Does it say Infodesk on my nametag?

[NateTheChops]

These weren't exactly customers and they weren't being rude so this doesn't go in the SC forum. And yet I'm not really sure if this goes in the Coworker forum either because it's not technically their fault.

Twice today, while I was facing, I had two seperate people less than two hours apart ask me:

"Is so and so in?"

And, understand, I was a full store away from the front end counter. Why would you walk to the middle of the store if you were trying to find out if your friend is working? Wouldn't it make more sense to go to counter where there are employees who can page said person?

And what makes you think I know or even care if said people are working? I'm really only keeping track of me here. Selfish, maybe, but then that's all the courtesy I've been getting shown lately so I return it in full.

[ottid]

I'm only going on my experience here, but when I was at McD's we couldn't say when a person was going to be working or not. I guess it was resonably easy to see if someone was working though.

[Kinoo]

Same here in most jobs, for various reasons... In a supermarket they managers didn't want friends hanging out chatting, in some of the bars I managed it was a safety issue as more than one staff member had been assaulted after refusing servive/ having someone thrown out.

[Red Hand of Ulster]

I think he's wondering more why in the hell did they walk to the back of the store instead of Customer Service, which is normally in the front. That's what I was wondering, too.

And, understand, I was a full store away from the front end counter. Why would you walk to the middle of the store if you were trying to find out if your friend is working? Wouldn't it make more sense to go to counter where there are employees who can page said person?

Everywhere I've been, if the person is there, there's been no kibosh on saying that they're there or saying if they've already left for the day. But we would never give out their schedule, not even to parents.

[wolfie]

But we would never give out their schedule, not even to parents.

Wonder if that has ever led to "In that case, he won't be in for the next month - he's grounded for lying to us about where he was going last Saturday night, and is only allowed out of the house for work or school. Since we obviously can't trust him regarding his schedule, any times other than when [/b]you[/b] tell us he'll be working, he's restricted to the house."

[Megg]

Everywhere I've been, if the person is there, there's been no kibosh on saying that they're there or saying if they've already left for the day. But we would never give out their schedule, not even to parents.

Same here, in every place I worked for 15 years. I could say they weren't there, or they were, or they just left, but no giving anyone the schedule, including parents. It was a privacy issue, fear of lawsuits. Plus, one place I worked at was just opened, my first job, and the manager gave a crew member's schedule to his father. Who turned out to be the non-custodial parent. A whole ton of drama ensued, so I always understood that policy.

[bean]

We can give out managers schedules if someone is calling back about an interview. That's about it for schedules.

My stepdad showed up at my store one day for some reason, I wasn't there, and he DEMANDED to know my schedule from the guy at the service desk (.... my boss at the time).

This guy (my former boss) is very level headed and has no reason to lie, plus there's 2 cameras above the desk, with audio, so if I wanted I could have had the store manager replay the encounter.

I got to work later that day and several coworkers told me my "dad" showed up and started screaming at my boss demanding my schedule, slamming his fist into the counter and everything. If it was just 1 coworker I would have blown it off, but FIVE came up to me about it.

My stepdad called me up fuming that my boss was "a rude fucking spick who should be deported back to Mexico" (he was born in the US) who refused to give him my schedule. Oh shit.. He may be a racist, but he doesn't normally utter stuff like that, he normally keeps it to "those brown people" or "those mexicans". I still disagree with those comments and let him know about it, and I walked out on a family reunion when his brother started talking about "Those fucking n*ggers in front of us stood up and blocked our view of Billy Graham!" Yeah, that family is pure class, and they wonder why I don't talk to them at all. They also always make "faggot" comments when I'm around them, and I'm openly gay. The "f bomb" pisses me off more than anything else you can ever say.

I emailed my boss and asked what happened, he said company policy was to never give out anybody's schedule and told me he'd never had anybody blow up at him like that in the years he'd worked retail. I apologized to him multiple times and told him I would talk to him.

I wound up watching the tapes, he cussed out my poor boss and called him every racist name in the book. I told my stepdad he's no longer welcome in the store as per store management, but he insists on showing up a couple of times a month to talk to me. *sigh* The sad thing is, my stepdad has worked retail his entire life, he's in his 60s and still works retail management and KNOWS people can't give out schedules without authorization. I finally had my mom (who has a serious mama bear streak) talk to him about showing up in the store when "personal visits" could and would get me fired. Management has no problem with her showing up (in fact she loves a lot of our products and regularly buys them, AND she respects the fact that I can't run her through my line because of store policy regarding checking out friends/family), but if the SM is in and sees him, he gets escorted out by the city's finest now. (and he still doesn't understand why....)

[fireheart]

Our ruling at work is simple regarding schedules: they are only to be given out to the person whose name is on the schedule. Or other coworkers if they live together. Family cannot ask for a schedule if the staff member is 18 or older.

OTOH though, I get mistaken frequently for an infodesk even though I'm nowhere near the service desk.

[bean]

OTOH though, I get mistaken frequently for an infodesk even though I'm nowhere near the service desk.

I've worked in 5 different department (2 of them on a loan basis) - prepared foods/deli (worked there for almost a year), bakery (loan for 1 day), meat (loan for a couple of months), grocery (worked there about 6 months), and frontend (been there over a year) - so I have a pretty intricate knowledge of the entire store except for produce and seafood. So I don't mind answering "infodesk" questions. I've also memorized the majority of phone extensions in the store from answering phones all the time, so I can call a department for an answer without paging them and waiting several minutes for them to call back. Grocery in particular is famous for not calling back at all, same with meat (I have a hard enough time getting meat to answer the fucking phone when I transfer calls to them, most of them come back to me when they don't answer any of their FOUR phones).

But seriously, ask me while I'm ON THE FRIGGIN CLOCK. Don't ask me when it's clear I'm on my lunch break (I don't have my apron on, I'm carrying a steaming plate of food in one hand and a drink + fork in the other, heading toward our dining area). I'll most likely ignore you, if you keep pestering me I'll snarl at you and tell you to ask someone who isn't on their lunch break. So far I've only had to do that a couple of times.

[fireheart]

My main department is front end, but I've also done perishables on an occasional loan basis. (i.e. they're really shortstaffed and need help) Given that one of the front end jobs is putting away excess stock, I generally don't mind being asked where a certain item is, but...

-Do not ask me what the difference is between A and B. Unless it's size, I cannot help you. (I had someone ask me the difference between creamed corn and corn kernels... I just guessed that one's like mashed potato )
-Do not ask me to retrieve something from out back. It'll only involve me fobbing you off to someone who can.
-And finally, PLEASE do not walk past 7 or 8 registers and then ask me where the cigarettes and service desk are. (both are fairly obvious...)