A Truckload Of Exaggeration

Warehouse work usually isn’t difficult — shipping/receiving, cleaning, pulling orders, using forklifts, and so on. The work itself isn’t hard, but sometimes those truck drivers you have to deal with can be a real pain in the back.

I am busy working on small parcels going out via [Shipping Company]. The parcel shipping station is about ten feet away from the shipping desk where truck drivers go when they show up for deliveries. While I’m doing this, a truck driver shows up at the shipping desk. He stands there for maybe sixty seconds as I finish the order I’m working on.

I grab a last-minute order that’s come through to ship out, and I take the order form and head out to the warehouse to pull the order. I address the truck driver on my way past him.

Me: “I’ll be with you in just a couple of minutes.”

Truck Driver: “I’ve already been waiting here for over twenty minutes.”

He starts to raise his voice as he continues.

Truck Driver: “I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get help around here!”

I stop in my tracks and turn to face the driver.

Me: “You’ve been standing there for about sixty seconds, not twenty minutes. I don’t appreciate your attitude, and now it’ll be longer before you get help from me.”

Truck Driver: “I won’t be treated like this, making me wait! It’s already been over twenty minutes! I want to speak to the manager!”

Me: “Go right ahead. He’s sitting in the office, right behind you.” *Points*

The truck driver’s eyes get wide and he slowly turns around to see my manager, who has stood up from his desk and is now standing in the doorway of his office.

Manager: “I don’t like your attitude. [My Name] told you he’d be right with you, and you decided to lie about how long you’ve been standing there. You’ve been in here now for maybe three minutes. You can either wait there patiently until we get around to helping you, or you can go sit in your cab and we can come and get you when we’re ready to help you.”

The truck driver didn’t say anything else and just walked out to his cab and waited for us to get him.