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Ugh, I hated work these last two days...
So Tuesday. Middle of the week, and as such, usually not that busy, and as such, we don't usually have a lot of people scheduled. Moreso lately, since payroll got cut.
The day doesn't exactly get off to a great start. I'd intended to get up by 9am, so I can shower, shave, get dressed, get breakfast, and stop by the bank before my shift at 11am. I end up waking up at 10:14am, giving me BARELY enough time to shower, shave, get dressed and get to work, where I grab a hotdog combo from the food court and DEVOUR it in five minutes before I clock in.
The food court person called out, so my coworker AL got pulled off the front line to cover food court. So we're already down a person. Not a good sign.
I more or less cover breaks for a while, and I end up stuck as the regular register cashier, and the only one, as the ONLY OTHER cashier is on Express. As soon as I open up, I call out, "I can help the next customer on 5!" The next customer in line swoops over to my line, and starts complaining because something the cashier on 6 had done had seemed unfair to her, but really, all I heard was "Blah blah I've been waiting in line and I should've been taken IMMEDIATELY blah blah suck suck blah."
Apart from that complaint, she went through without further hassle. I got the usual suck you'd get from people waiting in a long line, to which I could only offer shrugs and vague apologies, and of course having to look with helplessness at the flashing lights on the Self-Checks, as the Express register was swamped, as was the service desk, and the managers weren't immediately responding to calls for help, given they were busy with something else as well!
On top of all this, the system went down when I tried to look up an item for someone, also leaving us unable to process gift cards or debit transactions. Grah!
Breaks come late, of course, and I don't get my meal break until about 2-1/2 hours before I go home. As I come back, the express cashier is getting ready to leave, and Zee, our MOD, comes to me as I'm coming back, and tells me to come take over on Express. I was a bit surprised by this, given that TS, who was giving me my break, was the floater, and figured he'd settle down there. But Zee tells me, "I don't want him on express." I know it's not my place to wonder, so I go back to 5, and explain the situation.
TS, of course, is not happy. He leaves 5 to go talk to Zee, leaving me to deal with the line. I ring out a couple of customers, and TS comes back. "Let me pull my till and go down to express." I shrug and let him do it, but as he starts to leave, Zee comes back and tells ME to go to express, and finally I end up going down to express, while TS is clearly unhappy. ACC, our cashier who'd been told to do reshops, comes back at 6:45pm, allowing me to turn in my till, and then take my last break just before I go home at 7pm.
Wednesday. My shift starts at 12pm. I get up with time enough to get to the bank and then get food before my shift. So that's better, at least.
But when I walk in, once again, the food court person has called out, a different one, leaving us once again down a person on the front line. And this time, I only work express for fifteen minutes before I end up stuck on regular register ALL DAY. And Wednesday was abnormally busy, leaving me to deal with EVERY customer that didn't want to go through Self-Check or express.
Breaks are slow in coming, as well, given there's no one to give them, and I get people accusing me of bad customer service, given that I wasn't bright-eyed and all-smiles for them. Well excuse the fuck out of me, trying to be the ONLY goddamn fucking cashier while also fielding any questions from people who don't want to wait in the service desk line, and all the various other things I'm expected to do SIMULTANEOUSLY while ringing out customers. And you try being all-smiles after seven and a half YEARS of this bullshit.
Coming up on the end of my shift, it's 7:30pm, and I'm told to take my last break (before I leave at 8pm), and then give JIO, our FDLP, her break for the night. I don't end up leaving for my break until 7:36, after dealing with a question of who's going to open on register, since JB, who just came in, has no till, there's no one in the lower office, and the MoDs don't seem eager to jump to it to get him one. Finally, I just say "Fuck it" and switch my light off, once my line is empty, and go take a break JUST long enough to go to the bathroom, and then I go up to the front door for JIO. It's right at 7:45 when I get up there, but because the pro tem food court person was given leave to close the food court early, JIO is ringing out the last customer for the food court, meaning she doesn't quite leave until closer to 7:50pm.
And she takes her sweet time coming back, leaving me to RUSH to get my till and turn it in before clocking out, and I miss the 7-minute buffer by a minute, so I need to get an override.
And I get to go back and do it again tomorrow on Friday.
So Tuesday. Middle of the week, and as such, usually not that busy, and as such, we don't usually have a lot of people scheduled. Moreso lately, since payroll got cut.
The day doesn't exactly get off to a great start. I'd intended to get up by 9am, so I can shower, shave, get dressed, get breakfast, and stop by the bank before my shift at 11am. I end up waking up at 10:14am, giving me BARELY enough time to shower, shave, get dressed and get to work, where I grab a hotdog combo from the food court and DEVOUR it in five minutes before I clock in.
The food court person called out, so my coworker AL got pulled off the front line to cover food court. So we're already down a person. Not a good sign.
I more or less cover breaks for a while, and I end up stuck as the regular register cashier, and the only one, as the ONLY OTHER cashier is on Express. As soon as I open up, I call out, "I can help the next customer on 5!" The next customer in line swoops over to my line, and starts complaining because something the cashier on 6 had done had seemed unfair to her, but really, all I heard was "Blah blah I've been waiting in line and I should've been taken IMMEDIATELY blah blah suck suck blah."
Apart from that complaint, she went through without further hassle. I got the usual suck you'd get from people waiting in a long line, to which I could only offer shrugs and vague apologies, and of course having to look with helplessness at the flashing lights on the Self-Checks, as the Express register was swamped, as was the service desk, and the managers weren't immediately responding to calls for help, given they were busy with something else as well!
On top of all this, the system went down when I tried to look up an item for someone, also leaving us unable to process gift cards or debit transactions. Grah!
Breaks come late, of course, and I don't get my meal break until about 2-1/2 hours before I go home. As I come back, the express cashier is getting ready to leave, and Zee, our MOD, comes to me as I'm coming back, and tells me to come take over on Express. I was a bit surprised by this, given that TS, who was giving me my break, was the floater, and figured he'd settle down there. But Zee tells me, "I don't want him on express." I know it's not my place to wonder, so I go back to 5, and explain the situation.
TS, of course, is not happy. He leaves 5 to go talk to Zee, leaving me to deal with the line. I ring out a couple of customers, and TS comes back. "Let me pull my till and go down to express." I shrug and let him do it, but as he starts to leave, Zee comes back and tells ME to go to express, and finally I end up going down to express, while TS is clearly unhappy. ACC, our cashier who'd been told to do reshops, comes back at 6:45pm, allowing me to turn in my till, and then take my last break just before I go home at 7pm.
Wednesday. My shift starts at 12pm. I get up with time enough to get to the bank and then get food before my shift. So that's better, at least.
But when I walk in, once again, the food court person has called out, a different one, leaving us once again down a person on the front line. And this time, I only work express for fifteen minutes before I end up stuck on regular register ALL DAY. And Wednesday was abnormally busy, leaving me to deal with EVERY customer that didn't want to go through Self-Check or express.
Breaks are slow in coming, as well, given there's no one to give them, and I get people accusing me of bad customer service, given that I wasn't bright-eyed and all-smiles for them. Well excuse the fuck out of me, trying to be the ONLY goddamn fucking cashier while also fielding any questions from people who don't want to wait in the service desk line, and all the various other things I'm expected to do SIMULTANEOUSLY while ringing out customers. And you try being all-smiles after seven and a half YEARS of this bullshit.
Coming up on the end of my shift, it's 7:30pm, and I'm told to take my last break (before I leave at 8pm), and then give JIO, our FDLP, her break for the night. I don't end up leaving for my break until 7:36, after dealing with a question of who's going to open on register, since JB, who just came in, has no till, there's no one in the lower office, and the MoDs don't seem eager to jump to it to get him one. Finally, I just say "Fuck it" and switch my light off, once my line is empty, and go take a break JUST long enough to go to the bathroom, and then I go up to the front door for JIO. It's right at 7:45 when I get up there, but because the pro tem food court person was given leave to close the food court early, JIO is ringing out the last customer for the food court, meaning she doesn't quite leave until closer to 7:50pm.
And she takes her sweet time coming back, leaving me to RUSH to get my till and turn it in before clocking out, and I miss the 7-minute buffer by a minute, so I need to get an override.
And I get to go back and do it again tomorrow on Friday.