Now He’ll Have Plenty Of Time To Look At His Phone

I’m on my day off and decide to swing by the bookstore where I work to get a new book that just came out. It’s a Saturday during the holidays, so I’m expecting it to be a bit busy, but when I get there, it’s actually not too bad.

I find the book that I’m looking for and start to head toward the front. When I pass customer service, I see one of our new hires, who we are all betting is not going to be here after the holidays, on his phone.

Usually, one or two of us will take a quick look at our phone as long as it’s dead and there aren’t any customers needing help, and we usually are pretty discreet about it. He’s standing on the floor, with his name badge on, headset on, and holding his phone up like he’s watching something.

A customer approaches him asking him for help. He holds out a hand and tells her she can wait and continues to tap out whatever he’s doing on the phone. I stop dead in my tracks and watch him. The customer looks at him in shock and then tries to ask him again for a book. 

He does the hand gesture again and I see red. I go up to the lady and tell her I’m off the clock but I ask how I can help. She is super sweet and just needs one book, and thankfully, I know where it is so I take her to it. 

After I help her, I head back to the customer service prepared to rip the new hire to shreds for not doing his job. I notice the customer I was helping is standing next to my general manager, who does random Saturday checks to see how we are performing. 

I see the customer nodding and pointing to him and then pointing over to me, and our GM has this look on his face. He walks over to me first and asks me if I helped someone off the clock.

I nod and tell him I am on my day off, but since the new hire couldn’t be bothered to help someone because he was on the phone, and since I knew where the book was, it was no big deal. 

He nods and then goes over to the new hire and asks if he could help him find something. The new hire, still on his phone, holds up his hand and continues to look at his phone. 

The GM taps his shoulder again. Finally, the new hire looks up and asks, with the most sarcastic attitude I’ve ever heard, what he can be bothered helping him with. 

The GM laughs and then tells the new hire to go home and not come back. The new hire begins to sass our GM. Our manager comes up from the backroom and greets the GM, and the GM tells them that he is firing our new hire, effective immediately.

Then, when the new hire begins to whine and fuss, our GM points out that I, on my day off, managed to not only help a customer but do it to the best of my ability, while he was on the clock and couldn’t be bothered.

That’s the story of the worst new hire I’ve ever met and how I got a raise and a letter of recommendation from my GM.

This story has been included in our June 2020 roundup as one of that month’s most memorable stories!

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