I was at a nearby store today, and when I got in line, there were 2 people in front of me. Instead of checking out the first customer, the cashier, who was heavily tattooed and old enough to know better, was telling the stories behind her tattoos to the customer and tossing in a healthy dose of ex-bashing. :rolleyes: Another cashier opened up a lane, so I stepped over there and got checked out, while the other cashier kept up her rolling commentary.
Afterwards, I went to the customer service desk and asked for a manager, and told her what this cashier had been doing. I added that it’s OK for someone to say things like “How’s your husband?” “Oh, we got divorced” but this was massively inappropriate. The manager agreed, and paged that cashier as soon as I walked away from the counter.
I got the impression that it wasn’t the first time she’d had a complaint about this particular cashier.
(Old enough to know better than to bash her ex while working, not necessarily old enough to not be heavily tattooed.)
Sounds like she was just having a conversation with a customer. I missed the part where she was doing something “inappropriate” (was she spewing a bunch of obscenities or something? You don’t mention anything she actually said other than “ex-bashing”).
She was going into pretty significant detail, about how he cheated on her with a co-worker, and had been to prison, and some other things that didn’t need to be discussed in public, especially while working.
So how is that your business? Clearly she wasn’t talking to you, even if you had to be subjected to the horror of it by being in earshot. I might not personally want to have those kinds of discussions with most people I interact with, but if there are two adults who want to have a slightly more personal chat than “Hello serviceperson/slave, how about this weather eh?” they absolutely have that right (assuming it’s not holding up the line terribly, but knowing how shitty service jobs are I’m OK with there being at least a little leeway there).
That you come here and gleefully boast about how you got her in trouble for it makes it all the worse. Congrats on giving someone a hard time who quite possibly/probably already has kind of a shit life, at their shit job, for no real reason.
well, the OP did say she wasn’t actually DOING her job, checking and totaling up the purchases of the customer. According to the OP she was just standing there regaling the customer with the details of her personal life in a context where that kind of conversation is entirely inappropriate.
She’s checked me out before, and is very slow to begin with. It didn’t help that she was discussing something she shouldn’t have been while working with the public.
That sounds really awful. Are you okay? Make no mistake, you’ve undergone a severe trauma, and there’s really no need to put on a brave face. Just know that you’re among friends, and we’re here to help see you through this thing, no matter how long it takes. If you need a hug, they’re on sale right now.
And by doing so was failing to do the job that she is paid for, and making other customers uncomfortable because of the subject she was catching her friend up on. There are topics that are not appropriate for work, and there are ways to talk to a friend who bumps into you at a job without neglecting the actual work you’re paid to do.
Well, if she IS a bad cashier, then yes, good job!
If she is a good cashier, one complaint alone won’t get her fired. Maybe you should assume the manager, who works with her every day, can assess and handle the situation appropriately?
The subject of the cashier’s conversation is of no relevance. If the cashier delayed waiting customers by carrying on a conversation longer than the checkout process should have taken, that is unacceptable.
If the line moved along at a normal speed, eavesdroppers listening in on a private conversation between two people have no right to make judgments about the strangers involved.
