(Badge) Check Yo Self

(I’m working as event staff for a major anime convention. My job is to “badge-check” discussion panel events, which means I check and make sure customers have tickets.)

Supervisor: “Go badge-check the panel in [room]!”

Me: “But I’m on break.”

Supervisor: “I know, but [coworker] just decided she’s not going to do it.”

Me: “Just… decided?”

Supervisor: “Yes! So, go in her place!”

(I do. As I badge-check for my coworker’s panel, and a customer approaches.)

Customer: “What time does the panel start?”

Me: “7. It’s only 6:30 now, though. So you have time to leave and come back.”

Customer: “Can I go ahead in now and wait?”

(I look into the room where the panel is going to be. At least five customers are already sitting in there, so I assume my coworker had started letting them in before I got there.)

Me: “I don’t see why not. Just let me badge-check you first.”

(The customer complies and I let him in. Several more customers follow him, and as they all have tickets, I let them pass. Later, when I’m at a different panel event, the supervisor approaches me looking angry and upset.)

Supervisor: “Oh my god, you’ve started a riot!”

Me: “I… what? How?”

Supervisor: “Look outside!”

(I do, and spot a restless, angry line of customers literally around the block trying to get into the panel from earlier.)

Me: “How did this happen?!”

Supervisor: “You weren’t supposed to let customers in the room ’til promptly 7!”

Me: “Nobody told me that! There were customers in the room already!”

Supervisor: “They had been there during the previous panel event and never left the room! Now you’ve overbooked the event!”

Me: “All I was told to do was badge-check. It wasn’t even my panel.”

Supervisor: “It wasn’t? Then why were you badge-checking it?”

Me: “Because you told me to!”

Supervisor: “I did?”