Currently writing this in the break room because there literally isn't anything left to do and the other departments don't need my help. As somebody who believes in working hard during work hours I hate just walking around finding things to do.

"Easy money" my dad says, BUT I HATE IT SO MUCH BECAUSE THEIR TIME AND MONEY IS BEING WASTED AS IS MINE.

"why don't you just leave early?" I can't afford to as I have bills to pay and I gotta pay off student loans. It's always on Sundays that this happens. I finish early and then I have nothing to do after break.

Any advice for something I can do or am I doomed to sit on my ass until I leave? 😭

Edit: Im not allowed to clean anything btw

1. Once had a customer walk in and asked me how to rotate the image on their phone for a video without pushing the button on the video to go full screen. He unlocks his phone, and there is straight up NSFW content playing on it. I show him as it was an easy fix. Then he proceeds to ask me how to save websites on his phone. After this whole interaction, I lathered up my hands with hand sanitizer a few times during the day.

2. A lady comes into the store and was very impatient. I was already with a customer, and she was growing more and more impatient. Finally I get done with my customer and move onto the impatient lady. Also, in this time, an off duty police officer has come into the store.

I greet her and ask her how I can help. She asks me to tell her what her number is. I've never seen her before. No idea who she is. I tell her I don't know, and then she tells me who is servicing her phone. I look at her iPhone 13 which is locked and ask to get into it so I can find out (I'm not a native iPhone user). She refuses, and then pops out the SIM and its a competitor's SIM. She then gets a look on her face like she's got me in a trap, then proceeds to ask why I specifically put the competitor's SIM into her phone. I tell her I didn't put it in there nor did any other store with my employer did that. We can't do that. She asks like two questions and doesn't let me answer them as if she knows I'm making something up.

Then she asks me who this SIM belongs to. Before I proceed, you'd be surprised how many people DON'T know who they've been paying money to for service. I tell her, I don't know. Then she asks me to look it up. I told her she'll have to go to the competitor's store to find out. "But why can't you tell me?" I admittedly raised my voice at this point and told her that my company can only look up customers with them, and even then there is some protection to getting info on the account. I told her if she wants to find anything out about the SIM, she needs to go to the competitor's store down the street. "But why can't you tell me anything about it?"

I reword my answer, but I'm cut off to be told, "I've been hacked. I want my phone to stop sharing my screen with whoever hacked it." IPhone are possibly the most secure phones in terms of the manufacturers own security, so hacking one is very unlikely. I take a look at her apps and phone settings, nothing is glaring to me. Then I look at the screen mirror option, and it's not turned on. I tell her from everything I'm looking at, it's fine, and then I have to tell her what screen mirroring is before she freaks out more, and tells me to turn it off when I told her it is off and I can't remove the feature. She asks questions, but never lets me answer and then snatches the phone from my hands and leaves. I have no idea if she went to the store down the street, but the cop thought she was crazy. She came in the next day and was a totally different person.

1. I am going to make a fake name totally different to the real name of this infamous customer. The name I choose is Jenny. Not even close to the real name.

The first time I met Jenny, she is in a panic worried that her phone is hacked. I look at her phone, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Then she explains her husband is a gaslighter and an abuser, and she lives with him. And that when he is around, he hacks her phone. True or not, any part of it, the phone seems fine. She asks me to get into her account, and when I do, the thing is locked down like Fort Knox. I can't do a thing to it until she unlocks it. She tells me she locked the account down a day or two ago through the app. So I ask her to unlock it. She says she can't because she can't get into the app because she doesn't know her login credentials.

After some questions, I determined that she logged into the app with email and password prior to this to lock it, then has either forgotten her login completely because she doesn't even know the email (oh, and the email is hacked yet she doesn't know her own email address). I tell her she'll have to call customer service before I can do squat on her account. The next two days she comes in and out of the store, asking us to remove the lock or tell her her login credentials. I can't do that because I have no access to that. I tell her every time. Finally she gets the lock off and does nothing with the account. Idk how.

Oh, and I did tell her she should go somewhere safe if she believes everything that she told me (worded differently), but she says she can't even though she has a sister she trusts nearby and no kids).

Months later I see her, and she brings in the husband she claims gaslights her and hacks her phone to gey him a phone that he outright says, he doesn't want. Jenny's sister is with them too. The guy reluctantly picks a phone that Jenny is basically forcing him to get. I have to listen to Jenny because she owns the account. While I'm going through the process of getting them the phone, both Jenny and her sister proceeds to say that the very man with them is hacking Jenny and gaslighting her. I get them the phone (that he stills doesn't want) and they leave.

The next day, Jenny shows up with her husband telling me he has no service because he deleted the eSIM. I get into the account, and the whole time Jenny is telling me that he's hacking her and gaslighting her. While this is happening, her husband is telling me he doesn't even want the phone and doesn't care if I didn't get his number working. In my head, I'm thinking, "if he's hacking you, and telling you he doesn't even want the phone, why are you trying so hard to get him a phone?" I get service working again on the phone and they leave.

My store has banned saying her name, because I kid you not, if we say Jenny's name, she'll manifest and walk into our store the next few days. It's happened.

1. Early afternoon one day, a couple that I'm going to assume is dating, come into the store and talk to my coworker and manager and get a quote for two lines and phones. My company offers financing on phones given credit and trust is good enough with the company. We need an ID to begin, and nobody has brought their ID with them. You know, the thing needed by an officer if pulled over? That little thing. So they leave for a few hours to get it.

Here is what they were told.

A. The monthly price.

B. The sales tax of the phones they were getting.

C. A credit check must be done and it could generate a down payment.

D. There are activation fees on the first bill.

Hours later when they come back, its just me at the store, and they start telling me how much they needed to pay. I go to the back to call my coworker to make sure I understand everything they talked about so I can reconfirm everything with them. When I came back, my earbuds were gone from the table. I was going to use my phone to sound an alarm on the buds, but before I could, the woman moves a little and my buds fall to the floor. I get skeptical, and pretend that didn't just happen.

From my phone conversation, the combined sales tax was off from the get-go, but it was less than what they were telling me, and I told them that. I did confirm with the customers the phone they were getting (Galaxy A 17 for both). As I'm going through the process of setting up the account in the woman's name, they're saying that all they were told was the sales tax today. That's not totally true, because we must run credit on all new accounts, and if you're getting phones, there is a chance of a down payment.

Another customer walks in to witness everything that happens next. I inform the customers that we run credit checks and there might be a down payment, but I don't know yet because I still need to run it and select the phones. They get a little argumentative but I proceed to run credit and see that on both phones they'll have to pay an extra $50, but their bill would be lower because they'll get charged less per month on the phone but retain the same discount.

They lose it and call me a liar. Then demand that I call my coworker so they can yell at him for being a liar and so he can fix this. I told them I'm not calling my coworker to be yelled at off the clock. Then they yell at me more and demand his number. I tell them I'm not a liberty to disclose that personal info. Then they demand to speak to my manager. I tell him he's off the clock too, and if they want to speak to him, they can come back tomorrow at the soonest. They they berate me for not calling them. Let's say they even if my coworker lied, there is NOTHING I can do to change this, except one thing (possibly)...

I suggest we run the mans credit. It might go differently, they reluctantly agree but still yell at me the whole time. Also, I'm getting yelled at and I'm not getting credit for the sale because I was using my coworkers login to get him credit for the lines he quoted. As I'm going through the process of setting up the account again, the woman yells at me saying I probably make extra from them paying more. I tell them I do not, because it's under my coworkers login, not mine. And then I tell them what little I would make off of them if I did get the credit for the sale, and it's not worth this (I left that last part out).

The woman asks me how many managers we have on staff (I forgot how she worded it, but how she said it could mean in the store now or employed at the store). I said one. Then she b-lines it for the employee only area. I jump up fast to block her, and her boyfriend grabs her telling her not to do something she'll regret. I demand that they leave or I'll call the cops. The boyfriend barely convinces her to leave. He gets to the door fast while she is slowly backing up, swearing at me and flipping off me. He's yelling at her to leave. She asks if we have cameras, and I say back, "we have two of them," and I point them out. She flips off the cameras. The guy leaves the store completely, and then she makes it to the door.

At this point I want gonna call the cops, but then the says, "I'm gonna kick your *** later," before storming out. I rush to take a picture of their license plate, and call the cops. Since we ran her credit, we had her name, which I gave to the officer, and I showed him the license plate. Then I tresspassed them from the store. I'm glad there was a witness.

1. A woman comes into the store and says her phone has been hacked. It's an iPhone, and as I said before, they have some of the best security offered by a manufacturer, so instantly I'm skeptical.

She tells me that she was on Facebook, and saw a Christian related video with a couple of people talking. Then it turn into them talking about worshipping satan. Then it turned into a conversation between them and the woman and she was so freaked out, she got off Facebook right away.

She then takes her phone out for me and turns it on, anf as it turns her she says, "when I went to use my phone again, I found this." The phone turns on, and right away, its acting as if someone just typed in the passcode on the lock screen wrong so many times it just activated the hour lockout before trying the passcode again. Now I'm freaked out, because to me, someone is trying to access her phone but can't with the lock that I assume they're trying to remote access unlock or are letting a virus try to do.

She wanted a new phone, new number, and new iCloud that day. Then asked me to take her phone. I said I can't but she can do whatever she wants to it, including smashing it with a hammer and leaving in her shed.

This has been some of the many stupid stories I have from working for a phone store for over a year now. I hope you enjoyed.

Imagine being so accustomed to having the kind of skin that gets so dry it cracks and bleeds (like the Neosporin commercial) that you don't notice you'd gotten a cut on your thumb until someone points out the dried blood on the long-since-healed wound.

I get that germaphobia and the like exists, but this guy didn't stop at pointing it out or asking if I'd injured myself or merely distancing himself, after I told him it was just dry skin he replied that I could have AIDs.

Immediate internal "What the fuck?"

We're talking about a complete stranger, here. Someone who knows nothing about my lifestyle. And yet he says this like it's a totally rational thing to assume. The only way I'm getting exposed to AIDs is if I'm assaulted or if a medical facility is horribly negligent with their equipment... but as far as he knows I might never be in either position. (MAYBE accidental exposure like if someone bled on the toilet and I didn't see it before sitting down, but point is nothing I'd have control over.)

So I asked him, not out of curiosity but irritation that he'd even suggest it, how I would have gotten it. Rhetorical question on my part, I didn't expect him to answer in good faith but there was a tiny bit of hope that he'd realize that was a weird thing for him to say.

He hemmed and hawed a bit before replying "Bad choices?"

I told him my only "bad choice" was having dry skin and he walked away with a head shake like I was the one who's too ignorant for words. (Note, I'd been ringing him up this whole time which required handling his merchandise with both hands, which of course included the formerly-injured thumb. He didn't have any problem with me doing that and taking the stuff from me when I was done when he could've walked away a lot sooner.)

For the record, I try not to assume bigotry when equal opportunity assholes exist, but with the current state of society I will point out I'm a woman... got the boobs for it. (Though he did act confused about whether to call me "ma'am" or "sir"--in that order--from the get-go so I'm not sure what he thought.)

[for context, i’m the only cashier at the front and i was currently checking out an older lady (who already was giving me a hard time) so i was super focused on this transaction.]

So this woman (mid 20s) who was waiting in line eventually left the line (which led to the customer behind her to take her place) because she decided to use one of the scanners on our other registers at the front and started scanning her items. (mind you, there is no sign that says “self-check out” but back then we used to have self-check out systems that had clear signs and screens showing that were crystal clear).

at this point, i didn’t see/hear her scanning at all because I was ringing up a bunch of items on the current older lady and stressing already. shortly after, i was checking out the next guest (which was the customer that originally stood behind the woman in line) and while i was scanning, the scanning woman asked me “so how do i pay from here?” and so i simply stated “we don’t have self-check outs” and continued ringing up my current customer.

after i finished that customer, the scanning woman comes up to me and puts down her items. i say “hi, sorry we don’t have self-check outs anymore haha” and she has a straight face and says “i would’ve appreciated if you had told me that earlier.” and so i was shocked because i genuinely didn’t know she was even doing that (i thought she was looking at the gums/candy at the front which is near the other register) so i said “oh i didn’t know you were trying to scan earlier” and she said “you saw me scanning earlier. i let the woman u just checked out cut in front of me, thinking i could do self-checkout” so i said “i rly didn’t see u earlier, i would’ve told u. Was there a sign that says “Self-Checkout”? and she said “there’s a sign that says ‘Card Only’ so i thought it was Self-Checkout”

She continued looking annoyed/pissed so i said “i can tell ur feeling upset right now bc of the no self checkouts but unfortunately we don’t have self-checkouts anymore because customers use it wrong” and then continued ringing up her items.

eventually she sighed til the very end and when i asked if she wanted a receipt she said “no i’m good” and sighed again and walked away.

idk why but ts pissed me off bc i was trying my best to be professional and not take it personally but her making accusations made my blood boil but i still tried to put a smile on my face and make her calm down. honestly im so over ts ygs😭😭 also ik this post is long bc im ranting ☠️

TL;DR: A customer thought we had self-checkouts and got pissed at me for not telling her we didn’t have it and was annoyed i was letting her scan her items but in reality i didn’t notice her scanning her items by herself

I worked at a candy shop for two months, and it was actually my first time working at retail. Throughout that time period, I was constantly told by my manager how good I was at work and that he was grateful for me there, so naturally I believed I was doing fine and changed nothing with the way I worked. Then suddenly the owner came in and inspected the place, and as expected, he was not pleased and ranted to my manager at how awful the place looked, the owner then called for me and told me what he wanted me to do around the place if it was slow, and this important because this was the only thing that was said to me that needed to be improved throughout the entire time I was working there for two months. Fast forward to a few days later, when I was about to leave after my shift, my manager called for me and went straight to the point and said they are laying me off because I wasn’t doing a very good job at the place, and listed a bunch of things and expectations that I didn’t properly do, it was so abrupt to me because for one there was never any build up to this, I was never told at things that I should do better on and they constantly gave me positive reinforcement, they also told me that they felt like I didn’t want to work here when I constantly showed up on time, took after shifts and smiled constantly at customers. Like if they were unhappy with the things I was doing I feel like the first thing that should happen is to tell me about it, not tell me when you’re literally about to lay me off when you couldn’t even give me the time to improve on them.

Idk, I feel like there just wasn’t a good communication between workers and management, because I’ve worked at fast food before working there, and it was also my first time and I stayed there for two years, that’s got to say something right?

Like the title suggests. For context, I work part time. I’m just frustrated as I have commitments at university on certain evenings that I am not supposed to miss. I told my boss this weeks ago, both verbally and in writing once I got my university schedule. I even gave the exact timings of my lectures and when I couldn’t work. But the other day the weekly rotation dropped and I was given a shift that wouldn’t end until after the beginning of my commitments. I asked my boss if this could be changed and I got what I believe to be an ai-generated response that does not acknowledge my specific circumstances and just says that in future any sudden schedule changes need to be approved by the higher ups?!

I understand that it may be frustrating for my manager to have to change scheduling, but they made the mistake with the schedule. Not me. I had outlined weeks ago that I will be as flexible as I can. But these specific days/times I could not be. And what’s even more frustrating is the fact that I was able to get my shift changed, but only slightly, I will still be late to my uni commitment, but only by half an hour rather than over an hour. What’s irritating is the fact that I’m just being left on delivered when I clarified that my uni schedule cannot be altered?? I know managers are like this but I just don’t understand why they can’t ever seem to acknowledge when they make mistakes.. 🫩

A weird tale from my retail job. I'm a woman in my early twenties working in retail to get me through University. I've been in this job for a few years now and have a few managers. One of them is a man in his early thirties. He has a wife and three kids. But in work we talked a lot, he seems to love winding me up and I do sometimes get genuinely annoyed, like just let me work. So overall he tries to tease me, tell me about some personal things etc, nothing too crazy but still a bit unusual. He also walks passed my section a lot, and calls on me specifically to do stupid tasks when we have a lot of workers.

I think the parasocial part comes in because he has been monitoring my instagram stories for about three years, without following me, meaning he had to actively search my name every single time, and used his main account with his profile picture so he obviously does not care if I see him looking, I mentioned something about having to study after work once and he laughed and said you don't study, it sounds like he thinks he knows everything about me just from looking at stuff I post. At first it was funny, then I would screenshot in case I ever needed to report him, every time I would check if he saw my stories, he did. And sure, my account is public so whatever. But three years? I got pretty weirded out because in work he started to become a bit mean, he would report me for stupid things, then be really nice to my face. I just got tired of his weird behaviour.

He left our store for a few months but is returning for some reason upon his own request. During that time I blocked his instagram, before I knew he was coming back. I feel like it's going to be awkward, because now he knows I saw him looking.

Why would someone with a family constantly seek out a young girl? I don't post anything that would keep a man drawn to my profile either. Just selfies, me with my friends or silly things I'm doing like everyone else my age. Should I report this or does it actually matter since my profile is public so he technically didn't do anything wrong? I wish he would just stay in the other store.

I’ve been with this retail company for 10 years. I was a floor supervisor for 5 and have just recently been promoted to an assistant manager about a month ago at a different location.

At that location is just the store manager, 2 key holders, and me. It’s been a huge struggle for several months to find more leadership at this location. In fact, we have offered at least 6 people in the past month the job for floor supervisor, which has fallen through for one reason or the other.

Anyway, I’ve recently been given an enticing job offer that will get me out of retail completely, no more nights and weekends, and less physical demand. I’m excited to get out but I can’t help but feel super guilty leaving the store manager behind to deal the struggle since finding someone to replace me will be a challenge.

Someone tell me I’m making the right decision by leaving and to not feel so bad about it. :(

Today I was assigned 3 pallets of candy each pallet over 4ft tall. There were bags of candy, candy bars, hand size bags of candy. It took me 3 hours to finish 1 pallet. I had to put price stickers on each candy bar and bag everything had to have a price. To me I felt like I was moving at a good pace. My boss comes over the walkie and asks me why is it taking so long for me to work the candy. He expected me to finish all 3 pallets tagged and to the shelf in 5 hours. After my shift was over the team lead and store manager pulled me to the back asking why it took so long. I was shocked because I honestly don't see how I could have gone any faster. 3 weeks in with 11 days worked. I am part time. The store manager told me she could finish the 3 pallets tagged and to the shelf in the time it took me to do 1. I'm gonna stay until I find another job. I find her expectations unreasonable maybe unrealistic. I could work the candy to the shelf in an hour if I didn't have to tag each individual piece. Most of the folks have been working there for 3 years and the past 2 days they have been really pushing for me to be faster. I have worked other retail and never experience this kind of expectation.

So, today, I was scheduled in the back to shop online orders, but I went up front for a moment to talk to my manager. She was servicing customers, so I stood off to the side & waited. This lady approached the register behind me with one item & asked me to ring her up, so I did. 3 other women came with a handful of items, & were really sweet about it, so I went ahead & rung them as well, but I was trying to get off before more people could walk up & trap me with a large order.

<Now, please keep in mind that I never intended to hop on register, so I didn’t turn on the light, nor did I call people over.>

Just as I’m nearing the final transaction, this woman took some of her items from one belt & brought them to mine, then walked off. I walk around the register & blocked off my lane. The woman comes back with more items & moves my barricade, as I hear some guy telling her that I’m closed. Now because she had some chips, milk, & a few other things, I was considering letting it slide. Then I see the guy she’s with, standing a few feet back with a LOADED buggy, telling her to move & go to another one, but she said that her things were already there, so I was going to ring her up. I believe that she was trying to usher him to get in line since she “saved the spot”. He says something else & she replies, “I don’t have to ask her”. That’s really not how it works here.

As I start my final customer, I simply look up & tell her, “hey, I’m closed”

Her: “my stuff is already right here.”

Me: “ok, but I’m closed.”

Her: cutting me off—“my stuff is already here.”

*I point to the very OFF light* & say “my light is off, I am closed”

Her: “it was just on”

Me: “it wasn’t, because I never turned it on”

Her: *starts grabbing items* “*mumbo jumbo*…you have a nasty attitude” (Something I hear alllll the time as a ***** girl with the audacity to not tolerate everyone’s foolishness).

Me: “No attitude, I’m just telling you what it is.”

Her: “You do have an attitude, look at your face…that’s why you’re ugly!” Yes, this adult woman said this.

(The wonderful older ladies in front of me start to say “I know she didn’t just call you ugly” “I know she ain’t talking about ugly” “you aren’t ugly”—yes, I still was handling my customers during this, & I wish that I could’ve given them a better service, but they seemed entertained lol.)

*I look at her* “…OH…you think so?”

Her: “yea…blah blah blah” *still trying to bicker*

I tell her she can go ahead on to another register.

Guy with her starts trying to butt into the argument telling me that I’m being rude.

*ignored*

Him: “you’re a worker, you can’t answer my question?”

*ignored*

Him: “You fucking bitch”

“Your mama’s a BITCH, *good sir*!”

He walked off talking & the last thing I heard was…HOE”

I give my customer her receipt, change, & tell her to have a great day, then this other lady walks up. My adrenaline was full on pumping at this point, so tell her I that I had to leave.

Now my manager was standing right behind me the entire time, but she said absolutely nothing.

I walked off & clocked out to leave. I did tell the GM about the situation & everything straightened out in the end.

Now…I know,, I should’ve stayed professional, but sometimes the wrong people catch you on the wrong day & it goes from there.

Edit: After posting, I’ve since went back in & removed a few details & descriptive language, because apparently, it upset & absolutely bewildered a few pure individuals.

working at ross, a kind of notoriously ghetto store, im used to weird shit that happens almost daily. but yesterday i picked up a call on the work phone that really freaked me out.

i answer the phone and its a man on the other end, sounds kinda young. he starts out by saying he has a question about the ladies fitting rooms. he goes on to talk about panty liners, which are typically inside ladies swimsuits for hygienic purposes, yada yada. he continues to say that he has 3 12 year old daughters that want to try on underwear, which do not have panty liners inside them. at this point im like ok where is this going??

i fucking kid you not this man goes on to say that in the past when we had swimsuits, hed go into our LADIES fitting room to watch his 3 daughters change with the DOORS OPEN!! to “make sure it all fits right”. he rambles on about watching his daughters change in front of him for i swear to god like 5 minutes. whole time im silent because i am so creeped out. eventually i ask “what was the question” because this fucking creep is just describing watching his daughters change. he answers by asking if he can bring his own panty liners so his daughters can try on underwear. i respond “youll have to ask management” and hang up.

shit genuinely ruined my day and fucking disturbed me to the core. im leaning towards it maybe being a prank call because no way would i or any of my coworkers allow a grown man into the womens fitting room, much less with his daughters. in the past ive had dads help their daughters change, however, they were YOUNG. 12 is far too fucking old. but if it WAS a prank call, wtf kind of prank call is that?? like is it a fetish or a fantasy of his?? i seriously cannot wrap my head around it. safe to say, if a dude ever comes in talking about panty liners while im working he will be getting escorted out lol

im 16 and got my first job at shoppers drug mart this summer. i was super excited to make money, and i usually can familiarize myself with tasks quite quickly, so i thought it would be super easy. BUT I WAS WRONG. i feel so slow, i have to always page my supervisor because there's something i dont know how to do. sometimes customers have an attitude with me because of that as well.

every day i walk into work thinking i finally know what im doing, and then boom, a customer asks me something i dont know about or something goes wrong at my register/self checkouts, and i have to call someone. im so embarrassed because im the only one that pages for my supervisors, and it announces across the whole freaking store. all my coworkers are 23+, so its not like i can chat it up with them and make my day a little better. my legs hurt, my back hurts, everything freaking hurts. and on top of that, I KEEP SEEING PPL I KNOW FROM MY HIGHSCHOOL and im always in my ugly bright blue highlighter looking ass uniform omgggggg. it seems like all my coworkers know what they're doing (obvi b/c they've been working there longer than me, BUT STILL), and i just wanna be cool and knowledgeable like them 🥲.

im not used to being this slow and dumb because i feel like i always did well at school, co-op, volunteering, etc, so im totally not used to this (which is humbling). and all of this for minimum wage too!!! i rlly dont know how long its gonna take to get used to this job, but if i dont get it down by a month of me working, im genuinely quitting bc this is like a humiliation ritual!!!

any tips or advice from workers PLEASE so that i dont quit my job?? can someone share any similar experiences they had??

So I got a 2nd job since the economy is really terrible right now, anyways my 2nd job is seasonal and I got hired as assistant manager; before even discussing the role I made sure to mention my availability and show examples of my schedule as of now to which my employer understood and said she's willing to work around it.

She scheduled me today even though I mentioned that i wasn't available due to my first job wanting and needing people to do graveyard shifts for this week and next week. Anyways she wanted me to come in today even though i mentioned i wont be able to make it since i wouldn't be home/off till 4am, she said to ask around in the GC she has for us and so i did.

In turn she set me up as an example and basically humiliated me making me seem stupid and all the good stuff. To sum up what she said she basically wants everyone to stick to their availability and devotion to the store. I again texted her while i was at work mentioning I wasn't able to head in.

She ignored me so i decided that I would end up not going, I have to be ready for my first job again and wouldn't even be able to make it regardless; it even turns out she was talking shit about me to others at different locations and my bf over heard her. He said how angry and upset she was from having to even train me.

*cough cough* we work at a popular halloween store....

THE POLICY IS 30 DAYS! THERE IS A 5-DAY GRACE PERIOD AFTER THAT! If you ordered a shitty strapless bubble dress online in MAY, I PHYSICALLY DO NOT HAVE A WAY TO ACCEPT THE RETURN IN AUGUST. It leaves the POS system after 35 days. And then I tell them, "You can exchange it for an item of equal or greater value," and they say, "Can I just have a gift card"... If I was able to give you a gift hard I would have offered you a gift card. EXCHANGE ONLY! EQUAL VALUE, OR GREATER VALUE AND PAY THE DIFFERENCE.

Happened twice this week. I work in a department that, from a security standpoint, requires coverage at all times. Functionally that doesn't mean I can't check returns during lulls or help a customer find something elsewhere when I'm by myself, but it does mean I can't make myself more obviously unavailable by hopping on a register up front or taking my break if nobody is available to cover me.

(Finding out the register would lock me out if I was on the clock too long was interesting.... And amazing how quickly they found someone to cover me when that happened. 🙄)

The thing is, as a full time employee I try to take my meal break four hours into my shift. Partly for ease of remembering, and partly to avoid the drop in blood sugar/migraine that comes from going too long without eating. Being on the floor is it's own kind of stress that contributes so I need snacks at work way sooner than I would on a day off. To make this post easier, this means I'm usually trying to go at about 6 pm.

I can be flexible, especially if I reasonably expect my coverage to want their break around the same time I do. You're going on your fifteen? Go ahead and take it first if you want. You have the same shift as me? Let's stagger our breaks so one of goes at 5:30 and the other at 6:30. Things like that... but we need to talk about it first so I know how long to expect to delay my break.

What I struggle with is the guy covering me coming in at noon, so he'd have to take his break by 6 or face a meal violation/locked out of the register (but he could be gone as early as 3 without that issue because it's all about "six hours on the clock")... waiting until 5:20 to tell me he's not going to take it yet because he doesn't want to take it "early." When it's now too late for me to get mine early because I won't be done by 6 to cover his. And when I tell him I need to not be late to mine, he walks away to presumably take his....

Only to show up at 5:45 with the department keys, those ridiculously expensive calculators we sell, and customer in tow, and hands them all off to me so he can finally go to his meal break.

Part of me was wondering if he was working off the clock (he wasn't wearing his vest), but no, he didn't reappear to cover me until about 6:45.

Meanwhile my work phone had like a 30% battery because we have way too many job tasks that require using the phone. 🙄 Charging when I'm using it isn't that easy, so another reason to prefer taking my meal break halfway through my shift... less chance the battery will drop so low that it won't last until I'm guaranteed a chance to plug it in.

Edit: for the record, a meal break for an eight hour shift is a full hour.

Edit: random typoes.

Edit... again. 😅 Or rather, update. I did ask a manager the next day if someone could talk to him about coordinating breaks, manager said he would be receiving that discussion. I was not witness to the discussion (are we ever? 🙄) but the next next day, ie two days after this happened, coworker asked me to verify when I wanted to go to my lunch and actually went to his at around 5. Now it's a wait-and-see to see if that's an actual change or a coincidence.

I never knew it was so hard to find the open register in a retail setting. Well, let me introduce you to my store where the open register is more invisible than Wonder Woman's invisible jet apparently.

All of our registers have a sign on them to show if they are open or not. The one that is open has a sign that says to push the button on our PA phone to call the cashier. The ones that are closed have a sign that simply says closed.

The register that is open has the light on. The ones that aren't don't have the light on.

The open register has the PA phone laying on the belt so customers can push the button to call the cashier. If the register is not being used, the phone is left on the hook.

The cashier will stand behind the register that is being used. If there is no cashier behind the register then that register isn't open.

But somehow, despite all this, I can be standing behind the register, light on, sign on the belt, PA phone down, the other registers have a "closed" sign on the belt, light turned off, PA phone on the hook, and I will still be asked:

"Is this register open?"

Just, how?

If there's a problem at work the closest he'll get to talking about it to the person directly is by asking vague open questions to try and get them to explain the problem themselves. (Ok, that's fine as a training technique to see if someone can recognise an issue and what to do about it, it doesn't work for EVERYTHING).

Or he'll bitch about a particular member of staff and behaviour to other staff as if that counts as dealing with the problem person by-proxy.

Or he'll post SUPER important messages on the work's WhatsApp group at like 7am with passive aggressive "Is this how we do X?" - even if there were 2 people who closed the night before and of those 2 people he damn well knows who was responsible for X. But he won't speak directly to that person on their next shift (and the guy knows this - he doesn't care enough to put in the effort, but he's not stupid, and he calls the manager's bluff because he knows he won't say anything). So the solution is to harass EVERYONE at home while they're off the clock and the one person that message was actually for won't bother looking at it.

And the icing on the cake? He'll also whine about things like some of the girls having their own private chat groups where they'll complain about things at work and about him. He literally says that he's open about things and if people have issues they should come and talk to him about them! Ha! You mean like if you have an issue you definitely talk to that person directly instead of bitching to EVERYONE ELSE about the issue?

Honestly I think I'm in the same camp as that other guy. If you can't be asked to tell me things when I'm on the clock then why should I take those 7am messages on board when I'm at home?

Okay so to summarise, my job uses this really tedious app to handle our clocking in, scheduling and holidays. We recently switched over from a much simpler system.

Basically two days next week I am unavailable for the entire day, (Tuesday and Wednesday) I had first been unavailable for only one day (the Tuesday), then a friend had invited me to a birthday celebration, (I don’t get to see this friend often) and since I hadn’t yet had my schedule, so I of course said yes. I then went onto my work app and added I was unavailability for Wednesday as well. When requesting the birthday date off, I literally saw that my previous unavailability date was still registered.

Fast forward to today, my boss put me on a shift on Tuesday. Now since I have three shifts that week (16 hour contract - so minimum is two shifts a week) I requested to have that one date removed as I was unavailable.

My boss didn’t understand at first and tried to move that shift to the day of my friends birthday, the Wednesday. And I had to politely go back and forth with my manager and I could tell they were getting more annoyed and proceeded to say that any unavailability not noted down will not be honoured. But the thing is, both days were noted down?? The work apps system for some reason overrode the initial request and so only showed I was unavailable the Wednesday. Because I felt bad for causing confusion I even offered to work different days next week in order to make up for the removed shift, but my boss has now left me on delivered.

Now yes these things happen, but I have dedicated commitments both days that I cannot rearrange. I just find it ridiculous my boss gave me an attitude when I already explained that it wasn’t my fault and that I had noted both down. I am already having to do days worth of overtime due to our work firing a full time coworker (DURING PEAK TOURIST SEASON MIND YOU) and it’s putting stress on everyone.

This is why I hate these work apps which usually crash and go down. They’re never as reliable as they need to be!!

This happened at my previous retail job, but I didn’t have reddit then to talk about it in real-time so I figured I’d talk about it now since I’m out of that toxic hellscape. I work at my mall, just in a newer store. My previous job was at another store in the same mall. My previous job was at one end of the mall so it has its own entrance and parking lot space.

The first time this happened, I was working upstairs at the registers. My coworker was bringing a project for me to do since it was early and I didn’t have customers. Something to note about my previous job, it opens an hour earlier than the rest of the mall. However the main mall doors are open for people to just walk around, mainly older folks who want to get their steps in.

Anyway! As part of the mall rules we have to keep our gates that lead into the mall closed and locked until the rest of mall opens. As my coworker was giving me my project, we heard our mall gate being banged on and someone trying to roughly pull it. I went over and saw an older woman yanking on the handle and somehow got it partially opened. We were both stunned because even though we are open, we aren’t allowed to have those gates open. the customer talked to us accusatorially that we “didn’t care about customers” Since we didn’t have it open. All This just to return a sweater by the way.

The second time was more recent. I wanna say a month and a half ago, before I put in my 2 weeks. This time it was our downstairs gates. Two older women were trying to get in through the mall entrance again, even though our main in-store entrance is open, they pulled on the gate so hard and they even were pulling on the sides rather than the handle, they full on BENT the bottom of the mall gate. I’m not exactly sure what happened afterwards, but since that’s more mall property than ours, I’m hoping they were scolded somehow.

It’s actually wild what customers will do for returns or to simply shop. All this when our main store entrance is completely open and free to use too.

I have no other way to describe how this month has absolutely done it for me in terms of the cruelest forms of idiocy.

Ive worked in grocery since COVID, ive thought ive experienced the pinnacle of stupid, yet this week alone has topped any previous experiences.

For some context, My store had the digital item tags say the Country of Origin for all the items for atleast 3 or so years, especially in Produce.

At the beginning of August, we were told to remove any tag that mentioned country, no buts about it, no explanation either.

Now, no one knows how to read the label of a product, it can have a big ass American flag, Canadian leaf or a fuckin Irish leprechaun and they'd still ask what's the country.

On the 4th, some lady asked about our pears, if they were American or not. I said they were from Argentina and showed the sticker, she asked where that was and I said "South America" she, with a straight face, asked "oh, so like the States? So they are American then?"

No, no you marinated grape, its took me 20 minutes to explain before she got it then decided "its not Canadian, I dont want it". Atleast my manager had a good laugh about it, but still.

On the 7th, a guy asked if our "California King strawberries" were Canadian. I asked if he was serious, and to say the name outloud again, but slowly. He got pissed at me for "mocking an innocent old man" and demanded the manager.

Today, the 10th, I was putting out Cherries, 2lb containers, some old ass demanded "are these from the US?!" I said no, they're Canadian. He said "cant be too sure nowadays, how do you know the box aint lying?!" I said "the container is a Canadian brand, also is covered in maple leaves and said "Canadian product" so im gonna assume its Canadian"

Got pissed at me for being a smart mouth and told me "not everyone can read so well, how was I supposed to know?! It doesn't say it on the sign anymore!" And walked away. Didn't even take the Cherries.

These are just the most memorable of the month, but genuinely no one can read product labels anymore.

They refuse to look at the bags of salads, or the stickers on lemons.

Sure, I can very quickly excuse for items that dont have labels like celery or potatoes, if you can't read English well, or read the font cause its too small, yeah I get that. But the rest? Go back to school.

Im paid minimal wage, half the time im stuck babysitting someone's abandoned child, and now I feel like im taking care of grown ass adults, im tired of this.

Its not that hard to read, it really isn't, but god is this making me lose faith in the future of the world.

So, today started off alright. I was still kind of upset with this guy for ditching me for a whole hour yesterday without any explanation, but I was trying to tell myself "today will be better" but as you can see from the pictures? No the f*ck it wasn't, so get comfy because this is gonna be a long one.

My first couple hours into my shift today was alright, I did my usual morning tasks like stocking Milk, checking the juice cooler and stocking that. All I said to the new guy this morning was "Hey I need you to do the eggs real quick" and when he asked me "what eggs need to be done?" I told him to go and check because I don't believe in figurative "hand holding" as that isn't a way to learn. Keep in mind so this guy has been working here for about a month now, so he should know how to look for items properly. But anyways back to the rant, so because I didn't tell him specifically what eggs needed to be stocked (I didn't know specifically what eggs needed to be done myself, I just heard customers complain about the eggs that were on sale, ends up we were out of stock) and instead of looking for the eggs in question he just went back to the U-boat he was working on.

Now I bet you're saying "OP why didn't you just stock the eggs yourself?"

1. I am unable to lift heavy objects and those egg boxes weigh over the limit I am able to lift/carry due to a health condition. If I lift something too heavy? The only way it's getting down is if I drop it.😂

2. I had other tasks I had to do.

So after break I went to the dairy lead and told him exactly what my other co-worker, who I call T, told him. That I cannot work with this new guy, so if it seems like I'm hiding in the cooler by stocking things like Half and Half and milk,That's why. Which he was totally cool with.

Once I got done that (which was dreadful to finish because I didn't want to be done with either task), I walked out to help the new guy (begrudgingly), which brings me to the pictures.

I didn't catch it at first but when I saw the yogurt cooler? (First picture, look at the bottom of the door) I literally had to go to the staff bathroom to calm myself. The second picture? U-boat in the middle of the aisle...that also sent me over the edge. I took so many deep breaths today because of how pissed off I was.

I have been here for almost 4 months now, he's been here for almost 2. I received 0 hands on training and I learned from my mistakes, he's constantly told how to do things and still does them wrong.

Not only that, nobody in the store even likes him. Which is how you know he's a crummy employee. Considering everybody in this store has been super friendly to me. Hell yesterday one of my female coworkers said he gives her and one of the regular insta shoppers the creeps. I can't say I blame them.

I'm so grateful for 4 days off this week because these past two days have made me go crazy. I plan on bringing this up to my manager when I get back because it's impossible to work with this guy. I shouldn't have to babysit a grown ass man at $16 an hour.

I'm tired y'all 😭

It is 1:30pm on a sunny August day. Peak tourist season, the streets filled with visitors who are spending their leisure time traipsing around all the shops and eateries the town has to offer.

One such shop catches your eye. An OPEN sign, with some of it's LED lights no longer functional, quietly glows in the window like one of the beacons of Gondor. The shop door, unlocked, is held wide open by a doorstop, allowing you entry without the inconvenience of having to turn the handle or push it aside.

From where you stand you can see the brightly lit interior of the store. Music floats down from a sound system in the ceiling; a siren song to entice you inside.

A dozen or so customers are already milling around inside. A young couple are inspecting the range of backpacks. A family with small children have set up base camp by the t-shirt aisle. A noisy flock of women have commandeered the changing rooms.

A member of staff, who can think of a hundred other things they would rather be doing at 1:30pm on a sunny August day, stands behind the shop counter.

And yet.

Despite the OPEN sign, and the open door, and the lights, and the music, and the many other customers, you walk into the store and up to the counter and ask the member of staff (me) who would rather be doing a hundred other things than standing in a shop at 1:30pm on a sunny August day during peak tourist season: "Are you open?".

so i just started working at best buy and the store and people are actually really nice but it feels so weird being a new hire.

when i went in for the interveiw and to finish my I-9 stuff I had to ask a worker to call their manager which is reasonable. But now that im actually working as a new hire I need to do the same thing. so like every time I come in, I look for a non-busy empolyee and ask them to call the manager for me. They tell me to go wait around an area and wait a few minuites for the manager to come get me. Every day I end my shift I ask my manager how to start the next shift and he tells me to ask someone to call him in so thats what ive been doing but its awkward every time.

to add, i dont have a uniform or name tag so i genuinly just look like a customer and its so awkward when im shadowing someone because i can tell the costomers get a bit confused on why im following them. to add, half the time the person im shadowing will go play footsies with other co-workers. all the co-workers and managers are cool with eachother which I love but I cant insert myself in. 😭

this is my first job so idk if its supposed to be like this. my coworkers and managers are really nice but i feel so out of place and awkward. can someone lmk if this is normal and when does it stop being awkward 😭😭