Putting In Any Work Is Too Much Work

(We have two registers, one at each exit. Both are having new software uploaded, so we are told that for a day, we have to keep manual receipts, looking up prices off of a massive, printed-off pricing book, and calling in the total to headquarters for credit cards to be run. It’s a mess. One register is mine. I fill out each receipt with the customers’ info, stock number if they are a contractor, price, tax, and total. Once the registers are updated towards the end of shift, I manually type each one in. Totaling out the register, I find that my credit card totals are off by two cents due to rounding on tax, and my cash transactions are perfect. I prep the cash deposit. As I’m going to click out, I notice my coworker, standing panicked by his register.)

Coworker: “What are we going to do about this?”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Coworker: “Like, how should we ring this in?”

Me: “Just enter the stock numbers like the customer is here.”

Coworker: “Oh, I didn’t keep track of those.”

Me: “What?”

(I take his receipt book and find he has scribbled down one-word descriptions, like, “faucet,” and just jotted down transaction totals.)

Me: “Okay, we might be able to figure out which faucet cost $39 and backtrack it from there.”

Coworker: “I just guessed at the prices; I know them pretty well. Show me how you did yours.”

(I do, and he appears shocked.)

Coworker: “Wow… You put in way too much work.”

(He was fired for this, so I guess it’s not too much to do things right if you want a job!)