u/snarkapotamus7

I have complained MANY times on this sub about how frustrated I am with corporate and how much I'll look forward to quitting. After hundreds of job applications, I was finally offered a job in the field that I'm trying to pursue for my long-term career, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be facing the exciting path ahead! I'm feeling especially grateful in the wake of all the changes that are coming out for framing — I don't want to have to deal with the customization stuff and the "sTrEaMLiNiNg" of other important processes.

But as much as I've been actively looking forward to the day that I get to quit, I'm feeling surprisingly anxious about actually doing it. I'm submitting more than 2 weeks' notice because I'm the FM and I think that position warrants giving extra time, but I'm feeling oddly guilty about abandoning my framing team. They're all lovely people, and none of them are in a place where they can step up into FM. Including me, the total number of people regularly scheduled in the shop is 4 (2 framers, 1 cross-trained TM, and me, plus the CEM who subs in sometimes), and I'm really worried about leaving them in a bad spot. I'm hoping that in my last few weeks, I can maybe try to start cross-training someone so there can at least be someone at the counter?

I'm also worried about how this will reflect on store management. There have been a few resignations lately, and the excellent management (and my awesome team) is the only reason I've stuck around this long. (God knows it wasn't the pay, benefits, or company itself.) Is there a way to communicate to corporate that my resignation is entirely due to my own career prospects and has nothing to do with the management?

I'm honestly really surprised by how much I'm actually struggling with tendering my resignation, despite how thrilled I am to pursue this new position. Has anyone else felt the same way?

(edit: missed a word)

I have never worked a job this terrible in my life. I don't think I need to go over all the terrible ways that corporate is actively and intentionally sabotaging us, but here's a brief list of things that have made me want to pull my hair out (as someone in the framing department):

• Framing supply purge (you will pull my super steels out of my cold dead hands)
• The pressure to do B2B balloon sales as framers (BALLOONS HAVE LITERALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH FRAMING AND WE HAVE ENOUGH TO DO ALREADY)
• The complete lack of hours for people on the floor, necessitating us to put out fires on the floor
• The implementation of online framing (no glass options, no differentiation between stretched/unstretched canvas, people intentionally entering wrong measurements to get cheaper price, etc.)
• Balloon supplies being done through Artistree (I'm pretty sure someone submitted a balloon supply order without telling me, which caused my supply order to be cancelled)

Since I changed to full-time, my back hurts CONSTANTLY. I'm exhausted all of the time. I'm trying to work towards grad school, but when I come home, I barely have any energy. I'm in my 20s for god's sake; I'm supposed to be socializing and living my life. But I can't quit until I have something else lined up, and I don't want to work another job like this ever again, and I don't want to drop back to part time because I need the money, and I don't have the energy to apply to jobs because I'm just so freaking tired. I've never experienced a job that affects my life this much outside of working hours.

And the worst part is that I was excited to start here. I hoped that I would be able to help people fulfill their creative dreams and work with them on creative solutions to their crafting problems. While I've gotten to do a tiny bit of that, I spend most of my time daydreaming about when I can finally quit. A lot of the people hired around the same time as me have already left for better things, and I'm so sick of being yelled at by things that are corporate's fault. I refuse to apologize on corporate's behalf when the things that customers complain about are outside of my control.

I dream of the day when I can quit. When I can put online-only coupons and broken price checkers and being told to blindly obey by my DM and Zello behind me. I hate that I graduated into such a shitty job market. The jerks at corporate intentionally hire kind, well-meaning people so they can take advantage of our empathy for our coworkers, and they take advantage of the terrible job market by creating garbage pay, benefits, and working environments because they know how hard it is to land literally anything else.

(Rant over. I'm just so. freaking. burnt. out.)

Title. I've always considered wire to be top-of-the-line when it comes to framing (easy install, only one hole in the wall, flexibility when it comes to weight, etc.). But based on comments that I've seen lately (especially around the genuinely infuriating purge list), it seems like some people are making NWH their primary hardware as opposed to a backup/alternative option? Is this what's expected?

(Even if it is what's expected, I doubt that I'll ever try to push it — it is far less forgiving/user-friendly than wire, and it straight up cannot be used for some pieces, like canvases that jut out past the frame.)

The AI image on the packaging.

The finished demo project on the site.

All of the new JA crochet kits have clearly AI photos on them. The photos of finished projects on the website are RIDICULOUSLY different from the packaging, and one of the reviews from one of the kits said that there were errors throughout the pattern, including mentions of stitch markers that never came back and no description on how to sew components together. I only recognize this in the crochet kits because I'm familiar with how crochet is supposed to look/what AI crochet looks like, but I'd bet that other types of JA craft kits do this too.

This is SO HARMFUL, especially from a "craft store"! Beginners trying out a new craft will not physically be able to make the project in the package photo...because that finished product doesn't exist. This might deter people from falling in love with a new craft because they'll think they aren't good at it, when not even the most skilled professional could make that product from the kit provided.

Does anyone know the false advertising laws when it comes to things like this? The product on the package literally doesn't exist. There's no way that this should be legal. This is incredibly misleading and harmful to the crafting community.