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Letter from a Rage-Infected Wage Slave (language)

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  • Letter from a Rage-Infected Wage Slave (language)

    Dear She-Bitch:

    I would use your name in the salutation, but there are a couple of reasons why I didn't. First of all, the site where I am posting this frowns on such things and prefers to maintain the anonymity of everyone involved. Secondly, I don't know your name, so I was forced to make one up for you. Thirdly, dubbing you "She-Bitch" helps me vent.

    I did not actually serve you in any way the day you visited our store. I did not actually see you, either. This does not matter. Your visitation to our place of business nevertheless had implications that would affect the rest of our work day.

    You visited the store on a Wednesday, traditionally one of our slowest days of the week, and as such, one of the days when we are not very deeply staffed. Because of such "short-staffed-ness," we did not have any spare employees to give breaks when it was busy.

    When you proceeded to visit our store and consume an hour's worth of our MOD's time, you delayed everything. Because he was not available on the front-line, he was not able to help at the self-checkout counter, and thus delaying his break, and the FDLP's break as well.

    Our store closes at ten o'clock on weekdays. Because of you, and because we had to catch up on the breaks of everyone else on the front line after you left, the FDLP and MOD did not get their own meal breaks until 9:15. In addition, my coworker JB and I were supposed to go outside and do carts at 8:30 or 9:00, but were not able to go outside until 9:30, when the FDLP got back from his break.

    He and I were forced to rush to get an hour to an hour-and-a-half's worth of work done in half an hour, and because that left us even more short-staffed inside than before, re-shops were not completed on time, the closing clean-up was not completed on time, and all the rest of the closing routine was delayed.

    As a result, we left more than an hour late because of you. You earned the ire of everyone who worked in the store that night for delaying our escape to our homes. You earned the ire of a few people who shopped in the store because you usurped our MOD, thus preventing him from doing other aspects of his job, and preventing him from helping them. And doubtless, once the additional hour's worth of pay to everyone who worked that night hits the Home Office Accounts' books, you'll have earned the ire of the Home Office.

    You've tarnished the soul of many people, She-Bitch. I hope you die in a fire.

    Sincerely,

    Jay 2K Winger.
    -------------------------------------
    I feel much better having written all of that. -.-
    PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

    There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

  • #2
    Actually, I'd be more miffed at store staffing policies that let that happen than a customer taking up someone's time. That happens. The store can't deal? Fix it. It's not the customer's problem.

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    • #3
      Nicely written J2K!

      Hard to tell w/o details (How much she spent, how EW or SCey she was, etc.) but I imagine you wouldn't be writing if it wasn't stupid Or was the MOD too wimpy to pull away?

      In any case I have to disagree with One-Fang - stores (except for very high end, VERY service oriented) that don't schedule man hours as close to expected sales as possible go under pretty quickly. And it's pretty hard to take a single customer using up an entire hour into account.
      Last edited by sms001; 05-19-2009, 06:50 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        I don't see the suck here.

        Did the lady get screamy or make unreasonable demands? Was she dense and asking stupid questions over and over again? Or did she just need a lot of help and the encounter took a little longer to be over with?

        That being said, if your store is anything like mine, it's probably running on significantly less staff than it should be. Years ago, even on our slower nights, we had at least three people covering the floor in hardlines and people in the backroom. Now it's one person to cover all of hardlines at night, and they have to backup cashier if needed, do returns, give customer service, do any pulls in the autopull system, bring in carts, and give the person in lawn and garden their break.

        But since the economy is bad and employees are the biggest expense a retail chain has (), it's only natural that the suits will look to cut out some of the help at the store level.
        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

        "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

        Comment


        • #5
          Pretty sure J2K was really frustrated that he and everyone else had to stay an hour later, after what was already a pretty long shift... Even if the lady didn't seem sucky to you guys, she does to J2K. Even if the lady wasn't really that terrible, it's a reasonable place for a frustrated person to place blame. Why are you telling him it wasn't that bad when he is just venting his shit?

          I'm sorry the lady was such a time-hog J2K!! I hope you at least got decent sleep before your next shift.
          "I'm working for popcorn - what I get paid doesn't rise to the level of peanuts." -Courtesy of Darkwish

          ...Beware the voice without a face...

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth NightWatch View Post
            Why are you telling him it wasn't that bad when he is just venting his shit?
            Because the blame ought to go to the people who left his store in the position of one time-hog customer resulting in a bunch of overtime for everybody else--i.e. the bean counter who determined payroll for that night, and maybe the managers who wanted all the closing work done knowing it would result in overtime for everybody else. Not toward the customer unless she did or said things that weren't mentioned.

            Unless we're now going to decide that any customer that has questions and needs a little more help than the average customer is now sucky.
            Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

            "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth Jay 2K Winger View Post

              Sincerely,

              Jay 2K Winger.
              -------------------------------------
              I feel much better having written all of that. -.-
              That right there tells me he had a bad a day and needed someone he could SEE to blame for it. Rapscallion has a post somewhere that says we aren't supposed to pick apart someone else's definition of sucky.

              In fact, last night, I was talking to a co-worker that I liked, but they were delaying me from going home and even then it made me feel a little antsy (it was like, a minute). It's not unjustified after you've work a full shift. Just let the guy vent, if you don't agree, then don't comment.

              When someone starts threatening physical violence upon customer's for whatever minor offense they made, then you should say something.
              "I'm working for popcorn - what I get paid doesn't rise to the level of peanuts." -Courtesy of Darkwish

              ...Beware the voice without a face...

              Comment


              • #8
                Just to clarify to everyone:

                ~ Yes, the store not scheduling enough people is as much to account for Teh Suck as anything. The MOD not doing more to try to alleviate the problem (or finishing up She-Bitch's hour-long whatever) is probably part of the reason said MOD is on thin ice with the company at present.

                ~ I don't know the specifics about She-Bitch using up an hour of MOD's time. Nor did I ask, because at that point, I just wanted to finish my shift, go home, and collapse.

                ~ The entire post was, as others have speculated, more to vent about a frustrating day than to highlight any particular suck. Sometimes you just need to vent, you know?
                PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

                There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

                Comment


                • #9
                  I read it as singling out the lady.

                  Thanks for coming back to clarify things though.
                  Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                  "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I'm glad that everything has been worked out in a friendly manner. However, sometimes these things go differently, so I feel some reminders are in order:

                    When a member is clearly just venting, we generally ask that people don't make statements such as "I don't see the suck." The relevant Site News post (mentioned earlier) can be found here. In this case, IPF was mostly asking for clarification, and Jay 2K took that in the right spirit and gave a few more details.

                    Second, we always ask that anyone who has concerns about a thread staying within the Site rules to please report the post instead of acting as a moderator themselves.

                    Thanks, guys. Carry on.

                    If you have to ask, it's probably better posted at www.fratching.com

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      There's been a few times where I work where there wasn't a particular sucky customer that stood out during the day...but one or two that just created a situation that rubbed me the wrong way and all I wanted to do was come here and



                      and when I was finished I would just collapse in a heap with a big hefty sigh.
                      "I'm still walking, so I'm sure that I can dance!" from Saint of Circumstance - Grateful Dead

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