A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/11/2024 at 12:17 PM, Bookish Jen said:

I think this happened while I was listening to a post-election podcast.

Were you on a break, or do you get to listen to podcasts while you're on the clock? 

[Bookish Jen]

On 11/13/2024 at 9:03 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Were you on a break, or do you get to listen to podcasts while you're on the clock? 

I get to listen to podcasts while on the clock as long as I wear my ear buds.

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Bookish Jen said:

I get to listen to podcasts while on the clock as long as I wear my ear buds.

I can also listen to podcasts depending on what I am doing in my office. There's a big part of my job that is straight up busywork and listening to a podcast or some music helps make the task easier.

[Cloud9Shopper]

It only took me one shift today to learn that working retail during the holiday season is a special type to hell thanks to the following customers at the grocery store today:

-The lady who bought over $400 worth of groceries and then decided not to buy at least 12 other things she originally had in her cart, including four gallons of milk and roughly eight jars of pasta sauce, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Also, the juice from the turkey she was debating getting promptly leaked on my counter by the register. (She decided to get it.) Thankfully a courtesy clerk was nearby and she was able to help me make all the returns. The customer then decided she needed to pay with three different cards.

-The lady who told me my conveyor belt was “gross” because I had had so much time to clean it (/s) with back to back to back customers.

-Also, all the people who are picky about the bills they want for cash back. I have what I have, Carol; take it or go to the courtesy desk for change. 

None of these things ruined my shift or anything but why do all the worst people come out of the woodwork for the holiday? 

Maybe I should have put my notice in a couple weeks ago after all. 🤣 I was just overwhelmed at the time and impulse reacted. My manager didn’t seem to care that I retracted it; if she was mad she got over it in about four seconds. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Today is my last day at the grocery store. I put in notice last week and told my boss I’d be available through the end of this week (we only get our schedule a week at a time), but she just scheduled me for today because I was busy this week anyway. I got the full time job and raise I wanted and am still training on the core responsibilities of my new title, so it’s time to leave the world of retail behind and have more work-life balance again while I focus on my new job.

While I’ll miss my coworkers and the majority of the customers were fine, I won’t miss customers complaining when they had to use self-checkout at five minutes to close, the nitpicking some of them do about coupons, the ones who came through with bad body odor that nearly made me gag…and I won’t miss working on the weekend or until 9:00 on a weeknight. I also won’t miss my manager being disorganized and scheduling me when I said I wasn’t available or being asked to cover for teenagers. 

Honestly, I won’t go back to retail or entry level customer service again unless it’s a last resort due to a job loss or I have another financial hardship where my primary job won’t cover expenses. Now that I’m out of the general call center queues and will be quitting retail, I think I’ve earned the right to work a little less hard and focus on gaining experience for an even better job in 3-5 years. 

Edited December 1 by Cloud9Shopper

[Is Everyone Gone]

Omg. Officially the most bizarre thing that has happened to me at work.

Yesterday a lady at work asked me to make photocopies for her of a few worksheets. Ahe said she was "afraid" of making copies. I was like okay fine, and started running off the copies. She starts panicking while I'm running off the copies, and started crying hysterically. "Oh god no, please stop, please stop, this feels so wrong." I was like huh? I'm just running copies for you. she continued crying hysterically, saying she felt like she was sinning, she was so afraid of being caught. She said she was a catholic, and takes sin seriously. I was like "for running photocopies?"

[PRgal]

20 hours ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Omg. Officially the most bizarre thing that has happened to me at work.

Yesterday a lady at work asked me to make photocopies for her of a few worksheets. Ahe said she was "afraid" of making copies. I was like okay fine, and started running off the copies. She starts panicking while I'm running off the copies, and started crying hysterically. "Oh god no, please stop, please stop, this feels so wrong." I was like huh? I'm just running copies for you. she continued crying hysterically, saying she felt like she was sinning, she was so afraid of being caught. She said she was a catholic, and takes sin seriously. I was like "for running photocopies?"

Because technically, photocopying is violating copyright?

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

I also find that if you want a non-retail job, you'd better have a bachelor's degree or license for something or rather. Mind you, I am absolutely not against degrees or licenses, but does one really need one to be, say, a receptionist? Not putting the profession down, it is harder and more important than people give it credit for, but no one wants to take the time to give proper, on the job training for it, so you have to jump through countless fiery hoops.

Not everyone has the finances or the time to go back to college or study for a license (that, to be brutally frank, they don't really want), so good luck trying to get ahead in the job market.

Edited December 10 by Wiendish Fitch

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

I'm retired now but even as early as 25 years ago I stopped receiving any on the job training. I was told to consult other admin. assistants if I had any questions or given a list of phone numbers to call for help with various things. And often those people were very busy and didn't have adequate time to give me the help I needed. Fortunately I was good at figuring stuff out on my own which helped. I also got asked to help other new employees too. Everyone always came to the department admin. for help with many aspects of their jobs. 

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I also find that if you want a non-retail job, you'd better have a bachelor's degree or license for something or rather. Mind you, I am absolutely not against degrees or licenses, but does one really need one to be, say, a receptionist? Not putting the profession down, it is harder and more important than people give it credit for, but no one wants to take the time to give proper, on the job training for it, so you have to jump through countless fiery hoops.

Not everyone has the finances or the time to go back to college or study for a license (that, to be brutally frank, they don't really want), so good luck trying to get ahead in the job market.

I have heard that some of that is changing now because fewer young people are getting college degrees, but until about a decade ago it actually worked against you to have a 4 year college degree to get a job as a receptionist or admin. assistant! No lie, I used to leave my degrees off my resume back in the day. They used to assume that you were taking that job until something better came along. How sad was that? I can see why that changed, though, because over time jobs like this started requiring more oral and written communication skills and the ability to handle technical/computer work. And I think employers just wanted to ensure that a person had an education that probably taught them some of those those things. It used to be assumed that a basic high school education would give you adequate preparation, but that changed. Starting around 15 years ago or so a lot of people began to think that a high school education is not enough anymore to qualify many people to do white collar work. I hate to say that I can understand the reasoning behind that, although I'm not sure that the education system is to blame or because more people were going to college it meant they probably weren't up to doing certain kinds of work if they didn't. And of course the work required became more demanding too, so it's probably a combination of things.

Neither my husband nor my father went to college but you'd never think that if you spent any time with them. People used to think my father was a college professor, LOL, and my husband's grammar and vocabulary have always been amazing. I don't believe most young adults today that never went to college would be on their level. As more people in recent years have opted out of getting a college degree, some of this is actually changing. One of my best friends' daughters is an example of this. She's 35 and has a great job with a big insurance company that a decade ago she'd never have been able to get with only two years of college and no degree.

Anyway, just my take.

Edited December 10 by Yeah No

[Ohiopirate02]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

Most retailers are doing everything they can to cut the workforce down to the bare minimum. That leaves no time for managers to thoroughly train people. Not when they have a list a mile long of tasks they must complete every day. When I used to work for Walgreens, there was a set number of employees every shift that is definitely not the case anymore. One person at the register, one at cosmetics, one at photo plus one employee on the floor and at least one manager. Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

13 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Most retailers are doing everything they can to cut the workforce down to the bare minimum. That leaves no time for managers to thoroughly train people. Not when they have a list a mile long of tasks they must complete every day. When I used to work for Walgreens, there was a set number of employees every shift that is definitely not the case anymore. One person at the register, one at cosmetics, one at photo plus one employee on the floor and at least one manager. Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

Bolded mine.

Michael's has become the same way. It is friggin' depressing.

[Cementhead]

46 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

Nowadays, I feel lucky if there even is an employee at the register. 

[Dimity]

9 minutes ago, Cementhead said:

Nowadays, I feel lucky if there even is an employee at the register. 

At our local grocery store they've added even more self check-outs so you can either wait in a long line for a cashier or you can do it yourself.  On principle I've always waited in the line, but they're making it harder and harder for those of us who don't want self check out.  I had read that a lot of places have moved away from the self check out (due I guess to people not paying for some of their stuff?) but not around here, sadly.

[Yeah No]

Near me I find it depends on the store. Walgreens has fewer people on the floor in the past few years but CVS still has as many as ever, mostly stocking. Target and Walmart still have a lot of employees on the floor stocking but only one or two manned checkouts on weekdays and maybe 3 or 4 on weekends. Now you have to hunt down someone to help you in the electronics departments and there's no one manning the fitting rooms anymore either. The supermarkets vary but most only have a couple of manned checkouts at any time and all have increased the number of self-checkouts in the past couple of years. The deli section often only has one person at it and a line waiting. And forget the floral dept. and bakeries. You have to go to the service desk to get someone to come over to help you anymore.

 Kohls and all the department stores like Macy's and Penney's have cut down so much on staff that they all now have one big register per floor and have shut down all the others. They also keep only one or two ladies fitting rooms open in the entire store where there used to be at least twice as many. It's horrible on weekends with everyone packed into one fitting room and a line waiting. I feel sorry for the person that has to put all those clothes back because now there's only one doing what used to be the job of several people and I'm sure they have other duties as well.

[Mountainair]

Not related to self check outs but since Covid times our drug stores have been severely lacking. My kids have needed antibiotics in the last year or so and CVS and Walgreens have been completely out of them leaving me in a lurch. I’ve waited in line for hours (seriously) to be told they are out of said antibiotic. There are times lately when the pharmacy is just closed due to lack of staff.  I ended up switching to our local grocery store chain and have had no problems getting prescriptions filled.