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silversiren posted:
I'm a dumb customer. I've seen this trend of cashiers standing in front of the lanes, and it's weird. Like, the buttons are on the other side. If the light's on, and someone's at the register, that's all I need. I can just see the converse of this post being "Stupid customers just come in the lane and dump their poo poo down! Can't they see I'm not even at the register?"
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May 26, 2011 00:50
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Internet Cliche posted:I'm a dumb customer. I've seen this trend of cashiers standing in front of the lanes, and it's weird. Like, the buttons are on the other side. If the light's on, and someone's at the register, that's all I need. I have to stand in front of my lane or I risk getting written up. The latter doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's usually very obvious the lane isn't open. As in, no light, "closed" sign is pulled out, no cashier behind the register but hey someone. In a green shirt is standing kind of close to it, they must be open!
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May 26, 2011 03:27
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silversiren posted:I have to stand in front of my lane or I risk getting written up. How strange. I've never seen this in England. If I saw someone standing in front of the lane, I'd assume they were stopping people from unloading because the register was being fixed or the lane was closing or something. If someone's sitting at the register and there's no obvious "closed" gate/sign/light then that's good enough for me. Does your store have a real problem with people seeing you at your register and thinking "Hmmmm... No... No, s/he just doesn't look open enough for me to risk it"?
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May 26, 2011 10:34
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ijii posted:Moral of the story, if you say really want hours, then dammit take up every opportunity while you still can. I was getting burned out doing 48 hours a week, but kept on doing it till the last moment because I knew it wouldn't last forever. While on the one hand I can understand the concept of 'make hay while the sun shines', but on the other I used to keep fielding calls from my previous horrible retail job that went like this:  Hey froglet, can you please come in? Sure, what time am I required? Like... right now? Uh, okay.I think I accidentally conditioned my (now former) workplace into thinking that I was always available or something, because they'd call up and start bitching if I told them I couldn't make myself available right now but I could if they gave me a little time. Dentist appointment? You're lying! About to go into the cinema? Come to work, you'll make back that cinema ticket in no time! Vomiting everywhere? Don't worry, people totally wash their vegetables thoroughly before eating them, right! Family member has died? Come to work to take your mind off your loss! Got an exam? University is for chumps, retail is where the real money is. It got to a point where I felt like it was negatively impacting my life, because at certain times of the year they'd be calling me at all hours of the day, sometimes multiple times a day by different managers or on both my home phone and mobile. When I finally asked them if they'd be willing to put me on part time and give me [hours they most frequently called me in at the last minute], they refused because they "wouldn't have anyone to call in if somebody was sick".  Then again, in this situation getting called in was more of a side-effect of being terrible at rostering. It might be that lady was just terrible at time management - on the one hand she wants extra shifts, but on the other because she thinks she's not working the next day she engages in behaviours that might not be conducive to a good day at work? I certainly know I've turned down shifts because I feel I won't be in top condition that day (e.g. because I've been working until late the previous night on a major assignment or I've been babysitting or whatever). froglet fucked around with this message at 14:18 on May 26, 2011 |
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May 26, 2011 13:59
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Robzor McFabulous posted:How strange. I've never seen this in England. If I saw someone standing in front of the lane, I'd assume they were stopping people from unloading because the register was being fixed or the lane was closing or something. If someone's sitting at the register and there's no obvious "closed" gate/sign/light then that's good enough for me. Does your store have a real problem with people seeing you at your register and thinking "Hmmmm... No... No, s/he just doesn't look open enough for me to risk it"? The average American customer is a total idiot that needs things spelled out for them. The standing in front of the lane thing is in the training videos for new hires at my job. Some people just don't want to put in any effort toward thinking about anything. I've had people walk a fair way through the store just to find someone to ask where something is which was on a shelf next to the drive aisle they walked past. Nobody will read a sale sign past the number so you have to explain to them like a child why their item isn't on sale and pray they don't get pissed off at you because their brain shut down the second their eyes saw %. My store's "customer service desk" and lane #1 are both in the same kiosk, and generally we only have an FES to be the sole cashier because of low hours. Sometimes the FES chooses to be at the customer service register, sometimes they choose to be at 1, but either way people will just stand there at the empty customer service register with its light off and wait for someone to help them return an item, or they'll instinctually walk up to register 1 when the light is on at customer service and the FES is standing right there waiting for them. Customers are idiots.
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May 26, 2011 15:14
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So I got out of retail at the end of last month, and haven't had a job since. I just moved 15 hours away, and am planning on taking a month and half/two month road trip starting next week, so it's not like I've been unable to find a job. I'm just waiting until I get back before I do, and I have plenty of savings to tide me over until I can find a job. My roommate said he's going to keep his ear to the ground to help me find a new job when I get back, but he said that all he's planning on finding really are retail management positions. I've never worked management in my life. I mean yea, I've trained new people and answered co-worker's questions when management wasn't around for whatever reason, but I've never actually had a position of authority. I'm not entirely sure I want all the extra responsibility on top of the whole retail experience. My roommate says I can just pretend like I know how to manage things until I've been in the position long enough to actually know how to do it. So do any of you managers have any stories/advice for me? I kind of want to avoid it, but if it's all that's available for the short term, I guess I can do it until something better pops up. I was just hoping I had done my time.
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May 26, 2011 15:50
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cobalt impurity posted:Some people just don't want to put in any effort toward thinking about anything. I've had people walk a fair way through the store just to find someone to ask where something is which was on a shelf next to the drive aisle they walked past. Nobody will read a sale sign past the number so you have to explain to them like a child why their item isn't on sale and pray they don't get pissed off at you because their brain shut down the second their eyes saw %. We had a sale today going on where rotisserie chicken was $3.99 for a whole chicken. Thing is, it was freshly CHILLED, not the freshly MADE hot stuff. I had a guy come though my line this morning buying a bag of freshly MADE hot rotisserie chicken. I told him the amount and he literally draws back and goes, "$10?! The sign over there says $3.99!!!" So I lock my register, take it back, look for a sign that might say $3.99. And there is a big huge sign, a big pink and yellow sign with gigantic bolded letters saying "$3.99!" and then another equally big and obnoxious-looking sign with the words, "FRESH CHILLED WHOLE CHICKEN" underlined about 4 times. I run back over and tell him it's only the fresh chilled chicken and if he'd like, I could exchange them. He then proceeds to tell me that no, he wants the hot chicken and he feels like we're cheating him out of money because the sign was unclear and in the smallest font possible and very hard to read. I let him know I can have him speak with a manager about it while inside I'm loving laughing because the sign was as big as the side of a car, almost. A large car. In bright pink. Underlined and bolded. He sighs and just keeps grumbling about how we're cheating him out of money. quote:Customers are idiots.
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May 26, 2011 21:45
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silversiren posted:I let him know I can have him speak with a manager about it while inside I'm loving laughing because the sign was as big as the side of a car, almost. A large car. In bright pink. Underlined and bolded. He sighs and just keeps grumbling about how we're cheating him out of money. And the manager folds like a pair of twos before a royal flush and gives the man his hot chicken for 3 dollars. quote:Managers are spineless.
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May 27, 2011 00:06
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Fury1671 posted:And the manager folds like a pair of twos before a royal flush and gives the man his hot chicken for 3 dollars. Yes. This is another thing. We recently changed our coupon policy where we only take local competitors and we no longer take coupons like Walgreens or Target; Walgreens because it's not a grocery store and Target because it's too far to be a local competitor and the closest one isn't a Super Target, so it isn't really a grocery store either. During the meeting we had about the changing policy, they kept telling us over and over, "OK THESE ARE THE RULES THEY'RE VERY CLEAR AND STRICT AND RIGID AND SET BUT OK JUST SO YOU KNOW THERE WILL BE SOME EXCEPTIONS." Excepts like, Jane Doe comes in and buys a shitton of crap, hands us her coupons and they're all for Target. Cashier informs Jane we no longer take Target coupons. Jane throws a full-on child-like temper tantrum in the middle of the store, yelling and screaming because we don't take Target coupons. Manager bumbles over, apologizes up and down, commands the cashier to take the Target coupons. Jane wins, comes back another day to use her Target coupons along with telling all of her stupid "extreme coupon" buddies that this particular store will cave in and take your stupid loving coupons. If you're going to do something, stick with it. When you let people get away with dumb poo poo, they'll keep coming back and taking advantage of it. If I were a manager, and it's a good thing I'm not, I wouldn't let people get away with stupid poo poo like this. Can't read the sign? Too loving bad. You're an idiot, leave my store.
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May 27, 2011 03:07
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Just heard this, thought of this thread: I was speaking to my friend who still works at the large Australian supermarket I worked at when I was in highschool. She says a few signs were posted around the store in employee-only areas stating that cashiering staff had to show up to work with their own pen for customers to use to sign credit card slips with. If they didn't they'd be required to purchase a pen at the start of their shift. That's stooping pretty drat low, even for retail. froglet fucked around with this message at 08:40 on May 27, 2011 |
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May 27, 2011 08:37
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froglet posted:Just heard this, thought of this thread: That's absolutely terrible. If I worked there I'd bring the most over the top ridiculous pen possible.
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May 27, 2011 08:56
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spankmeister posted:That's absolutely terrible. Or one with no ink left.
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May 27, 2011 09:03
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I'd bring pens with a competitors logo on them
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May 27, 2011 09:20
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spankmeister posted:That's absolutely terrible. Funnily enough, I suggested such a strategy. Or horribly chewed and mangled ones.
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May 27, 2011 11:31
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Or one of those huge novelty pens.
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May 27, 2011 11:41
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Stripper Pen! If you're a guy bring a guy...tee hee. Anyways. gently caress YOU CO WORKERS!!!! This is a direct quote "You don't have a right to a day off you should be happy we were willing to do it" "You're screwing up our weekend". I've worked 58 of the last 60 days...this was said to me today after getting the last two Saturdays off. My next day off is well who the gently caress knows. Yeah gently caress YOU!
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May 27, 2011 11:49
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:I've worked 58 of the last 60 days...this was said to me today after getting the last two Saturdays off. My next day off is well who the gently caress knows. Yeah gently caress YOU!  Well, your username is certainly fitting.Is there a legal limit to the number of working hours in the States? Here your job can't force you to do more than 48 hours a week but I have a feeling it's probably 150 hours or something over there.
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May 27, 2011 16:23
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gently caress.  That is all.
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May 27, 2011 16:35
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My store manager told us on Tuesday since the territory manager was visiting Thursday (yesterday) we were welcome to come in as many extra hours we wanted in preparation for the visit, she didn't care if we went overtime because this is the guy who reports directly to the president of the (huge) company. I thought, awesome! I did a little math with my current schedule and I could come in early/stay late enough that it'd give me 44 hours for the week. I mention it in passing to the personnel manager's assistant (she is still considered a manager though) and she blows up at me for even thinking I could go overtime. She doesn't care what her boss's boss said, "we cannot legally pay a part-timer for more than 42 hours!" So I had to say gently caress it and go home early yesterday, since god forbid I come in late/leave early on a Friday or Saturday. Any idea what "law" she was referring to? Everyone I've talked to has never heard that and says she's full of it. As a bonus note, we learned that the territory manager is moving from Minnesota to our town (in Texas), and will be based out of our physical store starting in a couple weeks. NO PRESSURE, GUYS 
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May 27, 2011 16:47
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So i'm night shift, but i just learned that cashiers where i work have to pay off any missing money over 20 if their register comes up short at the end of their shift. Obviously thats a decent bit of cash to gently caress up with, but is that normal for cashiers in retail? It seems like it should be illegal or something. I'm sure that a cashier wouldn't be given any money over what the till should have. I don't know. I heard it the other day and it just stuck with me.
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May 27, 2011 17:03
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Not in retail but drat do I feel sorry for those who have to put up with it. I was checking out at Target and after scanning the lines see a woman with about 15 items about to check out at the express line. The other lines had people with half-full carts so this lane was an easy pick. I get in line and the first thing I the woman (customer) says to the clerk is "I have a special skill." Already I am regretting my line choice decision but it's too late the other lines are even worse. She then tells the cashier that she has a photographic memory and can remember the exact price for every item in her order. She then says "scan these real slow so I can call out the prices before they come up on the computer  ". The clerk obliges (and based on this thread I'm guessing it's because he'll be written up if he doesn't) and slowly scans each item probably one every 20 seconds while the woman calls out prices. What should have been a two minutes transaction turned into about eight minutes. Then as she is paying, with cash counting out exact change, she starts talking about how her cousin has the same name as the cashier ('Brad' - what a loving exotic name). She finally left, I looked at the clerk and just said 'Sorry'. Side note, I love how at Target you can swipe your card prior to the total ringing up. They are the quickest store to check out of if you know what you are doing. alreadybeen fucked around with this message at 18:21 on May 27, 2011 |
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May 27, 2011 17:23
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alreadybeen posted:Side note, I love how at Target you can swipe your card prior to the total ringing up. They are the quickest store to check out of if you know what you are doing. You can tell Target regulars from other people. If they forget to pay attention to the last screen or stare at "Would you like it all on the card?" like its in Latin, they don't go to Target often. I hate that screen with every fiber of my being. I wish I had more stories, but I moved to mostly Price Change from Electronics, so I don't get to deal with as many customers anymore. Of course, they didn't tell me it would be a pay cut, so they were going to spring that news on me after I got my raise. Had my (new) supervisor not been so awesome, I'd be unemployed right now. Mostly from telling them to gently caress off and walking out the door.
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May 27, 2011 17:42
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During one of our team huddles at Target, one of the managers said that the cashiers need to have a happier attitude because we had a surprise visit and the visiting manager said in his report that "The cashiers all look like they hate their lives". Well no poo poo. I would like to see you be all smiles and sunshine when you get paid peanuts to be treated like dirt. Also, since this is the bitch about retail thread. One of our newest managers, who is my age(24), treats everyone like a loving child. She has obviously never had to manage anyone before. Examples include saying things like "And if we see you with your cellphone out we're going to take it up and you can get it back from the Both statements and many more said with the demeanor of someone talking to their small child. What makes this further insulting is that there are only a handful of employees under 21 at our store. It's not like she's wrangling an army of high schoolers. Finally, another new manager who is an Asset Protection manager insists we lock everything up to the point that customers no longer want to buy it. He has on several occasions said something to the effect of "I would rather have it secure then sellable" One example includes locking up the small plastic cards that people can buy for consoles to redeem for points or online content. That would be fine and all except they have absolutely no value until purchased, and since customers can't get them off of the shelf without flagging someone with a key down, they usually just don't bother. Another, more irritating example is to throw away decorative sleeves from blurays so that they fit in the small protective cases. These sleeves often have nice holographic artwork or raised lettering and people do want them. In the managers opinion though they are just a nuisance to getting the protective case on. If I'm not there to stop him, they get thrown in the trash and I've lost a whole bunch of high dollar sales because of those missing sleeves. It seems pretty common sense to me that the kind of people who want to spend several hundred dollars on a movie collection would also want all the bells and whistles that are supposed to come with that movie collection. There is literally nothing stopping them from driving 2 minutes down the road to Walmart and spending their hundreds of dollars there for what they should be getting at Target. Finally, we got a new Acer tablet in and as with all tablets, they are high on the list of things people steal. As such, Target sent out terribly designed devices to hold the tablets to the shelves. Part of the design flaw is that with the tablet inserted, there is a whole lot of vertical wiggle room in between the tablet and the mount. So much so that at other stores people have tried jamming screwdrivers in between the tablet and the mount to try and pry it out. So for ours he stuck a thick piece of card board behind it. The cardboard was so thick that it was bending the device in the center and causing the screen to visibly deform at the center. My old cellphone had this happen to it and so I know for a fact that if it stays like that for too long it permanently damages the screen, and if that device is not absolutely flawless, there is no way I'm going to be able to sell it to the idiots that shop there. I tell this to the manager and he doesn't give two shits about it. "As long as it's still here I don't care". So I take the initiative and unlatch the device, cut a 3" round hole in the center of the cardboard to alleviate the pressure, and secured it back down. Problem solved. e: also gently caress the "Do you want it all on the card?" screen. That. loving. question. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 18:12 on May 27, 2011 |
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May 27, 2011 18:09
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TShields posted:gently caress.  Just remember that plan A is to go back to school, get more training and find yourself a career path that makes you happy. Getting rescued is plan B. Just ask yourself, would you rather be going to your old job today?
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May 27, 2011 18:50
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Sankis posted:So i'm night shift, but i just learned that cashiers where i work have to pay off any missing money over 20 if their register comes up short at the end of their shift. Obviously thats a decent bit of cash to gently caress up with, but is that normal for cashiers in retail? It seems like it should be illegal or something. I'm sure that a cashier wouldn't be given any money over what the till should have. I don't know. I heard it the other day and it just stuck with me. Yeah I'm almost certain this is illegal (in the US, at least).
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May 27, 2011 19:20
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Ornamented Death posted:Yeah I'm almost certain this is illegal (in the US, at least). Still. If someone's getting down more than $20 in a shift, there's something up there. Or they got robbed. On that note, anyone heard of anyone being written up for being robbed? It seems like something that would happen.
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May 27, 2011 20:18
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I've heard of getting written up for not doing the right thing while being robbed (comply with everything they say, don't resist, etc). Which is loving stupid because who wants to risk getting hurt over .01% of some evil monolithic corporation's daily bottom line?
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May 27, 2011 20:44
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Volcano posted:
What utopia do you live in? No there isn't a limit, i'm stuck for better or worse. Ehh it's money right, with everyone else having the opposite problem I feel bad but it's almost worse on the other side of the spectrum.
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May 27, 2011 21:20
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SpartanIV posted:e: also gently caress the "Do you want it all on the card?" screen. That. loving. question. I always figured the "Is this amount OK?" question would get lots of half-joke responses from middle-aged, overworked moms who laugh-sneer and say, "What? Of course the amount isn't OK. I want it lower!"
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May 27, 2011 22:13
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Fixed Gear Guy posted:I always figured the "Is this amount OK?" question would get lots of half-joke responses from middle-aged, overworked moms who laugh-sneer and say, "What? Of course the amount isn't OK. I want it lower!"
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May 27, 2011 22:20
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:What utopia do you live in? No there isn't a limit, i'm stuck for better or worse. Ehh it's money right, with everyone else having the opposite problem I feel bad but it's almost worse on the other side of the spectrum. I'm in the UK, but I think most of Europe has a similar rule. France has a 35 hour workweek, if you can believe it. Don't feel bad -- there's nothing wrong with not wanting to work every waking hour. It seems like since so many people are desperate for work, they could hire one of them to take over one or two of your days so you can actually have a life, but then I guess that would be too sensible.
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May 27, 2011 23:37
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Yup pretty much..the biggest problem is that the people throwing applications in aren't the ones you want to trust on an unsupervised shift for 8 hours and everyone we have had in has crapped out or had some drama or horrid skin disorders that make people not want to purchase food from them. I'm pretty much ready to say gently caress it and quit but there are NO decent jobs around here so it's lose/lose for me. Uggh. And maybe the kid's right and we should just move to Germany and be done with it...seems like utopia to me.
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May 28, 2011 00:14
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I've lurked this thread for quite some time and I figure I finally have something worthy of posting. I have a plethora of stories of horrible and downright insane customers but I figure we all deal with the same poo poo so really we're just regurgitating stories we've all dealt with before. Anyway, details on the clusterfuck that is hitting my store. I've worked at Zellers part time for almost 4 years now. (For the uninformed Zellers is literally the exact same store as Target just "canadian"). Recently Target bought out 220 of the 280 leases Zellers has for their store locations. My store has been chosen to become a Target. In December our store is going to shut down and be renovated for 6-9 months, so we're told. In July we'll get a better estimate. But don't worry! We get to apply for our jobs again....after potentially 9 months of being unemployed. I'll be hopefully graduating university in December it just sucks that if it does infact close down then I won't have any job to rely on when I try to find a full time job.
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May 28, 2011 00:33
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Skulduggery posted:We get to apply for our jobs again....after potentially 9 months of being unemployed. Are they really going to fire everyone and make them reapply? Surely they'd be relocating you to another store or something. That seems incredibly harsh to lay people off like that for no good reason.
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May 28, 2011 02:22
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Friday nights at the restaurant I work at are incredibly dramatic to the point where I dread going in. If it's not customer drama, it's server drama, and if it's not server drama, it's manager and/or cook drama. You just cannot win. Tonight the Big Boss came in, screamed at about five people for an hour, fired one of the managers and said if she ever came back in the building he'd shut us down (she was back and micromanaging within 30 minutes of him leaving,) and just generally made the entire atmosphere uncomfortable and tense. Customers were literally pulling servers aside to ask them what was going on in the kitchen because they could hear everything. I picked a hell of a night to come back from pneumonia hell.
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May 28, 2011 04:32
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MAO TSE-TUNGACUNT posted:...fired one of the managers and said if she ever came back in the building he'd shut us down (she was back and micromanaging within 30 minutes of him leaving,)... I just need to rant about my department boss some more. I hate him so god drat much. This guy thinks he's the man. He acts like he can do no wrong, yet he totally sucks. Both he and I can do an order, but I let him do them all when we're both present when an order goes out. He always complains I order too much ad items even though they are guaranteed sellers. If we run out, we get a slew of complaints from customers. Well my boss orders on a really fine line, and about 75% of the time runs out of ad items before the next shipment arrives. He always excuses it by saying "We want to run out of it, we make no money on it." I try to tell him, if customers can't get their grubby paws on what brought them in the store in the first place, they will also leave empty handed and very pissed off. He then always then changes the subject about how I still order too much when I do it. I tell him they will sell (and it's obvious they will) and customers will be happy unlike with his orders. He then will say something to the effect of "This isn't ijii's shop, this is my shop and you will do it my way." It's been well over a decade since I hated someone so much. Thankfully my boss from another store is wanting me back so hopefully he can convince the supervisor to have me transferred back over there.
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May 28, 2011 05:40
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ijii posted:Um what? I'm not understanding this. Someone was fired yet she continued to work? she probably has something on the boss and/or is related/screwing someone related. or, if shes smart, has created such a tangled mess of paperwork that no one but her can decipher it. 
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May 28, 2011 05:43
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^^^ yup, related!ijii posted:Um what? I'm not understanding this. Someone was fired yet she continued to work? Yeah, she left for 30 minutes, waited for him to leave, and then came back. I have no idea what the crap is going to happen tomorrow night. The Big Boss said "if she comes back you either call me, or I'm shutting down this store for good if I find out she was here." Welp. It's a sticky situation because this manager is related to him and pretty much thinks she can do whatever she wants, which is why he fired her in the first place. I hope things get better where you work. 
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May 28, 2011 05:45
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MAO TSE-TUNGACUNT posted:^^^ yup, related! Was this yelling person gordon ramsay? 
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May 28, 2011 09:07
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ijii posted:
I know how you feel, man. My boss is a conceited rear end. Doesn't help that he's petty, too. Nothin' much that you can do about them, though.
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May 28, 2011 10:21
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