Monday, February 9, 2009

You Must Not Know What My Kidding Face Looks Like

Happy Monday! Normally this day is the beginning of the week for most people. For me it is simply a continuation of the past week. Thats because I dont get the normal weekend break. It is an endless cycle of get up, go to work, leave work, go back to second job, go home and then sleep.

I was cashiering at Walmart the other night and a customer told me I looked tired. Since I had just gotten to work I was surprised. Because I didnt feel tired. So what exactly is tired anymore? I have been working so much I think I have gotten numb to what tired is. I think there must be different levels of tired. I wonder if I ever stopped going for a minute if my body would just shut down. I dont have time to test that theory out so I guess it doesnt matter.

One thing I have learned from working retail is that the job is not as easy as I once perceived. I will not be the customer from hell ever again. Until I started working at Walmart I thought the people that worked there were lazy and for the most part uncaring about the customer. I was wrong. I want to let people know that most of the employees work extremely hard and they do care about their job and want to help the customer when they enter the store. We just arent God. We arent able to stand on our feet 8 hours checking people out with no lunch or break. Not to mention it is against labor laws for us to do that. No matter how busy we are we just cant do it.

Case in point--Friday I was called to cashier on the front line at 3:00 pm. It was busy! I thought it was Christmas all over again. The lines were long and people were not happy. But I try to make it my job to make people happy before they leave the store. Time passed on while I was cashiering and I began to get tired. But the lines were long so I pressed on. Checking out people as quickly as possible with a smile on my face. The CSM came over and told me I needed to go to supper and to cut my light off and bring the line down. I looked at the clock and it was 8:00 pm! I had missed my break but didnt realize it. I was hungry and my feet were hurting. And the lines were still long. But I didnt have a choice. I had to eat and I had to rest. As I was checking out the last customer a lady came to my line and I politely let her know I was closing. That was when I got mad and she did too. Everything in parenthesis was in my head and didnt come out my mouth.

Her response: "You have got to be KIDDING ME! Do you see how way, way long these lines are? (no ma'am, I wasnt aware I am an idiot) This is RIDICULAS that you would go on break when the lines are this long. (yes, I am sub-human and do not deserve to be treated any other way) Is there a manager? Surely you arent LEAVING?

Out loud: Yes man'am I am leaving at the manager's directtion?

Her response: ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

(Does it look like Im FUCKING KIDDING?)
Out Loud: Have a nice day ma'am.

Then I walk away and leave her standing there with her mouth on the floor.

4 comments:

Ryan Ashley Scott said...

This is why I don't go to Walmart. It's the other people who shop there that make me cringe. So rude! Glad you didn't let her get to you - everybody needs a break, especially when you work in customer service.

Anonymous said...

People are crazy. I used to work at a Pier 1 clearance store. All of our inventory was broken, we had uneven numbers, or it was out of season. When I cashiered people would be all "This is broken." DUH!

Michelle W said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michelle W said...

Funny stuff that I can totally relate to. I cashiered in college. We used to joke and say how fun it would be if we could say WHATEVER we wanted like all those things in your paranthesis and that the next day it would be like nothing ever happened. Wouldn't that be great?! I would have loved to say "Oh, good thing you told me to put your bananas on the top because I'm a dumb ass and was gonna put them on the bottom to help cushion your canned goods". I think everyone should have to cashier for one day.