(Our night person recently quit, and we had to hire someone to replace him on short notice. He’s not a bad worker, but he was only given two shifts of training before being put on nights alone. As such, he doesn’t know the items on the register, has tried to sell baking materials to customers [the stuff we need to make our baked goods and is NEVER for sale], and has been painfully slow. It is Canada Day weekend, the biggest weekend of the year for business.)

Me: “Hey, [Supervisor], I just checked the schedule, and the only person working after 11 pm is the night person.”

Supervisor: “Are you kidding me? They only scheduled ONE PERSON for Canada Day!?”

Me: “Looks that way.”

Supervisor: “I’m going to go into the back and cry.”

(When stuff like this happens it usually means the supervisors are obligated to stay for hours after their shift to help without any warning. My supervisor calls up my boss.)

Supervisor: “Hey, I just checked the schedule and only the night person is scheduled tonight. You didn’t re-allocate an afternoon person to help him?”

Boss: “Nope! He should be fine!”

Supervisor: “Every day these past few weekends we’ve been lined up out the door from morning until two am. This night person has no idea what he’s doing, and he’s been stressing out because he’s having to deal with a full line up of customers, drive-thru, and making sandwiches all by himself, as well as doing all of his nightly cleaning duties and prep-work. We’ve been forced to stay for hours after our shifts have ended to help him, because otherwise he’d get nothing done. And tonight, the busiest night of the year, he’ll be dealing with a full line up of customers all night. He won’t get anything done…”

Boss: “Oh… well, it’s not your job to stay there!”

Supervisor: “You told us that it is.”

Boss: “Well, it’s not! Go home when your shift ends! And nobody else can stay to help him either!”

(My supervisor decided to do what my boss says, because otherwise he’d be stuck there until two am. My supervisor and I clocked out and stood outside as the store filled with customers, drive-thru was packed to the brim, and droves of customers were leaving angry because the one person working the entire store wasn’t going fast enough. The next weekend my boss asked the supervisors to stay late to help out again… and the night shift person quit two weeks later.)

Me: “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

Customer: “Oh, yes. Absolutely.”

(I realize the customer is buying three things. A pack of water pistols, lighter fluid, and matches.)

Me: “Um… This is an interesting purchase.”

Customer: “Yeah, there’s a wasp infestation in my garage. Figured this is easier than an exterminator.”