Didn't You Hear What I Just Said?

[PepperElf]

A few days ago, I was on lunch break and heading down the aisle to the break room with my food purchase when some customer in a wheelchair stopped me and he asked, "Do you work here? I don't know where the bathroom is."

O goodness yes, for toilets i'd always be willing to point them out no matter what my status was (off the clock, customer, etc).

[Kristev]

What I wish I could've told the consumers when they came up to me asking "where are the toilets" was "back in your own home."

[Lovecats]

I love when I'm working in the back of the store (it's a really BIG store) and someone will ask me where the restrooms are and I tell them in the front. Then they say, "You don't have any back here?" and I tell them no the public ones are up front. We do have employee only ones in the backroom but sorry you are not allowed back there. Well, actually, I don't say that last part. They really don't need to know about those.

[Pixilated]

That happened occasionally when I still worked at the supermarket, and man, was it frustrating. Unless you worked 6 hours or more you only got a 15-minute break and the clock started ticking the minute you shut down your register. People were usually polite, so I did try to help them ... quickly.

[wolfie]

ShadowBall, it's not that you're a woman and therefore an employee; it's that, as a woman, your sole purpose is to serve him. He's obviously a chauvanist.

And be sure to serve him with lima beans and a nice Chianti.

[Mike Taylor]

As for working off the clock -- I had reason to look that one up last year. Even "permitting" a non-salaried employee to work off the clock is legally considered the same thing as *forcing* them to do so, iirc. There's a reason they don't want you doing it ^_^

I actually had to explain this to some customers in my store. They were complaining that they wanted two of my coworkers fired because they were on break.

ME: Well, if they're off the clock then legally they can't be made to work.

SCs: Oh...

[BeenThereDoneThat]

We keep getting stern warnings all the time about not working off the clock...yet, we are expected to come in early so we can set up all our computer stuff (and there is a LOT - even though I have my own desk now I still have to shut everything down at night and restart it the next day) and be ready to take a call at our shift start time. Nope, it almost never happens for me, so I'm always technically "late". Oh well, too bad so sad...if they complain I'll throw the off the clock rule back in their faces. (These people are great overall, which may be why they don't usually say much about this, at least not to me...)

[EricKei]

They're trying to have their cake and eat it too. Preparing your workstation for work is still work. IF they just mean getting *yourselves* ready (tucking in shirt, finishing breakfast, etc) I imagine that that would be different...But as soon as they expect you to be at the desk and logging in to a computer/phone explicitly for work purposes...yeah, you're working. Document this, just in case.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

They're trying to have their cake and eat it too. Preparing your workstation for work is still work. IF they just mean getting *yourselves* ready (tucking in shirt, finishing breakfast, etc) I imagine that that would be different...But as soon as they expect you to be at the desk and logging in to a computer/phone explicitly for work purposes...yeah, you're working. Document this, just in case.

Yup...done

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, a customer stopped me before I was clocked in and I told him that I wasn't on. He completely ignored what I said. It turned out that he forgot some items and he had his receipt. I let him know that someone at the service desk could take care of it.

[Marmalady]

Yesterday, a customer stopped me before I was clocked in and I told him that I wasn't on.

I've had them stopping me as I'm actually coming through the door, with my bag and car keys still in my hand.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Never had too many problems with "not on the clock" ignorers, but I did have a definite case of "did you not hear what I just said?" I may have related the story before, but I'll tell it again.

I was working FDLP at the wholesale club. The store had banned the use of "heelies" in the store. "Heelies" are those shoes with a roller-skate-like wheel in the heel of the shoe, and when they were "in" it was common to see kids zipping along on them, especially on nice smooth floors like our store had. But this presents a hazard to other shoppers, so the store banned the using of them inside, and posted a notice about this at the front door.

Granted, the notice was small, but it was there. We, the employees, were expected to politely ask children to stop riding them in the store if we saw it.

So, these two kids come zipping up to the front door on their heelies, ahead of their father. I tell them, "No heelies in the store, please," and check the father's receipt. They stop, and then immediately start zipping on them again.

I tell them very sharply: "WHAT did I just tell you!?" They stop, shocked, and look at Daddy. Daddy just gives them a Look that plainly says "Seriously, WHAT did he just tell you?"

They walked the rest of the way.

[veniteangeli]

I was working FDLP at the wholesale club. The store had banned the use of "heelies" in the store.

Ha. When I was working my supermarket job, we banned heelies too. We'd tell them, but they'd completely ignore us.

We had one of those little gate things that's about thigh height, that senses you and swings open, but you know how they're not always the quickest sensors? And sometimes you have to wait a second? Well some idiot kid went zooming through one on heelies... but was too quick for the sensors. Completely clotheslined. Oh, merrily did we laugh.

The only other funny heelie story I have one I saw outside of work - in a department store looking for socks. I heard an employee tell a young girl not to use her heelies - watched the kid ignore the employee... She continued riding them, then a couple of minutes later, while STANDING STILL, she randomly lost her balance and went arse over tit backwards Being that there were wheels in her heels, she went over that much easier! She landed flat on her back.

...Merrily did I laugh.

Heelies are the stupidest things ever invented, and I've heard of solar powered flashlights.

[ADoyle90815]

I wish one store I worked at would have banned Heelies, but they never did. At my current job, the kids don't usually wear those awful things, so it's never been an issue for me.

As for the clock issue, at my workplace, it's one register we use to clock in and out of, so sometimes as I'm clocking in, I'll direct a customer to the next register over, or if they're asking for the bathroom key, I'll give that to them as I'm clocking in.

[Arcus]

They banned them at my store too. Kids always get a huge surprise when they say that I can't tell them what to do. I respond with "I can tell you what to do in this store and if you don't want to do that, the door is right over there. Follow the rules or leave. It's your choice." Most of the time they stop, but there is always those few that want to fight over it. I have to keep myself from laughing every time one of them pulls the "This is a public place. You can't tell me to leave." I just smile at them and ask "Are you sure you want to risk a one year ban on that?" The smart ones drop it right there. The not so smart ones have a shocked look on their faces as security is escorting them off the property.