Do you work here?

[pssorens]

Not sure where this should go. but i wasn't at work and a few customers got sucky toward me.


One of the reasons that i stopped going to Wal- Mart besides my personal dislike of their business practices, was that almost every time i shopped there, I was asked if I worked there. No matter what i was wearing . people come up to me and ask If i worked there and before i got the word " NO" out of my mouth, the were asking me were X item was and how much it is. most of them would leave me alone after I said i don't work here. but more than a few accused me of lying to get out of work. has this happened to any pone else?

[JLRodgers]

Not that specifically.... But I have helped a fellow customer find something when I knew where it was and the employee didn't!

[unclejampuff]

Every single time I go into a bookstore, someone asks me for assistance. I mean, I know I'm supah nerdy looking, but come on! Unless I'm feeling particularly stompy, I usually help them. I don't know why I don't work in a bookstore, even my fellow customers think I should.

Heh, one time a guy asks me to recommend a book. After a lovely conversation about how badly I want to hump Neil Gaiman's leg, he admitted he pretended he thought I was an employee so he could talk to me and ask me out. Of all the pick-up lines, I definitely like that the best.

[marasbaras]

I've never had someone insist that I worked somewhere before. But, if they did, I'd be SO tempted to say "Yes, you're right, I do. Now get out of my face so I can get back to work."

[Arcade Man D]

Ugh, I can't wait until I can actually get a new job (long story short, hours suck, job sucks, customers at my job suck, pay *sucks*), and everyone still asks me if I work there. It's already bad enough I'm on my way out to go catch my bus, in nothing *near* dress code, and people still ask me for help, instead of the employee in our ugly vest behind the ticket redemption counter. [/endrant]

But I do get that at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. on occassion, and I'll help them out. I'm surprisingly more likely to help someone out at a job I don't do, than I am to help someone at my job while I'm not getting paid, go figure.

[mattm04]

One of our major supermarket chains employees uniform is black dress pants, white shirt and tie with black vest which has logo and name badge. Once is was in one of their store over the summer wearing sandals, khaki shorts and a t-shirt...

SC: sir, wher is <item>
Me: I don;t work her, but their is an employee on the next aise
SC: So you won't help me?
Me: I said I don't work here so i wouldn know exactly to tell you where it is but the...
SC: Stop lying. You work her, your useless, i'm going to get you fired, get me your manager

I just walk away as the SC screamed at me. I saw him taking to manager as I checked out. I fer sorry for that manager.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It's the kmart around here. I think people are just so desperate to find an employee in that decaying hulk of a store that they see what they want to see. And what they seem to want to see is that I'm an employee.

I was standing next to a shopping cart containing my two year old daughter last time it happened.

She was polite about it, but still. If I worked there, who was the toddler with? If I did work there, what did she think, that I was stocking toddlers on a shelf somewhere?

[Boochan]

Works both ways here.
Because my store generally is a bit different to the others of the same name, we get A LOT of people asking the question to all the staff in my store. Why..? All but 1 of us follow the "preffered" dress code (Cheap looking polo with the Logo on it) because we don't like it/looks unprofessional/not shelling out for a crappy polo. This seems to be different to the other stores, so we get this question real often, despite the fact we have a bright lanyard around our necks with the branding all over it, as well as our nametag on the bottom of the lanyard. (For the record we all follow the "alternative" dress code, so we don't get bitched at).

It works the opposite way though as well, in my mall whenever I go to either supermarket. Despite the fact we are in White dress with a distinctive tie, and of course the bright lanyard mentioned above, I will get asked if I work their many times despite the fact that one supermarket wears Blue shirts, and the other one wears light green shirts.

[Difdi]

I am rarely mistaken for an employee in stores, but it has happened. As long as the request is polite, I generally inform them that no I don't work there, but I am willing to help them if I can. This has led me to doing everything from helping someone load lumber onto their truck to discussing the merits of different computer hardware to telling people what aisle an item at the supermarket is on.

But I have an unshakable personal policy of returning the level of respect I am shown. I will speak my mind even if it means I get fired (or, as has happened before, arrested). My boss hates finding out I dealt with the general public at work, since I'm ok with good customers, but SCs get what they have coming.

The few times I've had an SC mistake me for a store employee, they did not enjoy the fruits of their disrespect. The one that stands out the most in my memory however, wasn't in a store. It was in an IRC chatroom back in the heyday of AOL.

Me:
SU: Sucky User

SU: I need help
Me: What do you need help with?
SU: My internet won't work
Me: Well, since this chatroom is part of the internet, it must be working
SU: No it's not
Me: Yes, it is...IRC is one of the programs that communicate on the internet.
Me: What are you trying to do that isn't working?
SU: You're lying. Transfer me to someone who knows about the internet.
(deep breath, count to ten)
Me: I'm not lying, and there's no need to swear. I'm trying to help you because
Me: I'm a nice guy, not because I have to.
SU: Yes you do. I'm a paying customer, I pay money for the internet, so you have
SU: to help me!
(I check where he's connecting from)
Me: I don't work for the internet, and I don't have to help you.
Me: Why exactly do you think I work for AOL?
SU: AOL invented the internet, and AOL owns it (), so you have to help me. You
SU: don't have an aol.com address, so you must be an employee, not a customer.
Me: AOL doesn't own the internet, now stop being a jerk, and either let me
Me: help you, or forget it.
SU: How dare you be so rude to me you
Me: Goodbye. (kicks and bans SU from channel).

A couple days later, I got a rather puzzled email from the owner of the small, local ISP I used at the time. Seems SU had tracked down the ISP owners email address, contacted him, believing him to be my supervisor, and complained bitterly about his incredibly rude, ignorant, useless, etc, etc, etc, employee. We both had a good laugh about it. Luckily for me, my ISP didn't fire me for being rude, ignorant and useless...

[draftermatt]

I've only been mistaken for an employee twice. Once, I was dressed like a waiter (black khakis, white shirt, black tie). The other time I was hanging out at my friends work place when a lady told me I should really stop watching TV and help out. I said "Ma'am I don't work here" she went away thankfully.

I've asked a random shopper for help once because I was so lost. I just asked her if she had any idea where the item was, and she pointed me in the right direction. But I walked up and asked "May I ask you a question"

I've never understood the people who bother employees. If I need help and I see a person in uniform walking I assume they are busy and don't bother. I'll go to the nearest check stand and ask for help rather than bother someone who might be busy or on break, etc.

[Norton]

I get it once in a while.

Tell me, do most big-box-store employees wear baggy shorts with boots and fishnets or striped socks? Do they normally wear spiked jewelry and chainmail to work? How about a big tattered hoodie jacket? I just don't see how someone could confuse me with an employee.

After telling one lady that I didn't work at K-Mart, she said "Oh, excuse me! It's just that you looked so professional."

[Boochan]

Tell me, do most big-box-store employees wear baggy shorts with boots and fishnets or striped socks? Do they normally wear spiked jewelry and chainmail to work? How about a big tattered hoodie jacket? I just don't see how someone could confuse me with an employee.

I'd expect that from one certain black and yellow entertainment Chain here which has a dress code consisting of wearing whatever you want.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

After telling one lady that I didn't work at K-Mart, she said "Oh, excuse me! It's just that you looked so professional."

Um, I don't know about where you are, but at the Kmarts here, that should have tipped her off that you DIDN'T work there.

[JLG]

It happened to me last week. I had a shopping cart with my purse in it and looking at clothes when somebody asked me if I worked there. Now this store has khaki pants and a red shirt for their uniform and I was wearing nothing close to that.


I also get customers that ask me questions when I am on my out after a long day at work. Yesterday as I was walking out of the store with my purse and was checking messages on my cell a customer stops me and says "Do you work here?" "I know you do" "This does not have a price." I had just finished a long shift and wanted to get the heck out of the store and go home. So I paged somebody to help her.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

My best "I don't work here" story happened at a wedding. I was the Best Man. At the reception the Bride and Groom did the Dollar Dance, and after guests were finished dancing with either, they got a shot of amaretto in a chocolate shot glass. The wedding party took turns holding the tray of amaretto. I had taken off my tux jacket earlier, and after I finished dancing with the bride, I took up my post holding the tray. In my black pants and tux vest. Looking very much like a waiter.

Can we see where this is going?

As I'm standing there, a tipsy woman comes up to me, pointing toward a departing guest. The following exchange happens:

TW: He didn't get his shot!
ME: Well, he'd better get back quick, they're going fast.
TW (gets huffy): Why don't you do you job!?
ME: I am. My job is to stand here and hold the tray. If you go grab him, I'll save one for him.

At this point she just gaped at me, rolled her eyes and threw her arms in the air dramatically, then stalked off complaining bitterly about lazy people "not doing their damn jobs."

Fast forward half an hour. I go to the bathroom, and meet the Maid of Honor as she's coming out. We speak for a moment, then the door opens and TW comes out. She sees me, and I see her start to shoot me a dirty look when the Maid of Honor says "Oh, mom, have you met Jason? He's the Best Man."

TW's reaction was one I will treasure for the rest of my days. I just kind of grinned and shook her hand and said "I believe we met earlier."

To her credit, she did apologize, and I didn't press the issue, although the Maid of Honor (to whom I told the whole story later) counts it among her favorite stories to tell to embarrass her mother.