Maybe my worst TD day ever.

[BaristaGirl]

Moderate language warning.

For those of you who don't know, I started a second job. I'm now working 7 days a week. I'm so sick right now it is not funny. I feel as though I might die and I'd be all the happier to do so as then I would not have to be yelled at for trying to call out sick.

This is a story about my horrible day, and about the two weird customers that just didn't help matters at all.

So today I almost called out sick for the very first time. I get to work and my sup (Coco, nicknamed) and I exchange words that did not end well for me. The girl is a pod person, I swear, some days we get along great, some days we want to kill each other. So the day starts out with me hating her, holding back tears in the back room, sniffling, with perhaps the 2nd or 3rd worst sore throat I have ever had. Then things get interesting. I clean the bathrooms and return to the back room, where a strange lady appears to be pouring over paperwork. She asks aloud my boss' name, but does so after I've turned my back to her. I turn around with an "Are you talking to me?" but my sup heads that off, and takes the questions instead. I try not to sniffle as I do some dishes. Eventually Coco pushes me and my co-worker Rayray (nicknamed) onto the floor where we proceed to clean vigorously. We are informed somewhere in all this that the woman is the health inspector. Coco throws me on my half hour break (which I spend crying in my car) and I return. The woman is still there.

Coco goes on her half. SC1 approaches; he bought a coffee and had left a few minutes ago. He enters and gets as close to me as he can from in front of the register. "I HAVE TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER RIGHT AWAY." I explain that he is not in. Rayray next to me braces. "THERE IS A GAS LEAK DOWN THE STREET AND YOU HAVE TO CALL YOUR MANAGER RIGHT AWAY SO HE CAN CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!"

With the health inspector staring at me, I calmly tell Rayray to get Coco, as I have NO IDEA how to handle the situation. SC1 leaves, his civic duty complete and the whole mess shoved upon us. So Coco calls the fire department and spends her half hour break figuring out what is up, and as it turns out, nothing is wrong, no leak is detected. So she just wasted her meal break for nothing. Awesome.

After Rayray leaves, it is just Coco and I. SC2 (a regular customer, not normally too sucky, one of the grande-extra-hot-nonfat-extra-foam chai types, you know what I mean, XD) re-enters after having purchased her chai and left. She carries with her a large blue bag. She explains that someone found it in the street and gave it to her, and now, of course, she is giving it to us in case someone comes looking for it. Because, of course, if I left my lunch box in the middle of the road, TD's would be the first place I'd think of to look for it. Oh, wait. No. You lose.

We threw it out. What the hell else were we supposed to do? We looked through it for identification and found nothing but a half-eaten peach. It was STINKY. We cannot - can not - be keeping random lunch boxes from down the street. It is -not- our responsibility.

So, health inspector, sick as a dog, nonexistent gas leak, random lunchbox, at odds with sup. Yes, this was a pretty bad day for me.

[Imogene]

"THERE IS A GAS LEAK DOWN THE STREET AND YOU HAVE TO CALL YOUR MANAGER RIGHT AWAY SO HE CAN CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!"

Um... did he not have a cell phone? Or are your customers not the yuppy type usually seen in TDs?

And, the health inspector glaring over your shoulder while the guy fobbed personality responsibility off onto you... she couldn't have grabbed a phone either?

[aurelemsrealm]

Usually, when customers come into the store saying we need to call the police or whatever other seemingly appropriate authority to report some kind of emergency, I just hand them the phone, "Here, you call since you know what is going on."

I don't call to report anything on the word of others simply because I don't want caught up in a bunch of drama. People either like to make up stories just for a little attention, or they like to make the smallest of issues into a bigger drama than it's worth. Sometimes, people like both. Not me, though. I like it when the store is quiet and virtually deserted, which rarely happens.

Yes, you may use our phone to call 911 to report an accident, but you talk to them. Don't expect me to call 911 for you unless I can clearly see that something is wrong. I don't want them asking for my information when I didn't even see what happened.

[Primer]

I'm surprised the Health Department person did not say anything about you being there while ill. I sure hope it gets mentioned in the store report!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Unless the emergency is happening on the store's property, why are they telling you? It's "down the street"...whose property is it on? Notify that person, or call the police yourself.

I have found one of my favorite cold/sore throat/cough "remedies" is Harney & Son's Vanilla Comoro tea (sold at Barnes & Noble Cafe; I've also seen the brand at Williams Sonoma): steep for at least 5 minutes, add 5 packets of Sugar in the Raw (for a tall cup), leave about 1/2 inch for milk (I use skim). It's like liquid cough drops and the vanilla is like comfort food and smells yummy.

*There are lots of vanilla teas out there, though. That's just the brand I like. It tastes a bit richer than other vanillas I've had.