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Rick_Hunter posted:Oh, I got it. The same could be said for notes just without the 'tone' thing. I am in the south, though, so I should try that. "PEN DON'T WORK, Y'ALL. PUT THE GOLDON PEN DOWN. DANG PEN DON'T WORK!"
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Jan 20, 2012 02:09
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silversiren posted:I am in the south, though, so I should try that. "PEN DON'T WORK, Y'ALL. PUT THE GOLDON PEN DOWN. DANG PEN DON'T WORK!" You remind me of my morning coworker. We do that poo poo for six hours a day to each other and it never gets old.
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Jan 20, 2012 02:32
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Aaronicon posted:Also recently I've been getting prank calls from people putting on the worst Indian accents and thinking I won't notice that they're on speaker phone and can quite clearly hear their friends in the background. As a side note, I get really irrationally angry at young idiots babbling pretending to be foreign like that. I've only heard it happen once, but I dig my nails into something every time I think about it. I think I'd lose my mind completely if I were forced to deal with that all the time. 
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Jan 20, 2012 02:40
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Rick_Hunter posted:Oh, I got it. The same could be said for notes just without the 'tone' thing. The problem is that customers inherently don't understand those machines, they get all confused. Expressing the problem in terms of the machine is too complicated for simple customer minds; instead, say something like: Credit not available, debit and cash only. If a customer is interested enough to ask why, then you can explain the issue.
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Jan 20, 2012 02:59
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silversiren posted:I am in the south, though, so I should try that. "PEN DON'T WORK, Y'ALL. PUT THE GOLDON PEN DOWN. DANG PEN DON'T WORK!" Going off on a tangent, it may be because I'm from the northeast, but of all the accents people have, I find the southern one to be the most difficult to understand. There's just something about it that's impossible to comprehend in my head.
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Jan 20, 2012 02:59
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Rick_Hunter posted:Here's a protip, customers: When you're about to tell me some dumb coffee joke, just...don't. I've heard them all. Unless you definitely want decaf, then I can oblige. What about this one; I like my women like my coffee, black and picked up at a Target food court.
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Jan 20, 2012 03:05
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Neito posted:Going off on a tangent, it may be because I'm from the northeast, but of all the accents people have, I find the southern one to be the most difficult to understand. There's just something about it that's impossible to comprehend in my head. Don't worry, I've lived all my life in Georgia and I can't understand some of the thick accents, either.
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Jan 20, 2012 04:29
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I work in brooklyn and don't get any cool accents except various caribbean and new york accents but when this beautiful southern girl came in a few months back the only thing I thought was how awesome her accent was. Also british accents rule so hard. I really can't understand most jamaican people though and when I talk with one on the phone I have to pass it to my supervisor.
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Jan 20, 2012 05:14
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foobyfooby posted:Don't worry, I've lived all my life in Georgia and I can't understand some of the thick accents, either. I swear, some people with southern accents exaggerate them. There's no way people can communicate ideas like that, even simple ones. A Boston accent may be easy to make fun of, but at least it can be understood.
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Jan 20, 2012 05:15
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Neito posted:I swear, some people with southern accents exaggerate them. There's no way people can communicate ideas like that, even simple ones. A Boston accent may be easy to make fun of, but at least it can be understood. I could say the same thing with the adjectives on 'accent' reversed. 
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Jan 20, 2012 08:36
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Neito posted:Going off on a tangent, it may be because I'm from the northeast, but of all the accents people have, I find the southern one to be the most difficult to understand. There's just something about it that's impossible to comprehend in my head. I had that problem too back when I went to live with my father in Tennessee after I was done with highschool('93 I can't believe it's been that long). I got a parttime job as a bagger at Food Lion, ("what the gently caress is a buggy?" for starters) and then these old guys always got pissed when I couldn't figure out what cigarette they were asking for.
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Jan 20, 2012 11:49
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Neito posted:I swear, some people with southern accents exaggerate them. They do. I used to work at a sandwich shop, and had a customer come in and tell me the type of bread, meat and cheese he wanted. He had a southern accent, but a gentle, average kind of accent, where you can tell he's a southerner, but its not Larry the Cable Guy or anything silly like that. Then we got to the veggie station and he goes, "yeeeeaaah gimmie sum letice'n maters on dat dere" out of loving nowhere. I had no loving clue what he was talking about. I had to ask him to repeat himself about three times. I have hearing problems and I thought it was just me, but after the third time, he gave up and asked me normally. I still don't know if he thought it was cute or what the hell. My fellow ladies are really bad about it. I guess they think it makes them look cuter or more southern to the gentlemen or whatever.
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Jan 20, 2012 13:25
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I didn't mind retail until I got screwed over at my Lowes by a zone manager. I worked receiving for a year with a 3 man crew and we did great. I went to outside lawn and garden and took great care of the plants, I have years of landscaping experience so I knew what I was doing. I operated all the machinery and kept the department pristine. The problem was a head cashier named Billy. Early in my first year he moved for a promotion to another store in the state. Late in my second year he came back as a zone manager. Now the guy who didn't like me before was zone manager over lawn and garden. He was the type to come in seven days a week. He would circle the department in his truck on his days off and walk in in plain clothes and lecture me. He came in early and stayed late yet spent 95% of his time sitting in the front office eating. It started with him strolling around my department calling it "pathetic and disgusting" and then for some reason he just laser targeted on me. I know all about terrible retail workers. We had people in lawn and garden who would sit back by the timbers and smoke out of view of the cameras, one guy would even hide in the plastic display shed and talk on his cellphone for hours. I knew it was coming when he called me into the office and lectured me for a half hour on not doing my job correctly. He specifically mentioned that I didn't do anything on my worklists or fill them out. Our lawn and garden binder had my last months worklists all completed, or asterisks on items not completed with an in-depth explanation on back. He wouldn't hear it so at that point I knew what situation I was in. It went on for about three months. I had the guy tell me I had to get the outside concrete "clean enough to eat off of" and he routinely had me stay past midnight (I was scheduled to 10/11) when I had a 30 minute drive home and college classes at 7 the next morning. He once chewed me out in front of five people for not unloading AND stocking a truck with 22 pallets of stone on it in 30 minutes. I had to still load for other customers and try and stock two dozen pallets in a mostly full topstock with customers constantly wanting in the aisles. What got me though was I moved a forklift five feet without my seatbelt. I got on a stationary lift, buckled my seatbelt, drove up to an aisle blocker, unbuckled my seatbelt, moved the aisle blocker, got on the forklift, moved it five feet past the aisle blocker, got off and moved the aisle blocker back into place. The problem was I didn't buckle my seatbelt for the 5 second ride past the blocker. Class A safety violation, operation of equipment without safety devices, insubordination for not giving up my forklift license on the spot and wanting to take it to the manager. Denied unemployment for insubordination. The best part was is I had pictures of the same bosses extending the order pickers up with stacks of pallets on them and just standing on the pallets and working on the roof. How safe is that? TL:DR but this poo poo never stopped pissing me off and I never get to complain about it. Space Crabs fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Jan 20, 2012 |
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Jan 20, 2012 13:43
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foobyfooby posted:Don't worry, I've lived all my life in Georgia and I can't understand some of the thick accents, either. haha, remember the Gallery Furniture commericals with the Wolf Man and the Big Hair Lady? (this is a thing that really happened)
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Jan 20, 2012 16:34
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So I've been thinking about getting back into retail as a weekend thing (fri-sun) to supplement my full time job in a call center. I'd like to work in either a bookstore or a library, because I like reading/books and actually enjoyed working in a bookstore a few years back, and would have stayed longer if the hours/pay hadn't been so lovely. Any advice for getting a job at these places? Content: I was cashiering in a mid-sized store. Two well-dressed people come in, a white man in his 80s, assisted by a black woman in her 40s or 50s. He goes and looks at printer ink, she wanders off to the back to look at furniture or something. Old guy finishes up, comes to check out. Did you see that black lady with me when we came in? Yep. Do you know where she is? I think maybe she got arrested or something. I think she's in the back of the store. She didn't get arrested. Are you sure? She's black. Yes, I'm sure. She'll probably be up here in a minute. I just think maybe she got arrested, because she's black.About a minute later she collected him and they left together. Did he think we only served white folk or something?
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Jan 21, 2012 00:18
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Old people are a little crazy sometimes.
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Jan 21, 2012 03:10
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Yeah, but it's the crazy that you can just let slide off. Sure, they've already donated to the gene pool, but they're about to wash out and once they're gone, we can breath a sigh of relief that they took their crazy with them.
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Jan 21, 2012 03:56
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Actually, the story tangentially reminds me of one of my own... Hi, I'd like to do a return Oh okay, was there a problem with the item?*I remove the item, a pair of red boys' pants, from the bag. No, it's just that my son-in-law wouldn't let my grandson wear them! That's no good. Well, it's not a problem to return them at all! I think it's because the pants are red... I think he's a *whispers* gayphobicThe second she left, I had to run away to crack up. I don't know why, but "gayphobic" just killed me. I'm still a little giggly even typing it. Sucks about her son-in-law being a potential homophobe, though. Those red pants were cool.
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Jan 21, 2012 04:10
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Space Crabs posted:That is really lovely. Does that guy still work there? I'm fairly good with a poison pen and wouldn't mine causing him headaches via customer complaints to some corporate shmuck.
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Jan 21, 2012 04:55
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Azuth0667 posted:That is really lovely. Does that guy still work there? I'm fairly good with a poison pen and wouldn't mine causing him headaches via customer complaints to some corporate shmuck. From what I hear he sucked his way to second in command, since he was bringing the store manager free breakfast every day for months. Everyone rolled their eyes when he walked into the store managers office every morning with free donuts or muffins. Most of my anger is gone, it was about a year ago, but I liked that job and was good at it. I've had trouble finding steady work ever since so it still annoys me. I really, really don't want to go back to retail. The drama structure is just insufferable but it's the only work available where I live.
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Jan 21, 2012 05:10
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Looks like its back to retail for me. This time a convince store. Swift shop. At least its the cleanest and most organized one I have ever been in. Wal-Mart still has yet to get back to me about my suspension and job status. Still not fired seeing as how my discount card still works. Guess thats a plus. The screwed up thing? Besides waiting for over three months to hear from wal mart. At this convince store I will be getting paid 5 cents more then I was at wal-mart and thats after the raises I got there. After 90 days I will be getting health insurance and vision payed for by the company. While at wal mart it took a year and a half to even qualify for any kind of insurance. Then what they charge you was insane rates for anything besides accident insurance. So this entire thing may end up for the better. Darth Freddy fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 22, 2012 |
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Jan 21, 2012 09:18
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silversiren posted:I am in the south, though, so I should try that. "PEN DON'T WORK, Y'ALL. PUT THE GOLDON PEN DOWN. DANG PEN DON'T WORK!" I worked for a bank in Birmingham for a few months back in 2000, and I remember one morning coming into the meeting room and seeing a note on the overhead projector that read, and I quote, "BURNT SLAP UP -- DON'T BELIEVE ME? MASH BUTTON AND SEE."
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Jan 21, 2012 10:01
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kazmeyer posted:I worked for a bank in Birmingham for a few months back in 2000, and I remember one morning coming into the meeting room and seeing a note on the overhead projector that read, and I quote, "BURNT SLAP UP -- DON'T BELIEVE ME? MASH BUTTON AND SEE." Reasons I No Longer Desire to Work in Retail: DON'T BELIEVE ME? MASH BUTTON AND SEE!
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Jan 21, 2012 19:18
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The Lord Bude posted:
Wow. It's almost like a happy employee is a motivated and productive employee. 
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Jan 21, 2012 23:15
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Which is why management demands you be happy while meeting your metrics. After all, they reiterate time and again, you should be happy just to have a job! I'm convinced most people who make it higher in the management chain either have absolutely no experience with human psychology theoretical or applied, or else are scholars of the science who merely have a slight touch of raging psychopathy. The people in the middle are usually either completely hapless or just more victims of the poo poo raining down from above, generally.
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Jan 22, 2012 02:34
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A trainer for my company once told us that we are not retail workers, we are not cashiers, we are not printers, we are CONSULTANTS. We CONSULT with the customer and find the best solution to their needs! To which I say fine. Pay us like we're consultants.
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Jan 22, 2012 02:50
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Shady Amish Terror posted:Which is why management demands you be happy while meeting your metrics. After all, they reiterate time and again, you should be happy just to have a job! This is one of the reasons I don't respect corporate at all. I always liked the shocked look on our district manager's face when he asked who was happy at work and no one raised their hands. We work at RadioShack the company that's been almost flat-lining for years. We get poo poo from customers which is expected but then we get poo poo from corporate and then corporate wants us to tell them we are happy to receive the poo poo. Like clock work every July when the company is at its worst shitstorms erupt from the corporate office in Fort Worth Texas. They demand we shove a cellphone with accessories, warranty, and batteries down every customers gullet or risk being fired. If we don't manage to sell any one of the above that day we have to call the district manager be berated under the guise of 'sales counseling' or risk being fired. I haven't worked there for over a year and that crap still makes me angry  . If I ever manage to become rich I'm going to buy the company, liquidate it and give the proceeds to the non-corporate employees.
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Jan 22, 2012 04:05
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Breetai posted:Wow. It's almost like a happy employee is a motivated and productive employee. I'm supervising the front end that day. When I say 'I'm gonna make that front end shine!' I'm not really going to be doing all that much cleaning myself, I'm just causing cleaning to be done, specifically to every surface that could conceivably have dust on it. Also, I like it when things are shiny.
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Jan 22, 2012 06:10
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The Lord Bude posted:I'm supervising the front end that day. When I say 'I'm gonna make that front end shine!' I'm not really going to be doing all that much cleaning myself, I'm just causing cleaning to be done, specifically to every surface that could conceivably have dust on it. I'd just like to say that your trolling of this thread is really quite masterful. The way you make deadpan remarks that are just obnoxious enough to raise ire yet still believeable is fantastic. It's humbling to see.
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Jan 22, 2012 20:55
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Dirty Sanchez posted:I'd just like to say that your trolling of this thread is really quite masterful. The way you make deadpan remarks that are just obnoxious enough to raise ire yet still believeable is fantastic. While my ultimate goal is to entertain you fine people, and I try to bring out the humour in all situations, I would like to state for the record that everything I have said in this thread is true... falsehood is for lesser humourists, and I was taught by a master. In other news, depending on how things turn out over the next couple of days, i may be able to extend my audience to the 'A ticket came in' and 'poo poo that pisses you off daily' threads.
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Jan 23, 2012 01:33
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Quick question for the Americans: what do you call it when someone calls in sick? Does 'sick days' as a term make sense to you, or should I use something else?
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Jan 23, 2012 13:36
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"Absenteeism", because being sick is something that can't be avoided and happens to everyone. Being absent? That's your own damned fault, you stupid peon. Reason doesn't matter unless HR forces the issue. I've heard of these mythical sick days, but I've never had a job that allowed them. Usually you can either take the pay hit (and get marked down for being absent on your reviews) or use some of your 2 weeks-per-year vacation time (and get marked down for being absent on your reviews). Either way you're better off coming in and spreading the plague to everyone else, according to american workplace logic. Edit: Unless you're a manager. Then you don't miss work, you just "work from home" when you're sick. And by work I mean sit on IM/Email and attempt to micromanage from afar, accomplishing nothing.
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Jan 23, 2012 13:49
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I'm finally being moved from Night Shift to 2nd shift, hooray! I can finally start doing things again. Too bad it's to 2nd shift Cashier  marshmallard posted:Quick question for the Americans: what do you call it when someone calls in sick? Does 'sick days' as a term make sense to you, or should I use something else? 'Sick days' make sense as a term, yes, but only as a mythical perk that one gets from good jobs or from suffering through a retail job for ~1-2 years full time.
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Jan 23, 2012 20:03
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Tiny posted:I've heard of these mythical sick days, but I've never had a job that allowed them. Usually you can either take the pay hit (and get marked down for being absent on your reviews) or use some of your 2 weeks-per-year vacation time (and get marked down for being absent on your reviews). Either way you're better off coming in and spreading the plague to everyone else, according to american workplace logic. Same here. Eight years in the adult work force and I've never had a paid sick day (or an unpaid that didn't count as an unexcused absence). I called out sick one evening with four hours notice (policy was three hours) and the manager and shift lead spent 2 of those four hours calling me nonstop trying to shame me into coming to work and telling me I wasn't sick. I had called out one or two times in the six months I had worked there previously. I worked for the government for over a year and didn't get sick days. My manager would come in, hacking and couching, and get the rest of us sick because she just couldn't take the day off. She'd sit around bitching about being sick and get nothing done, then act shocked when the rest of us got what she had.
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Jan 23, 2012 21:46
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Since "I took a sickie/sick day" is so rarely utterable usually we just say "I called in (sick)."
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Jan 23, 2012 21:58
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Jesus Christ, I'm so glad I live in the socialist nightmare that is the UK. You guys get utterly screwed just for being ill.
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Jan 23, 2012 22:07
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Yep we are, calling in sick is considered some form of sacrilege by management usually. For my second job I used to work at a grocery store, it was some branch of Kroger. I had come down with flu but when I called in the manager screamed at me until I conceded and said fine I'll come in sick. When I went to clock in he was there with a stupid  grin on his face and he uttered "I knew you weren't sick, you're just lazy." I didn't say anything back because if you do it just encourages him to be verbally abusive and eventually he would have wrote me up for disrespect after he was done. I made sure to cough in his face and general direction every chance I got. The next I volunteered for the customer service counter and when he called in sick I never notated it and he got written up for a no call no show.
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Jan 24, 2012 03:51
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Azuth0667 posted:"I knew you weren't sick, you're just lazy." Sometimes murder is acceptable, you know.
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Jan 24, 2012 05:02
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Byzantine posted:Sometimes murder is necessary, you know. Fixed that for you
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Jan 24, 2012 05:05
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Pillowpants posted:Why is it so hard for customers to spend a minute to look alphabetically through Best Buy's cd/dvd sections? I don't know which BB you work at, or shop at, but the 2 near where I live are NEVER in order, for that matter, I can't really think of any store that was ever able to keep them in order during the day. They attempt to separate out genres, and still doesn't work. People just put poo poo wherever they feel like. (I don't work at BB).
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Jan 24, 2012 05:28
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