A PAGE UNTURNED

11-12-08 (11:16 pm)

ANOTHER RANT

The question keeps sneaking into my brain…….WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TODAY??

I know every job has its quirks. Its share of nutcases, psychos and just plain ignorant people. But it seems that that share is getting bigger. It could also be that the older I get, the less tolerant I am of those listed above. Either way, I am sick and tired of dealing with them. But, alas, I have to work to pay bills and live in a dwelling that doesn’t ride on 4 wheels (living in my car, lol). Sigh…………

I try every day to ask God for a good day. I did so today, but must not have asked in humbleness. Or, possibly God, with His wonderful sense of humor, thought it would be a good day to teach me some patience and humility. Today started out fairly well. I went through my normal routine to prepare for work, fed the cat, and left for work. Arriving at work went uneventful. It wasn’t long into the morning that the “resident Christian” began getting a little attitude toward the CS workers, and even me. Nothing specific, just an air of superiority that didn’t belong. Then the little old yank came to work and began to weave her web of meanness.

There were so many CS workers there that I got my own “helper” for the counter. My helper is supposed to assist in taking clothing off hangers, folding, placing in bags and wrapping bric-a-brac in newspaper and bagging them. It helps me get the customer cashed out much quicker. The girl that I was assigned never came up to the register, so another girl noticed I needed help so she began assisting me. The “Yankee ogre” came up and asked me where the assigned girl was. I told her I had no clue who was assigned to me, but that this girl stepped in and was helping me. The girl got her feelings hurt by the yank ogre and said she was trying to step in and help when she saw it was needed. I hugged her and told her she was fine, and I appreciated her help. The yank ogre told the girl to finish up and go to the back and I was left with no one. Then another girl came up to assist. She wasn’t doing a very good job, so I just told her to check the store for fallen clothing, items out of place, etc. Things went well for a while. Then, an ex CS girl came in the store and was all behind the counter and talking to the girl who was supposed to be bagging for me and they got into a deep discussion and I had a long line of customers. The CS girl had taken all the jewelry from the case and laid all of it in the floor where I was trying to stand and wait on my customers. I kept tripping over stuff and knocking earrings off the little rack and with all the customers in my line, no room to move and no one helping me bag, I began having a panic attack. I had to excuse myself from behind the counter for a minute and looked around for someone to help me. The other 2 employees were busy with customers and I felt helpless. I went back behind the counter and asked the CS girl to please get all the jewelry items off the floor and to help me bag. She said she wanted to finish up what she was doing and I just let it go. Then I realized that my customers were beginning to get ill having to wait on me to work the register and bag their items. The man I was waiting on, who is a heavy man in ill health, was getting noticeably ill at the situation, so I turned to the CS girl and asked her once again to please help me wrap his items and bag them, and she was still busy talking to the ex CS girl and told me she was going to finish what she was doing, that I could wrap his items and bag them. I was ready to explode by then. The man at the counter told me he was about to say something he was going to regret so get him bagged up and out of there. He wasn’t angry at me, but at the girl and the situation.

I was livid. The assistant director came up to the counter and I turned to her and whispered “I want this girl out from behind my counter and sent to the back and don’t want her back up front.” I even told the AD why. She immediately told her she needed her to work in the back and not come back up front. The CS girl continued to finish her task of redoing the jewelry case and mumbled about me or to me the whole time. I went to the back and asked for one of the really good CS women to come help me and she did. She got the line down in no time, and witnessed the CS girl mumbling at me and not doing what she had been asked. When the CS girl went to the back she was asked to leave and not return to our store for CS work. Thank you Jesus.

Then came the phone call.

Our assistant director is in charge of assisting people with help on paying rent, mortgage and other necessities, which we do once a month. She was seeing clients and asked me to screen any calls that came in for her. That is what I was doing when a woman called (caller ID said Subway Sandwich Shop) and asked for the assistant director by name. I asked her to give me her name and reason for calling and she said, very hateful, “If I had wanted to talk to you I would have asked for you!” My director was standing right behind me, talking to a customer, so I turned around to him, without putting the call on hold, and asked him to take the call. The caller hung up. When I told my director what had happened, he laughed and said if they called back give the call to him and he would make sure that they didn’t get any assistance for some time because he wasn’t going to have his cashiers talked to in that manner………whooo hooooo. First time he has stood up for me……..well, among the first, lol. When I mentioned it to the assistant director’s assistant, the head cashier, she knew exactly whom I was talking about, saying she had had dealings with the same woman the week before. I hate it, but she won’t be getting any assistance for at least 6 months.

Later in the day I had a small verbal “tussle” with a customer. Actually, it was my fault for not keeping my mouth shut, but sometimes you say things on your mind because people are just so stupid. I usually don’t fold the clothing “to the T” when putting them in the bag. I don’t cram them in either, but don’t spend excess time straightening them, folding them and making sure they are not wrinkled or crinkled. After all, these are used items being sold in a thrift store and should be taken home immediately and washed, right??!! When I put the clothing in the bag for the customer, she took them back out and folded them very neatly, as if to accuse me of not treating her clothing like new clothing. I told her I was sorry I didn’t fold them to suit her, but figured she would be taking them home and washing them anyway. She said that she wouldn’t necessarily wash them before wearing them, so wanted them folded neatly. Her “good dog” husband stood quietly and obediently by as she made her comments. I told her she really should wash them before she wore them as they might contain “critters”. I laughed, trying to lighten the mood of the conversation and she said “Well now you seem to not want me to buy things here, telling me that you sell clothing with bugs in them”. I tried to explain that I was trying to look out for her since one never knows what people will donate. I mean, you could catch a skin disease, crabs, lice, and other things from used clothing if you are not careful. Ewwwwwwwwwww. Remind me not to visit her house……….

Along those lines, I had a customer a few weeks ago that bought some sheets and a blanket and said she couldn’t wait to get them home and on the bed for her kids. They had torn up all the old sheets. I told her make sure they were washed first and she retorted she wasn’t going to take one set of sheets to the Laundromat just so her kids could wet the bed, write on them with markers and tear them up again. OMG!!!

Later in the day the Yankee ogre came up to purchase a pair of men’s cargo pants. Now, in the past when this co-worker would attempt a purchase, I would say that her money wasn’t any good to me. She would insist that I charge her for the item/s. So I would charge her a lesser price……..such as $1.99 for a $2.99 or $3.99 purchase. She would grumble about it and say I shouldn’t do that; she was willing to pay the regular price. So, today, drawing on history of how she reacts, I charged her $2.79 for a $2.99 pair of pants, and then took off her senior discount, which brought the pants to $2.71. About 5 minutes later a young CS worker came up to purchase a pair of men’s shorts and the yank came up with him and told me to charge him $2.99. Well, it is an unspoken policy among most of us that work there that we either don’t charge the CS workers for small amounts of clothing or we charge a minimal amount. So, not realizing that the yank was still standing nearby, I rang the boy up at 99 cents for his shorts and he saw the total of $1.06 and said the total out loud. I looked at him as if to say hush and looked around and there stood the yank, glaring at me. I looked at her and smiled and she lit into me. She said I charged her full price for the same item I charged him a dollar for. I told her I didn’t charge her full price, to look at her receipt. She said it didn’t matter; it wasn’t fair what I did. I told her she always wanted me to charge her the full price for her purchases, so what was I supposed to do. I had a couple of customers come over and tell me she was way out of line acting like that. One was even a friend of the assistant director’s and told her what happened and that I was not rude or at fault. Oh well…….it still pissed me off. The old crow, I mean yank, is always into everyone else’s business and I am tired of it. She even goes over to the time clock and pulls everyone’s time card out of the slot and inspects it. I put a stop to that by putting a note on mine telling anyone not name Regina keep their hands off my time card.

The “resident Christian” had gone to lunch with a regular customer and was gone for way over an hour. The other cashier’s husband came up to take her to lunch around 1 pm, so I knew she would be gone at least an hour. I figured I would get to go to lunch around 1:45 pm or 2 pm. 2:10 pm, I was still at the counter waiting on customers and no one was even there to relieve me in case I had to potty or had any type of emergency. And there was no way I was going to ask the yank to help me out. The director came back from his lunch around 2:15 pm and I told him I had more or less been abandoned by everyone and would like to go to lunch. He told me to go on to lunch right then, he would take over. As I left for lunch I passed the other cashier and told her the director was covering for me and that I was going home for lunch and might not come back. She must have thought I was kidding, but I was serious. I came home, changed into my house clothes and sat down to eat while watching TV. I didn’t plan on going back. Then I realized that I had left my other bag at work that has my “drugs” and jacket in it. (Drugs meaning ibuprofen, Tylenol, sinus meds, etc). So, after having been gone from work about an hour, I decided to go back. I was gone for a total of an hour and 15 minutes. When I walked in the back, the other cashier said I had scared her to death. When I wasn’t back in an hour, she panicked. I guess it could have been considered job abandonment, so I guess I am glad I went back.

After burdening you with all this garbage, I do have a few high points to mention. Several customers told me that they truly enjoyed coming in when I was there because I was so jovial and lighthearted. Another regular customer told me that she really liked me, better than most of the others that worked there. She said I was a true asset to the store and she would miss me very much if I left there. Sigh……….I needed to hear that after a day like today.

Once again, I have complained enough. I wish I had wifi again tonight. I am off work tomorrow and could get a lot done online. I had a connection when I came home at lunchtime today, but it disappeared shortly after I sat down at the computer. And so is my life.

If I haven’t bored you to tears, leave me one of your workday experiences in my comments section. I love to share others’ pain, lol.

They have put up the light pole Christmas decorations in my town. Which means instead of the usual bright off-white light glaring in my window, I have red, green, white and yellow blinking lights coming through my window. And they leave them on all night. Why? There are maybe a total of 5 cars on my street after 11 pm. And those are usually cop cars going to a call with their sirens blaring. They surely aren’t looking at the Christmas decorations. More of wasteful government spending.

I better close out here before this becomes a novel instead of a novelette, lol.

NEVER LEAVE A PAGE UNTURNED………………..