Not Ever Working, Part 7

(I’m a supervisor for the front end at a grocery store. I’m a pretty easy going person, but I can’t stand it when cashiers repeatedly ask if they can leave early. Because of my personality, they seem to always ask me first. It’s a Sunday during football season, so we are pretty busy with football fans shopping for game snacks plus our Sunday regulars. I’m also working with 3 cashiers who are notorious for constantly begging to go home before their shift is supposed to end.)

Cashier #1: *while serving a customer* “Hey, [my name], can I go home an hour early?”

Me: “Why?”

Cashier #1: “I don’t feel like working today.”

Me: “Neither do I, but here I am.”

Cashier #1: “Yeah, but it’s super busy.”

Me: “All the more reason to keep you here. Tend to your customer.”

(The sudden rush dissipates, but there are still a huge number of cars outside and quite a few people I can see in the aisles. The second cashier comes up to me.)

Cashier #2: “So now that it’s not busy, can I go home now?”

Me: “No, we still have a bunch of people here and soon they will be swarming to the registers. Besides, the next cashier leaves in a half hour so if I am to send anyone home early, she will be next to go.”

Cashier #2: “But she doesn’t want to go home, you can send me.”

Me: “Then after her, it would be [cashier who leaves in an hour]. We aren’t sending anyone home right now who is not already scheduled to leave.”

(It is now about 8:30 pm. It has slowed down enough to send people home. However, there are still quite a few things left to be done. Cashier #3 who, I swear, begs to leave early more than anyone I work with, comes up to me.)

Cashier #3: “It’s really dead in here. You should send me home. I’m so bored.”

Me: “Actually, we have a full cart of items that need to be put back on the shelf.”

Cashier #3: “Ugh! That’s gonna take me FOREVER! Can you have someone else do it and just let me go? I have homework.”

Me: “You weren’t here yesterday. Why didn’t you do it then?”

Cashier #3: “I was hanging out with my girlfriend.”

Me: *annoyed* “Fine. If you bring back all of these items, you can leave as soon as you’re done, seeing how you’re only here for another half hour and it’s not busy.”

Cashier #3: “God, I hate work!”

Me: “Can I ask why you even applied for a job here in the first place?”