During my last few high school years and early university years, I worked part-time in a supermarket at the checkout department. Of course, we would see our fair share of entitled people of all sorts. But no one in that store was more infuriating to deal with than the most recently hired supervisor. She was the kind of supervisor that would deny paid time off if we did not give four weeks’ notice, despite all of our contracts stating we only needed to give two weeks’ notice. But then when we tried to give four weeks’ notice, she would say:

Supervisor: “That was too long ago; I do not remember you asking me.”

At the time of this story, I was nineteen and had worked at this store for a few years. Every Christmas season, I would say the same things to the supervisors:

Me: “I don’t have any plans and I’m not leaving town, so if you need me for extra shifts, put me down whenever you need me, just as long as I finish by 9:30 pm.”

They knew I would not care if it was any day of the week, just a four-hour shift, or an eleven-hour shift. I was completely free with no plans, totally flexible, and able to work mostly whenever. My ONLY condition was that I had to be done by 9:30 pm. This was because I had not yet gotten my full driver’s license and it was illegal for me to drive by myself without some kind of supervision between the hours of 10:00 pm and 5:00 am. The store was open from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, so out of those fourteen hours, I could not work thirty minutes. It was a good system and led to me doing a lot of extra shifts, with a lot of them being last-minute.

In early November, the new supervisor asked me about my December and January availability and I said the same old song:

Me: “You can put me down for extra shifts as much as you like, whenever, for any day, as long as I’m done by 9:30 pm.”

Supervisor: “Why 9:30 pm?”

I explained to her about my driver’s license. She just nodded and walk away.

Mid-November rolled around and the December schedule was released. I was given plenty of extra shifts — as per usual — but you might have seen this coming. I was scheduled for six days a week, which would have been all good with me… except for the fact that five of them ended at 10:00 pm.

I found the supervisor as soon as I saw the schedule and reiterated that I could not work past 9:30 pm.

Supervisor: “But you can still work until 10:00 pm.”

Me: “I can’t, or else I’ll be driving illegally, and I’m not going to do that.”

Supervisor: “Yes, but there are plenty of other ways you can get yourself home.”

Me: “Like what?”

Supervisor: “Have your family pick you up.”

Me: “No, they’re in and out of town on business.”

Supervisor: “You can take the bus.”

Me: “No, it arrives every hour at ten minutes to the hour. I’m not working until 10:00 and then waiting outside in the dark alone until 10:50 pm.”

Supervisor: “What about Uber?”

Me: “I’m not working all day just to spend it all on an Uber to get home.”

Supervisor: “Well then, you will need to find someone to fill in those shifts for you.”

Me: “Nope. According to my contract, I don’t—”

Then, she just walked away. I was left there speechless.

Later that same shift, when she was the only supervisor around, she completely left me out to dry with a horrid customer who could not use the self-service checkouts to save his life and took it all out on me. We’ve all seen horrible people like that, but this guy in particular was so bad that coworkers — even those from different departments — kept coming up to me to ask if I was okay after dealing with that guy. Not my supervisor, though.

After I got home that day, I was done. I sent out CV after CV on job websites. My mentality was, “If I’m gonna get paid minimum wage, I might as well do it somewhere better.”

Within a few days, I had a retail store asking me to come in for an interview. Within the next week, I had that new job lined up and ready to go, so I went back to the supermarket on my next shift and handed in my two weeks’ notice. All my other supervisors were gutted that I was leaving. (I’m not saying I’m some star employee, but I was always keen on extra shifts, barely took sick leave off, was so chill and willing to do a lot of the side tasks that no one else want to do like collecting the shopping carts in the rain or emptying the rubbish bins, and I just knew a lot of stuff about the checkouts in general.) I was gutted I wouldn’t be working with them anymore, but working with that one, bad supervisor hurt more than working without the others.

The day I handed in my notice, [Supervisor] wasn’t working. I didn’t see her until a few days later when she stopped me near the back of the store around a few other coworkers. I’m guessing that she wasn’t too happy she had just lost a de facto full-timer just before the Christmas rush. She seemed a bit flustered but still had that fake smile of hers on.

Supervisor: “So, I heard you’re leaving soon.”

Me: *Cheerfully* “Yup, in just under two weeks.”

Supervisor: “But you’ve worked here for quite some time. Any particular reason why you’re leaving so quickly?”

Me: *With the biggest grin I have ever had on my face* “I already told you why. I’m not working those 10:00 pm shifts.”

It was beautiful; within a split second of me saying that, her smile dropped and she just stared at me, speechless. This time, it was my turn to just walk away.

As they say, “You don’t quit bad jobs. you quit bad management.”

I used to be a grocery employee and was almost always chained to the express lane.

I wasn’t ever one of the “popular girls” in high school, but I wasn’t a wallflower, either. Most people in my class knew me by sight if not by name.

One day, I was chugging away at my store, which was only four blocks from the school, when a guy known to be the Big Man On Campus — handsome, fawned over, popular, etc. — and his posse showed up in my lane.

Big Man On Campus: “Hey, you go to [School], right?”

Me: “Yes.”

I scanned his friends’ purchases. Knowing he was a Big Man On Campus, I suppose I was meant to be impressed he was even speaking to me. I wasn’t.

Big Man On Campus: “And your name’s [My Name]?”

Me: “Yes.”

Big Man On Campus: “Would you sell us alcohol?”

Seriously?! Let’s just suppose I was swooning over the fact that he knew my name; the managers’ station was literally three feet behind me. Any one of the four managers on duty could have looked over my shoulder and seen exactly what I was doing.

Also, all of us were underage for alcohol; I couldn’t sell it, and he couldn’t buy it.

Me: “Uh, no.”

The badgering began. I kept refusing to sell him any alcohol, and he kept trying all the VERY convincing lines like “doing him a solid” and “c’mon.” I saw the manager lift his head and squint at us, so I told Big Man On Campus that he was NOT worth the consequences.

He looked furious but shut up. Right after they left my lane, [Manager] came up to me and asked if I knew them and what they wanted.

Me: “They go to my school, and they wanted me to sell them alcohol.”

Manager: “What did you say?”

Me: “I told them ‘no’ multiple times.”

[Manager] just nodded and walked away, a suspicious scowl on his face. Not two minutes later, he was chasing them out of the store. They’d tried to steal what I wouldn’t sell them.

I never saw any of them in my store again.

My employer requires all employees to complete a brief online training segment every day before work. One day, two of my coworkers and I are in the computer room in the back of our store doing our daily training.

Coworker #1: “Oh, they’ve got me doing the diversity training thing.”

Coworker #2: “Inclusiveness!”

Coworker #1: “What do they expect you to do with this?”

Coworker #2: “It’s easy. Just imagine what [German Politician] would say, and then you say the opposite.”

The local grocery store puts out tasting displays and likes to showcase local products. Today, there are a few cans of locally-produced hot sauce. I’m shopping with my sister.

Sister: *Sniffing the air* “Woo… D****, that’s some spicy sauce!”

She LOVES spicy stuff, and she tries a huge spoonful of sauce on a cracker.

Sister: “Huh. Pretty mild.”

Me: “Mild?! The smell is killing me!”

Sister: “No, really! Try it!”

I try it, and she’s right. It’s mild and slightly smoky.

Me: “Wow, the smell is so much stronger than the taste.”

Employee: “Actually, some crazy guy pepper-sprayed the seafood counter guy because his fish was too heavy. We just put out the hot sauce as a cover.”

Related:
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 33
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 32
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 31
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 30
On The Need For Hazard Pay, Part 29

This isn’t the craziest thing to happen to a poor retail worker on this site? Check out these 10 Terrifying Stories About Employees Who Need Hazard Pay!

It is just after Easter, and a customer is buying four packets of chocolate eggs. The eggs are on pegs at the top of the shelf. There are some other leftover Easter products on the very bottom of the shelf. They are all BOGOF (buy one, get one free). There are three signs that state this on the very bottom of the shelf, where the BOGOF items are, in big letters. Also on the signs are the names of the products that are BOGOF. The eggs aren’t mentioned in this; therefore, it’s common sense to assume they are not part of it.

Customer: “Why have you charged me extra for these eggs? The signs say that they are buy-one-get-one-free!”

Me: “Oh, no, it’s not the eggs. It’s the chocolate on the bottom shelf, see?”

Customer: “It’s very misleading.”

Me: “I’m so sorry. Let me get the sign and check.”

Customer: *Huffs* “I don’t have time for this! I’m in a rush! I just told you that the signs are misleading! What are you going to do about this?”

Me: “Do you still want the eggs?”

Customer: “No. I’m not going to bother.”

Me: “Okay, give me one moment and I’ll take them off your transaction.”

Because we are short-staffed, I have been given the supervisor’s code and can do the voids myself. Because I’m not used to doing these, though, I am taking a while. The lady doesn’t like this one bit and starts acting a little strange.

Customer: “Why are you being so awkward? I know you’re doing this deliberately! You’ve tricked me into this. You’ve made the signs misleading on purpose, and now you’re deliberately keeping me here because you know I’m in a rush!”

Me: “I’m sorry you feel that way, ma’am.”

Customer: “Excuse me?”

Me: “I’m sorry.”

I carry on, not as quickly as I’d like, removing the eggs from her transaction. Since she picked four packs up, this means I have to remove four items.

Customer: “I just told you! I’m in a rush! You’re just being slow on purpose! You people always make the signs misleading just to trick me! I’ll just leave my money here, because this is ridiculous and I don’t have time for this!”

Me: “Do you need the receipt?”

Customer: “No.”

Me: “Okay, you can leave your money on the side. I am very sorry for the inconvenience.”

She then left the shop. It was quite bizarre. I just find it funny that she’d think that. I wasn’t till-based that day, and I had a lot of things to do on the shop floor. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck on the till. I wanted the transaction to run smoothly just like she did!