Every three months, I have to see my doctor to get medication refilled or have blood work done. For one of my recent appointments, I got a call the day before confirming my appointment for 8:30 am the next day. Turns out, the receptionist screwed up.

Me: “Hi. I have an appointment for [My Name] at 8:30?”

The receptionist looked up my name.

Receptionist: “Sorry, I don’t see you. Are you sure it’s today?”

Me: “At all? I’m almost 100% positive it’s today.”

Receptionist: “Nope, it says here that it’s for tomorrow at 8:00 am.”

Me: *Confused and slightly irritated* “You called to confirm the date yesterday.”

Receptionist: “Look, [Doctor] doesn’t work on Mondays. I can’t help.” *Continues typing* “Come back tomorrow.”

Me: *Thinking* “You scheduled an appointment for me on a day that my doctor never works, rescheduled it, didn’t bother to inform me, confirmed the night before that it’s today, and think any of that makes sense?”

I’m going back to college and, as such, the store needs to replace me on weekday opening shifts — 6:00 am to 2:00 pm. I let them know that I can open on Fridays as long as I’m out by noon to get to my single class from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. I’m able to give a solid month of notice.

My replacement is a new hire, and he starts off well. He’s a nice guy, he picks up on stuff at a reasonable pace, and all that. About a week into his training, some quirks start to appear. He talks to himself in a creepy way, and he gets oddly defensive over every single question he’s asked.

It’s about 10:00 am on a Friday and I get a frantic call from the opening manager.

Manager: “Can you come in for just a couple of hours? I know you have class today but [Replacement] vanished. We don’t know where he went.”

I say no problem and rush down. The new opener has indeed disappeared. Thankfully, he was competent enough at the job that I’m not far behind on anything.

I get through the rest of the prep and get ready to clock out. Then, I learn a bit more about what happened.

Turns out, the mid-shift manager came in at 9:00, saw a smaller amount of a product prepped than expected, and merely asked about why there was less. [Replacement] flew off the handle and said things like:

Replacement: “I just did what [Opening Manager] told me! It’s not my fault!”

He kept carrying on and swearing.

The mid-shift manager sent him on break since it was about time anyway and he needed to cool off. Turns out, he got on his bicycle and just rode off.

The manager, just wanting an explanation more than anything, sent him a text asking if he was okay and if he would be coming back. After hours with no response, she sent another message basically saying, “I’m taking this as your resignation.”

We have a transfer from another store working for us. She’s put herself down for all shift availability, essentially any hours from 6:00 am start to 4:00 am finish. Since we’re in need of more opening staff, she’s soon put on 6:00 am to 2:00 pm shifts.

[Transfer] quickly begins complaining that she can’t make it at 6:00 am because the buses don’t run that early and using every excuse as to why she can’t make it in at 6:00 am. Notable at this point is that we have a woman in her sixties who doesn’t drive and lives on the other side of town, and she makes it to the store at 5:30 am every weekday, so it is entirely possible to get there that early.

[Transfer] is taken off of mornings and moved to evenings. Now she complains that she can’t work that late and she only wants to be scheduled when the buses run.

That is not unreasonable, but her attitude about it is miles off and it’s spilling into every aspect of her work. This request would limit her to around 8:00 am to 9:00 pm, which are shifts we really don’t need more staff for. Because of this, her hours are reduced. She probably could get more if she wasn’t so miserable.

We also have an informal system where if you are interested in picking up a shift on any days off, you can write your name on that page of the schedule as “on-call,” and if you are needed, you’ll be contacted. [Transfer] puts herself down for every one of her days off, and then she refuses any shift offered to her with a disgusted tone.

She feels her hours were unfair, so out of protest, she stops showing up for her shifts entirely. She refuses to talk to the general managers and says she’ll come back when she gets the hours she wants.

She is eventually just taken off the schedule. I don’t know at what point she’s officially let go, but she does come in after a couple of weeks to see if she has hours again.

Good riddance.

I swing by the corner store for some eggs. The first, second, and third cartons are out of date. I manage to find one box that expires tomorrow. Luckily, I will use them up by then.

I pass a worker on his phone as I go to the till. He’s got an open box to stack the shelf but seems to be daydreaming.

Me: “Err, all of the other eggs are out of date.”

Staff: “Oh, you want me to throw these away?”

Me: “No, these are in date. The others are out of date.”

Staff: “Oh, okay.”

Me: “You might want to get rid of them before someone buys them.”

Staff: “Oh, yeah, good idea.”

He starts giggling. He doesn’t seem sarcastic, just out of it. I don’t know what else to do, so I go to the till.

Me: “Oh, and all the rest of the eggs are out of date.”

Cashier: “Really? Okay, thanks for letting us know.”

Me: “I did tell your colleague, but he seemed… busy.”

He rings me up and radios his colleague.

Me: “Unless that walkie-talkie reaches other planets, I don’t think you’re going to have much luck.”

He shook his head and tried anyway, getting more annoyed as he repeated himself. I passed the aisle again where the worker from earlier was still yet to negotiate a single item back onto the shelf, blissfully unaware of what that angry noise was.

I’m not sure what attracts them there, but every other new starter seems to last a few weeks and is never quite on the same planet as anyone else.

I run a small team. Most are pretty good people — friendly, helpful, and good at their jobs.

I don’t even have to manage them. I ask them for things and give them priorities, but that’s only one hour a week. We get on great and it’s a really stress-free environment.

The only slight, only minor annoyance is [Employee] and her illnesses. She gets ill more than anyone, always on a Friday, and it’s always clear again on a Monday. She only ever gets ill three times a year and always four months apart, meaning she doesn’t get picked up on the metrics or have to go through the disciplinary route.

It’s so obvious she is faking it; it runs like clockwork. But because she follows all the rules and never falls into the “concern” category, I can’t act on it.

It’s three months and three weeks since [Employee]’s last sick day. The company has a major power cut, a massive order is delayed, one of the team is on holiday, and another is having surgery. Everyone is rushing around and taking on a little more than they would normally. I take [Employee] aside.

Me: “I really need your help Friday. If we don’t get this order out, it’s going to be bad. The order is really important for the company.”

Employee: “Why are you telling me this?”

Me: “Because I need you here and helping downstairs to get the parts out the door.”

Employee: “Okay. Fine. Don’t stress! Of course, I will be here!”

Me: “Okay, as long as we are clear. I don’t have anyone else to cover this. We are relying on you.”

Friday comes around and [Employee] calls in sick. The whole team works late and I have to stay until midnight to make sure things get sorted. 

Monday comes around and [Employee] comes in acting like nothing happened.

Me: “Can I have a word with you, in private?”

Employee: “Sure. Sorry about Friday. I had some woman’s issues. I imagine you won’t want me to go into details.”

Me: “Of course not. It would be completely unacceptable and against company rules, as you probably know.”

Employee: “Good. So, I’m okay to go back to work, then.”

Me: “Yes, but first I wanted to double-check you were okay and didn’t need more time off. It must have been bad to have Friday off. You seemed to be very keen to come in on Friday.”

Employee: “Oh, I was, but I couldn’t get out of bed. But I’m feeling much better now.”

Me: “Okay, but I’m still a little concerned. I’m going to ask our new Human Resources manager to have a little chat with you. As you say, it wouldn’t be right for me to discuss it with you.”

Our new HR manager is a woman.

[Employee] tried to get me to cancel, but it is within my discretion to check on any employee I have concerns about. [Employee] gave the HR manager a long explanation of how sick she was — but so much better now.

She was, however, completely unable to explain a social media post of a photo of her and her boyfriend at a theme park that she didn’t delete in time.

She got written up and made to discuss all further illnesses with the HR manager. Luckily, her health miraculously improved after that and she wasn’t ill again.