Working Smarter, Not Harder

One of the biggest challenges of my job at Pencils is to appear to be working, when in fact there is absolutely nothing to do. I've noticed that my associates have taken on certain methods to achieve this ruse... primarily by hiding in a far-off corner of the store, in office furniture or art supplies. For myself, I found the perfect solution... retrieving shopping carts from the parking lot. If I'm lucky, I can spot a cart or two that has been hijacked to the other end of the strip mall, which can lead to a 15 minute "cart retrieval". It has the benefit of allowing me to get fresh air, exercise and the satisfaction that I'm returning property to the rightful owner. When I manage to wrangle the carts back into the store, I inform the manager, Matt, "All carts accounted for, SIR!"