“Remoted” – Workday 38 /Day 49

May the fourth be with you. (And also with you.) The dress code at the home-office is great. I’m 99.9% sure I would not be able to wear a Star Wars tee shirt at the office-office. Of course, it came with a small price in the form of flashbacks to different workdays as a retail visual merchandiser. 

When a new Star Wars franchise movie came out, we had new merchandise and displays launch in pretty much every department. There would be wall posters and product displays, and for one of these events during my time in retail, it required hanging Star Wars stuff from six foot metal grids on the ceiling. The grid was actually two grids that fit together and were secured to each other with zip ties, then carried up the big rolling ladder and attached to the ceiling with clamps. There were multiple ways the installation could go wrong, including forgetting to attach the clamps to the crossbars of the drop ceiling before hauling the grid up the ladder, and/or not having all the clamps facing in a specific way that allowed the grid to snap in easily. The grids were awkward and just flexible enough to make it challenging. The customers who would slam into the ladder with their shopping cart while I was atop the ladder (yes, this really happened) made it feel downright dangerous. That was part one of the saga.

The ceiling install that still
haunts my dreams.

When the grid was set, the next step was hanging a whole bunch of Star Wars ships and stuff from the grid with clear fishing line. The elements were supposed to be arranged in a very specific manner according to an instruction sheet that came with the kit. And by specific, it was a matter of counting squares on the grid for the placement of each filament to get the angles right. While standing on the ladder, reaching up for the grid on the ceiling. The  instructions were another test. The parts on the sheet were named in words but the labels printed on the individual parts were numeric codes. So that was fun. 

These ceiling displays were installed at the entrances and various departments like bedding and toys. But that wasn’t all of it. After a few weeks, they had to be moved to different departments. Because, you know, it wasn’t enough punishment the first time. Oy. 

There were a lot of things I really liked about the the visual merchandising gig, but that Star Wars install and the subsequent relocation ... not so much.