business afloat while he handles extended family business. Did I say afloat? Yes, literally. This place is about to go under completely and it sure would have been nice to have known that two months ago so I could have gone over its books and accounts fully to work on our funding before all our lines of credit declined one after the other on Friday.

The other rub? Neither me or my soon-to-be co-manager are managers. Or even directly in the management chain of command and she's only been at this place a month longer than me and works part-time. So, what that translates into is me. I'm going to be running a company I've only been at two months in an industry I have no experience in for the hearty reward of probably being fired for it as soon as the company president gets back.

Only bonus? If somehow it doesn't go under, I get to put some ridiculous quals on my resume for whatever my next job is, which can only be better than this place.

I work in retail, specifically frozen foods, and the job has been really grinding me down lately. Sure the stockpiling blitz everyone went on a while ago at the start of the pandemic was harrowing, but we're used to high traffic.

What is grinding me down is the lack of supply. We're only a regional chain, so while we're not as unlucky as smaller stores it's hell getting frozen food to shelve at times. For two months we've only had two flavors of waffle and finally got waffles to stock, and we're still fighting for Blue Bunny ice cream.

There's backstock, but only of things that don't sell super fast. Moreso than usual all we have is what's on the shelf. Two days ago there was literally nothing in the storage freezer but ice. Though we did finally get a truck in.

I'm losing hours because I don't have any work to do because pretty much all we have to shelve is right off the truck and stays on the shelf all day with no need to stock more even if we do have more (we probably don't).

It's freaking nuts and stressful. I'm slightly worried I might be scheduled fewer days or be cut completely.

And today a lady was snippy because we didn't have more flavors of those tiny little blue Bunny ice creams that cost a dollar.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:01, Sun 26 July 2020.

I live in western Oregon. We've had no shortages; guess it's the location.

People get snippy about the silliest things, don't they?  I'm in Canada, high risk because of my age, so I've only been inside a grocery store once since March 17th.  Last time I was, there was still a shortage of the kind of high fibre bread I need, and the paper products aisle (toilet paper, tissues, paper towels) was empty.  I have no idea whether there was ice cream or not!  And I still don't know what is short, unless it's one of the things I order and can't get.  Like dry mustard??  Is someone hoarding that, or is the supplier having issues?  But that wasn't a big deal, we just made something else than what we'd intended it for.  For me the problem is the cost of ordering online (in general it's a neat system, I place the order and a few days later my husband picks it up.  Parks, let's them know he's there, and they deliver to the car, no contact at all).  For instance, normally I would pick my meat depending on price, availability, and size of package.  Now, I'm not sure what I'm going to get so I have to order a few more things than we actually need, then sometimes do get them all, in larger or smaller packages, at higher prices (never seem to be lower unless it's because the package is much smaller).  We are starting to get more fresh vegetables now that local farms have more crops ready, but again I'm ordering blind, and sometimes end up with less for more money than I was expecting.

In reply to cheezeoflegends (msg # 1584):

Most of my food is fine to get but the one thing I look forward to most every week is the frozen pepperoni pizza I treat myself to, fruiting shortcake is never there anymore. Started getting the four cheese and adding pepperoni to it but that is even out of stock.

All they got left is white chicken and that is running out and I refuse to eat chicken on pizza.



All the above is regard to the one brand I get, I don't like the other brands or they are way to fruiting expensive (if I am going to pay that much I'll get it from a pizza restaurant).
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 15:21, Sun 26 July 2020.

I feel so powerless as a GM on this website. Today I had to delete a game I had very high hopes for because my players just wouldn't participate. It feels like a drag. I don't know what I could have done differently. My NPCs had personality, my world had secrets to discover, I gave them choices, I was active ...

I just don't understand why you would apply for a game and then barely show your face?! It's frustrating to always have to poke the party with a stick all the time so they will actually react to events (even though I should be the one reacting to their actions but that dynamic apparently works even less). I tried to make it clear to them that I'm not expecting a novel-worthy post - just a general "This is what my character is up to while this is happening" if nothing more.

It makes me feel sad to realize that my campaign is for the trash and that I can't really do anything to save it. D:

In reply to Bell of Wishing (msg # 1588):

I have had that problems on numerous websites. Both as a GM and as a Player. It's a sad fact there are some people are just plain garbage.

In reply to Bell of Wishing (msg # 1588):

I've been playing or GM'ing PBP games for over a decade (here at RPOL and on similar sites) and I've frequently encountered the same problems.  It can be very discouraging, especially as a GM, since running a game requires an enormous investment of time and creative energy.  The anonymity of this format and the lack of any consequences for players who suddenly disappear unfortunately makes the problem a common one.

I've had some success both as a player and as a GM but those experiences are definitely the exception and not the rule.  The majority of games will unfortunately fail within the first few weeks or months.  So why do I keep going?  Because when a game hits and you get a group of dedicated and motivated players, it's some of the best role playing and storytelling in any format.  I've also made some close friends along the way.

Here are just a couple of my additional thoughts to maximize the chance for success (and you're probably already doing these things):

- Clearly communicate your expectations up front and have your potential players verbalize their commitment to active participation and to letting you know when they decide to leave your game.

- Anticipate significant player turnover, especially during the first couple of months, and plan for it.  Construct your story in a modular way so that it's easier to remove inactive characters and introduce new ones.

- Ensure that your in-character posts always advance the story to a dramatic point where the characters have to take an action, make a decision, respond to dialogue, etc.

- If you're using a particular game system to run your game, ignore the published initiative rules and always make initiative in the order of player posting so that no one ever has to wait for someone else to post before them.

- Encourage players to make contingent in-character posts (i.e. if one thing happens, I do this and if not I do this other thing).

- Encourage players to make any dice rolls (if you're using them) and include them in their narrative posts.

- Communicate extensively with your players.  Answer questions immediately and try to respond to all posts as soon as possible (in or out of character).  Address any concerns in a fair and positive fashion either in your OOC forum or via PM.

- Develop a list of players who have been active, constructive participants and approach them privately when you have an idea for a new game to see if they're interested.

- Don't be afraid to politely remove players who are disruptive or non-responsive.  I usually give non-posting players three chances before removing their game access (twice via PM and then one final contact through rMail).

- Don't be afraid to suspend your game if the players fizzle out on you.  Be grateful for any successful role playing that occurred and the enjoyment that you got from it and move on to the next idea.  You can always hold the game in an inactive status for a couple of months and then re-solicit for new players.  Sometimes you can get lucky and successfully relaunch a dormant game.

Anyway, I doubt any of that is particularly helpful but that's been my approach so far.  Deciding to run a game is a significant undertaking and often involves challenges and disappointments.  We do it because we love it and the only way forward is to keep trying to improve as a storyteller and hope to find players who will make the effort worthwhile.

In reply to Bell of Wishing (msg # 1588):

I took a quick look at your game and you're already doing most of the things that I mentioned above.

However, it looks like you closed your RTJ window pretty quickly (you stated "in less than 10 hours" in the looking for players thread).  From my experience, I've never had much success with a first come / first served RTJ approach and I would recommend leaving your applications open for a bit longer and having a dialogue with your prospective players before making your final player/character selections.

Otherwise, it looks like you have a good start to your story and I wish you the best in keeping it going!
This message was last edited by the user at 19:30, Sun 26 July 2020.

I guess I should have kept them coming before making final decisions. But now I already have a party underway and I'm way too invested into their characters. I resurrected the game hoping to make amends and get everyone on the same page again but I don't have high hopes ...

My first game should have been some kind of dungeon crawler where anybody can just tackle some selfmade dungeons off the bat without any story or preparations. Would've helped me see who is actually active and who isn't.

IMO, some people like to create characters, often the more exotic the better. And the "exoticness" of the character and the chances of the player dropping out correlate.*

Idea: If you wish personality and character interaction to  be prominent, have a character interaction scenario set up off the bat. Offbeat: Have them start out at a party playing charades.

*Or there's this in lore: Original D&d applicant: "I want to pay an elf."

GM: "Do you have some details in mind?"

Applicant: "I want to pay an elf with a sword."

This message was deleted by the user at 01:50, Mon 27 July 2020.

I ran at least one game in which the turnover was so high that the entire original cast was replaced.  Strangely, the quest the original cast began continued.

I thought your advice was very good, Cithindril. This one stuck out the most to me (because I hadn't quite thought of it that way yet).

I've definitely been bit before by weaving things into a tale that have been tied only to a particular character ... only to have that player drop.

Wow, 10 hours isn't very long.  Consider if you put the game up just as someone is going to work, or to bed, they may not even see it until you've closed it.  Or even if they get a glance at it, they don't have time to consider and get back to you after work/sleep.  So you'll tend to get the 'apply to anything' type, the ones who don't think about whether a game really suits them/what character might suit the game.  As a moderator on another site, where games are not put up without approval, there are two things I watch for, though neither is required - Does the GM ask for a writing sample?  This can be done in a number of ways, but it tends to insure the applicant can form understandable sentences.
And does the GM intend to take first-come-first-served, or give applicants at least a couple of days and then pick the best fits?  First come doesn't tend to work well.  Games with that mind set tend to fail pretty quickly.

There's a coworker at my workplace that several times has commented (sometimes to nobody) about everyone on the break room being on their phones and nobody talking. Talking about how in her day people talked to each other in a derogatory tone.

She's also filed complaints about me because she doesn't like the smell of my deodorant but saying I have BO, which I don't, I shower twice before work since I go to the gym. I literally can't have BO. I've gotten two freakin' warnings about this and nobody else I work with has ever known me to stink.

Freakin' old lady needs to mind her own business.

In reply to cheezeoflegends (msg # 1598):

Document each time she makes the complaint in the public break area.  Document every time you shower.  The complaining lady will be the one who is in trouble if you can document instances of her deliberately bullying you; it's harassment.  I had to do this to get one of my bosses to let me alone - the boss who wrote me up because she 'didn't like the way I wrote the number 4'.  Human resource departments do not like to be threatened with harassment lawsuits.

Previously during a prior sale on Breyer's Ice cream in the store i work in a customer pointed at the door full of Breyer's Ice cream and asked "Are these the Breyer's Ice creams on sale for x?" This display having a 2x3 sale tag on every flavor in way that it was not obscuring the product. That is 31 tags saying sale and that price. I had to resist saying No.

Earlier this week there was a sequel. Another Breyer's sale. A customer pointed to the Belfonte ice cream (which was not on sale) and asked "Are these the Breyer's Ice creams on sale for x?"

Standing 6 doors away I glanced to the door I was loading, and to the ice cream that I literally had in my hand. Then to the cart full of that same ice cream to load it. Breyer's Ice cream. I was currently and obviously loading the correct door.
This message was last edited by the user at 07:17, Tue 11 Aug 2020.

In reply to cheezeoflegends (msg # 1600):

No comment on the level of Stupid Zombies you find in Retail Land.

The problem with working retail is that you get crap from corporate.  They don't want to pay a decent wage that you can live on, but they want to pile work upon work upon work on you, while demanding you give good customer service.  Then you have customer who come in (most of them decent and will treat you decently) who want to treat you like you are their personal servant, and badly at that.  You get dumped on by corporations that treat you like you are dime a dozen (they would rather fire you and train someone who will work for less money than give you a raise), you get dumped on by customers, for a crappy wage that they never want to increase for all the work you do.  There is no real incentive for either loyalty or to provide good customer service.
Retail companies don't understand.  You want to turn profits, you take good care of your employees.  Your employees, in turn, are more loyal and have incentive to take good care of the customers, who keep coming back and draw new customers with them.
When I was taking my business admin classes, I read about this family-owned, five restaurant burger place called Dick's in the Seattle/Tacoma area, and how they were successfully competing against the big fast-food burger chains.  Most of their employees were highschool and college kids working part-time, and weren't expected to stay past graduation.  Here is what they did:
Better than minimum wage pay.  They paid the employees' insurance premiums.  They trained them in ALL aspects of the store's operation.  If the employee works for more than six months, they give them $10k for college.  If the employee does voluntary community service, they would pay that employee their wage for that volunteer work.  Do you know how they were able to compete with the big boys while spending all that money?  Almost no turn over rate.  They were not constantly having to hire and train new employees.
Training a new hire involves an employee who can't do the job because they don't know it, tying up the time of another employee who knows the job, but can't do it because they have to teach someone else.  It's like in war:  wounding an enemy soldier takes at least two out of the battle, because someone has to help get that wounded one off the battlefield.

This message was deleted by the user at 16:10, Wed 12 Aug 2020.

In reply to phoenix9lives (msg # 1602):

More and more corporations are soulless entities.  The people making the decisions are too isolated from the reality of the work, and have probably never done it themselves.  Kind of like someone who has never done child care and housework wondering why a housewife can't get more done!