Oh hell no.

[Gawdzillers]

Some of you may not think this is forum-worthy, but it really chaps my ass.

It was 5 minutes after closing time. I was mopping, and I only had two aisles to go, so I was feeling good. Then comes the PA: "Package help on line 1 please."

Mop goes down, I go up. The other bagboy on duty with me was getting these ladies 3 bales of straw, and couldn't bag. They've bought an assload of stuff, and when I say assload, I mean the size of your first-grade teacher's ass (what? Mine had an ass that looked like it was being stalked by Captain Ahab).

As I'm just finishing putting their groceries on the counter, one of them says the words that no bagboy ever EVER wants to hear, EVER.

"Don't smash my bread."



I kept my cool, and mumbled out an indifferent "I won't", but then the cashier on duty had to go one step further, and made fun of me to the customers: "Yeah, we've got a problem with this one here (pointing to me), he's a knucklehead. Here, I'll just bag your bread for you (bags bread and hands it to customer, who clings to it like a newborn) so he won't ruin it." Still, I remained calm (but probably visibly annoyed), carried the groceries out for the customers, received no tip, and went back to mopping.

When I got to the aisle I was working on, I looked around to see if anyone was looking, and I just silently thrashed and writhed in fury.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

I would make a formal complaint to the cashier's higher up. There is no excuse for mistreating your fellow employees. I would complain that it was degrading and insulting.

[RootedPhoenix]

I second that. That cashier had no right to be degrading like that. Even if it was said in jest.

*offers chocolate*

[Bright_Star]

Why didn't you say something right then & there? I would have torn him a new one even if it meant getting in trouble with the higher ups.

[tamezin]

but then the cashier on duty had to go one step further, and made fun of me to the customers: "Yeah, we've got a problem with this one here (pointing to me), he's a knucklehead. Here, I'll just bag your bread for you (bags bread and hands it to customer, who clings to it like a newborn) so he won't ruin it."

I hope this was a tongue in cheek sort of comment. If not, WTF is wrong with him? Does this person have something against you personally? And really even if it was some type of sarcastic comment, it was completely inappropriate in the situation.

[LingualMonkey]

I hope this was a tongue in cheek sort of comment. If not, WTF is wrong with him? Does this person have something against you personally? And really even if it was some type of sarcastic comment, it was completely inappropriate in the situation.

Tongue in cheek or no, it was inappropriate to badmouth another employee in front of customers--you're absolutely right. That kind of thoughtlessness demands an apology, preferrably right then, in front of the customers.

[IT Grunt]

I heartily agree with it being totally inappropriate. No co-worker should ever call out someone in front of customers, in jest or otherwise. That's extremely unprofessional. I'd definitely be climbing the chain of command on that one, he/she needs a chat about respecting co-workers.

[tamezin]

Tongue in cheek or no, it was inappropriate to badmouth another employee in front of customers--you're absolutely right. That kind of thoughtlessness demands an apology, preferrably right then, in front of the customers.

I absolutely Agree.

[SuperB]

Definitely a sucky co-worker there. I'd have a talk and straighten him out before he pulls that again.
As for the woman, instead of demanding, she should have just waited to see how you were going to bag. It could be she'd had a bad experience there and had someone new. Our local store hired a few new people not long ago and for a while I was constantly having to save my cilantro from the bottom of a bag.

[Shards]

I dunno. Back when I worked at Weis, my best friend and I sometimes did cash/bagboy pairups, and I've been on both sides where the customer has it in their head that the bagboy will do something stupid, and so you tell them what they want to hear to get them out of the line as quickly as possible. We had people who if they didn't like you when they first saw you would repeatedly accuse you of bagging wrong, then tell you what to do, then yell at you when that was wrong. Also, standing up to them just got you written up, so we, as the cashier who they had already decided was OK with their stuff, even if they weren't thrilled about it, would make an offhand comment about the others ineptitude as a signal to walk away, and would then deal with it ourselves. It usually made things easier for everyone.

Then again, this was with a guy who I've known and been like brothers with for 12 (10 at the time) years since I was 6, so we both knew that no apology was needed, because we both knew we didn't mean it, it was just a defense mechanism against SCs.

[Kiwi]

I would be personally talking to the cashier about that, way to undermine you infront of a customer!
Then I would be mentioning it to her manager and state that you WILL be documenting this and will not accept derogtory comments to be made about you in a work place.

They dont pay you enough for that!

[tollbaby]

That cashier's behavior was absolutely unacceptable. I'd absolutely bring that up to your and his supervisor. I'm a bit confused though... you complained that you didn't receive a tip.... every grocery store I've worked at, the employees (even the baggers who help customers to their cars with the groceries) aren't allowed to accept tips. I didn't know it was permitted anywhere.

[Shards]

That cashier's behavior was absolutely unacceptable. I'd absolutely bring that up to your and his supervisor. I'm a bit confused though... you complained that you didn't receive a tip.... every grocery store I've worked at, the employees (even the baggers who help customers to their cars with the groceries) aren't allowed to accept tips. I didn't know it was permitted anywhere.

In most places it isn't, but that doesn't mean some people don't do it anyway when they think nobody's looking.

Me, personally, I always told people either "I'm sorry, I can't accept that, but if you want, buy yourself something from me with it." (When I worked at Weis), or "I can't accept that myself, ma'am, but we have a tip jar for the whole team right here." (When I worked at the Dairy.

I've always been a bit too interested in following the rules. I suppose it makes me boring.

[ShinyGreenApple]

"Yeah, we've got a problem with this one here (pointing to me), he's a knucklehead. Here, I'll just bag your bread for you (bags bread and hands it to customer, who clings to it like a newborn) so he won't ruin it."

That's a future manager right there. Mhm, mark my words . . . They've already got unnecessary ass-kissing down to an art. Or they just like being condescending to people. Blah. Sorry you had to deal with that

[BroSCFischer]

I've had a similar situation happen to me, only I was the checker (and this is about a decade ago). I simply refused to let the person bag for me again. That was then, these days I would say something to my boss about it.

SC