On 17 Dec 2020, August Abolins said the following...

Research science, depending on what's being researched, if obviously les physically demanding than other career paths, but it can be mentally demanding.

I would guess in your work, you have to research your clientele. You tra what types of books or what authors your customers buy, and figure out w upcoming releases the are likely to be interested in.

You make it sound that I just sit around all day studying sales data! ;)

Not what I meant. I was expanding on one particular aspect of your job that shares similarities with part of reesearch science and that I have similat experience with as well.

I'm not sure of the particulars of dealing with publishing houses, but you might have to figure lot quantities or minimum quantities of a book need to order, and compare that to how many you anticipate selling, and many that will leave on your shelves, suseptible to inventory tax. For example, if two or three people show interest in an upcoming release, bu have to order 50 or 100 copies from the publisher, does it make business sense for you tto order that book? Can you return unsold copies, and how does that cost you if you can>

That's less than 1/4 of whatever else there is to do. In addition to
the research I need to do, you missed, accounting, bookkeeping,
marketing, sales, advertising, promotions, in-store assistance and recommendations, repairs, cleaning, deliveries, and a few more things - all that and I cannot guarantee what $'s I take home at the end of the day. Not cushy.

Other than sales and marketing related tasks, which I can do, but it drives
up my anxiety, the rest are things I enjoy greatly.

I'm probably weird, but money isn't a factor for me when considering cushy.

Doing things I like is cushy.

i'm oversimplifying, but that's what I see as a comparison to a part of job, and at least a part of what reasearch scientists do.

Good. You have confirmed that they have far less to worry about whilst securing steady pay. Seems to me that they have it very cushy! ;)

No. As I said, I was oversimplifying. There are other aspects to their jobs beyond research, just as there is more to you job than analyzing sales data.

They have to worry about budgets and funding and the like as well to
guarantee that steady pay.

But as I've said, your idea of a cushy job and mine aren't the same.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: theoasisbbs.ddns.net:1357 (1:153/757.26)

Hello Charles!

** On Thursday 17.12.20 - 01:58, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins:

I'm probably weird, but money isn't a factor for me when
considering cushy.

[Thanks for migrating the discussion to CHAT. If the
conversion were to continue, it may as well be here now.]

Regarding cushy.. I defined what I meant by cushy (meaning,
work with no concern of lack of wages). Then you defined it
differenty (something fun to do). I understand your
explanations, but you changed the basis of the discussion of
what cushy was initially. ;)

Doing things I like is cushy.

Exactly.

Good. You have confirmed that they have far less to
worry about whilst securing steady pay. Seems to me that
they have it very cushy! ;)

[snip]

They have to worry about budgets and funding and the like
as well to guarantee that steady pay.

Those elements are usually the concerns of an administrator or
project coordinator - and not the concern of someone scraping
a petri dish, cleaning a test tube, or peering through a
telescope.

But as I've said, your idea of a cushy job and mine
aren't the same.

Understood. So, the original discussion is something else
now. I have made my point. I can move on. Besides, I have a
*lot* of work to do - most certainly more than what a
researcher needs to worry about. And.. I cannot be sure how
much money I'll have for groceries - very much different than
what a researcher has concern for. ;)

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)

Hello Charles!

[On X-SMAPI-DateWritten: 16 Dec 20 14:57:20, you wrote to
me]:

That makes sense. Your job still sounds pretty cushy to
me. But we probably have different standards for what
cushy is.

How's this for cushy:

This last week has intensified as people are very anxious to
have deliveries of their Special Orders (not necessarily what
I have in stock) arrive before Christmas. I thought that I was
pretty much done with requests LAST friday, but people still
came to me on Mon, Tue, and Wed to place orders! In some
cases it is not a problem as I have a special account with one
distributor that guarantees a delivery in 24hrs (much better
than Amazon, btw) ..at no additional cost. But some
distributors need about 3 or 4 days to deliver - so an order
on Dec 18 is still feasible. So.. the "cushy story is..

At home from about 9p to 3a, I was busy studying orders,
consolidating where I can, checking stock, and finalizing the
orders that can be placed online through the web services.

Then.. after 5 hours sleep, I am back at the shop to finish
the orders that can only be done via email and special
resources that I only have at the shop. That took another 5
hours - considering that I had to interrupt that with work at
the counter, helping people with research, recommendations in
person and on the phone, unpack and search existing deliveries
for previous orders, and some modest chit chat.

Doing something I enjoy would be pretty cushy to me.

Sure, I can say that it wasn't like I *didn't" enjoy the
above, but the work takes a lot of time and sacrifice to get
it done (and criticism if I fail); *that* does not bode cushy.

And at the end of it all, I can't guarantee that it will pay
off - literally. ;)

So, yeah.. Sometimes I feel that I would rather peer into a
telescope and make notes. That would be cushy.

Today, I can feel some repercussions: my back hurts. It
usually happens after feeling a lot of stress. Considering
the swings of stress that I endure, I'm surprised that I
haven't developed shingles by now.

But I have to be back at the shop at 8a tomorrow to get at
least 2 hours of uninterrupted time to unpack some recent
deliveries that may or may not contain some special orders of
the previous weeks.

Unpacking is not as simple as opening a box and sticking the
books on the shelf. Every order needs to be checked for
missing items, damaged items, and in many cases the books need
to be relabled with Canadian pricing.

Today, I learned that I was missing one box from a delivery of
3 total. The tracking record claimed that it was delivered at
my destination LAST WEEK! But the problem these days (due to
Covid shit) is that the delivery guys self-sign on my behalf.
They just drop off the boxes and leave. They don't give any
time to check if all 3 of 3 boxes are present, for example.

Yeah, real cushy. :/

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)