Tuesday, September 20, 2005

It's Not My Fault!

Let's go shopping at my place of employment. Say that you need help loading your purchase into your car. Okay! Tell your friendly cashier that you would like some help. The friendly cashier calls the Head Cashier and says, "I need a lot attendant please." The HC uses a complicated-looking walkie-talkie thing and radios to the lot attendant, "You are needed at the blah-blah doors." That's it from the cashier. All the cashier has the power to do is call and bug somebody else. Now, if you're lucky and there's actually a lot attendant around, one should be with you soon.
Not so in a certain couple's case. I call four times with ever increasingly frantic, "I neeeed a lot attendant five minutes ago!" I call the lumber associate to come help. Nobody comes. I even call a manager's extension, hoping they will make a lot associate appear. It's been fifteen minutes.
Old guy is loading up lumber alone, old lady is looking pissed. And she has every right to be.
But not at me.
She walks over all indignant and angry and tells me that she's writing to the manager about me because I'm "not doing my job."
I am shocked, in the middle of ringing up a transaction, and I manage to squeak out a little, "Me? Why me? What did I do?"
She replies, "It's what you didn't do! You didn't call anybody for us! I'm calling the manager as soon as I get home!"
While she's saying this to me she's backing away, like she's afraid I'm going to reach out and whack her with my scanner-gun or something. She wouldn't stop to listen to my calm description of my lot attendant-securing process. Nope, she doesn't care, she just needs somebody to be angry with.
The Head Cashiers are walking over, trying to figure out what's going on. The woman backs up to her truck parked in the loading zone, gets in it, and as she's driving away, yells out her window, "I'm calling! When I get home!"

When and if she does call, the Manager will explain to her the process of what a cashier actually does. And I hope she remembers watching me call four freakin' times for someone to help her. And then maybe she'll feel bad about berating an innocent slightly-above-minimum-wage worker. But I doubt it.
People like that just need to blame.

1 comment:

fezmonkey said...

You are from Portland too? I love that city so damn much!