You Don’t Have To Love Your Job, But You Gotta TRY
I work in a small, non-chain store. Every associate here is trained in every department so that we can fill in as needed. We may be scheduled as a cashier one day, then a floor associate the next, and then work in online order fulfillment the day after. Ninety-nine percent of the associates prefer it this way because we aren’t stuck doing the same thing day in and day out, and we have a wider knowledge of the ins and outs of the store.
[Coworker], a man in his fifties, does not prefer this. He only wants to be a floor associate because he can walk the store “helping” people without actually doing anything. I will never understand how someone would prefer to be stuck in one place for eight hours at a time without something to do, but that’s how he likes it.
[Coworker] is scheduled to be a floor associate one day when I am on the register. The line is getting longer than it should be, so I call for help. [Coworker] comes over, followed by a manager. Judging by the looks on their faces, [Coworker] and [Manager] have had to have a little chat about his duties around the store. [Manager] goes to register three and [Coworker] goes to register two.
Customer: “Hi, are you opening this register?”
Coworker: “I don’t know how to do this.”
Manager: “Yes, you do. You sign on with—”
Coworker: “I don’t have a sign-on.”
Manager: “Yes… you do. It’s your login for the online order system.”
Coworker: *Heavy sigh* “I’ll try it, but I wasn’t trained.”
He scans at a snail’s pace, stopping every few items to drink from his water bottle or dramatically sigh and stretch.
Coworker: “I don’t know how to do this.”
Me: “Do what?”
Coworker: “She has a tax-exempt thing.”
Me: “Okay. Did you ring all the items?”
Coworker: *Shrug* “I don’t know.”
Customer: *Impatiently* “Yes, he did. Now he just puts in the exempt ID, right?”
She reads off the tax-exempt ID number.
Me: “Yup! She’s got it!”
Customer: “How do I do that?”
Manager: “Hit the ‘TAX EXEMPT’ button and type in the ID number she just read off.”
Coworker: “How do I do that?”
I can see [Manager]’s eye beginning to twitch with the stress of ringing up customers and babysitting [Coworker].
Customer: *To me* “Was he trained on the register at all?”
Coworker: “No.”
Manager & Me: “Yes!”
Manager: “Everyone is cross-trained to provide customer service wherever it is needed.”
Coworker: “This isn’t my job! I hate the register!”
Customer: “How old are you?”
Coworker: “What?”
Customer: “You’re up here whining about having to do the same job your manager is doing? Get over yourself or get a new job.”
She takes her receipt and leaves.
The rest of [Coworker]’s transactions go smoothly, as he has suddenly remembered how to run the register. At the end of the rush, he goes to the back room.
Me: “Where is he going?”
Manager: “I think he’s quitting.”
Me: “Oh. Okay.”
[Coworker] storms past us with his jacket on his arm. As soon as he is out the automatic door, he turns and whips his name tag back at us inside and throws his uniform shirt on the ground as he crosses the street. [Manager] goes out to get the shirt.
Manager: “Yeah. Definitely quitting. Oh, well, no loss.”
[Coworker] tried to file for unemployment, but since he had abandoned his job without notice, he did not get it.
