New and Unimproved Workplace Rants

[Broomstick]

@purplehorseshoe

@Broomstick

we are serious, we are not taking cash contaminated with saliva

As a worker at a cash-only business, I can only say … MY GOD I wish my employers held this kind of a hard line. Bravo to your employers for being willing to lose a sale over the issue.

We have enough sales that we can absorb the loss. That’s one advantage for working for a large corporation. Of course, we are also fortunate that 1) the company is willing do this and 2) local management backs up local workers. Neither of those is a given.

Also - invariably when this comes up, most other bystanding customers fully support us not taking slobbered on cash.

@Senegoid

Of course, he just stuck those icky bills back in his wallet and spent them somewhere else.

Yes. Well, the world is not perfect. We can protect our staff and other customers. Maybe if other businesses refuse cash after people contaminate bills shitheads like him will get the message that this is completely unacceptable.

@Senegoid

The better action would have been: Call Store Security over on a CodeRED, and when they arrive in their full space suits, they confiscate those poisoned bills and burn them on the spot!

Ah… fantasies…!

Yesterday, we had an old lady who decided she needed more plastic bags. So she loads up a hand with spit to peel them off the carousel. She is told “please don’t do that”, handed a clean bag, and the pile she touched is taken off the hook and thrown out.

Five minutes later she’s at another carousel about to do the same thing. I said “Ma’am, I’m sorry, we can’t allow that. If you need help with the bags please ask. Here’s a bag for you.” She glared at me, throw the bag on the floor, and stormed off. Well, tottered off, but it was an angry old-age slowed walk.

One thing I have noticed is that these people are, so far older White people. Every single one. And the excuse, if one is given, is “I’ve been doing this all my life”. Well, fucking change your disgusting, disease-spreading habits! Working retail I get to see both White Privilege and Wealth Privilege on full display, sometimes even intersecting.

And yeah, people get offended - you’re saying I’m diseased! Well, boo-fucking-hoo! You have cooties just like everyone else! These assholes would be the first to take offense if someone else did this to them. Fuck 'em.

[Maus_Magill]

It’s like the original objection doctors had to washing their hands, “Are you saying a Gentleman’s hands aren’t clean?”

Well, yeah, not if you don’t wash them. It’s not like there are magical Gentleman Cleanliness Rays.

[Jackmannii]

I’ve seen plenty of younger (or at least middle-age folk) doing the finger-slobber-count-out-cash routine. Sometimes it’s the cashier.

At least masking has greatly lowered the incidence of this disgusting behavior.

[LurkMeister]

One of the minor annoyances I had when the pandemic started involved trying to bag produce I was buying. Those plastic bags they provide are very hard to open, and I had learned that if I moistened my fingertips this provided enough friction to get the bag open. Obviously licking my fingers was no longer an option, so I would just keep rubbing the plastic until it finally opened.

Licking my fingers to count bills never occurred to me. Besides the hygienic issues, I’ve never had any trouble separating bills in my wallet.

[Folacin]

@LurkMeister

Besides the hygienic issues, I’ve never had any trouble separating bills in my wallet.

The only time I find bills sticking together is when they are wet (for instance from swimming with some cash in my suit). So wetting my fingers to count them out seems counter-productive.

[Broomstick]

@Jackmannii

I’ve seen plenty of younger (or at least middle-age folk) doing the finger-slobber-count-out-cash routine. Sometimes it’s the cashier.

At least masking has greatly lowered the incidence of this disgusting behavior.

The mask often interrupts it, and I’ve seen peoples’ fingers hit their mask and them go “Oh, sorry, sorry, I have to stop doing that…!”

We had not one but TWO cashiers fired for doing the “lick fingers” routine. THAT’s how serious my employer is about this shit. Doing that is a firing offense for the staff.

We no longer have staff engaging in finger-licking while on the clock. (While eating your lunch it’s your business, but wash your damn hands before clocking in again thankyouverymuch).

I get why this is more common among the elderly - aside from habit, the older you get the drier your skin gets and the slower your fingerprint ridges regenerate, so it really is harder for the elderly to count cash or open plastic bags. That’s why we have hand sanitizer and fingertip moistener everywhere now, and why staff are told to assist people having trouble.

[saje]

Yup, when I close out the registers for the day and have to count out the drawers, I use a dollop of sanitizer gel on my fingers. It actually works really, really well! There is nothing quite like having to count a chunk of brand new one dollar bills - they are stiff and stick to each other and you can either count accurately or quickly, not both. The sanitizer dampened fingers make it a good deal less frustrating.

[echoreply]

@LurkMeister

One of the minor annoyances I had when the pandemic started involved trying to bag produce I was buying.

The produce section is the one place where this is easily solved. They have those sprinklers, and there’s always something nearby that is wet. I keep my hands off produce I don’t plan to buy, but it’s easy enough to wet my fingers on part of the shelf.

[Seanette]

@LurkMeister

Obviously licking my fingers was no longer an option, so I would just keep rubbing the plastic until it finally opened.

A tiny drop of hand sanitizer works for me.

[galen_ubal]

sigh
Nothing in particular, but I’m feeling way burned out about work. I’ve a little over half an hour before I go in for an evening shift, and I’m just feeling tired about it.
Ah, well.

[purplehorseshoe]

@galen_ubal

Nothing in particular, but I’m feeling way burned out about work. I’ve a little over half an hour before I go in for an evening shift, and I’m just feeling tired about it.
Ah, well.

Me too, my friend, me too. We’re short-handed as a mofo at the store where I work, and everyone is pulling 6-day weeks.

It’s tough to find time to do laundry, clean the kitchen, etc. and also relax a bit with that kind of schedule.

[peedin]

I am a master’s prepared, 40 years of work experience, real deal librarian. My co regent and I cover the information needs of 8 hospitals. My co regent retired last week, and my request to fill the position was denied. My boss’s response was “that’s interesting.” Nothing else. Not “I’m sorry, what can I do, how awful, let’s talk about it.” I essentially had a meltdown from the the lack of understanding and support (thank God for my therapist) but have returned to my internal “fuck you” attitude with a smile on the outside.

P.S. I am retiring in13 months. I’m only working for the health benefits. So my attitude is gonna get REAL BAD in about 6 months.

[Steve_McQwark]

@purplehorseshoe

Me too, my friend, me too. We’re short-handed as a mofo at the store where I work, and everyone is pulling 6-day weeks.

It’s tough to find time to do laundry, clean the kitchen, etc. and also relax a bit with that kind of schedule.

If I remember correctly, you work at a marijuana store, right? Dang, if you aren’t able to find a way to relax, what hope is there for the rest of us?

[LurkMeister]

@echoreply

The produce section is the one place where this is easily solved. They have those sprinklers, and there’s always something nearby that is wet. I keep my hands off produce I don’t plan to buy, but it’s easy enough to wet my fingers on part of the shelf.

I can’t believe I never thought of that. And of course I never touch anything I’m not planning to buy.

[Catamount]

I’ve also found that if you’re buying a frozen item, you can rub your hands on the cold packaging and get enough moisture on your fingers to open the plastic bags at checkout.

[purplehorseshoe]

@Steve_McQwark

If I remember correctly, you work at a marijuana store, right? Dang, if you aren’t able to find a way to relax, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Yup, you remember correctly. (There’s a joke about short-term memory in there somewhere, I just know it.) Anyway, ironically, everyone I work with is stressed to the hilt and/or medicated to the hilt, because we just cannot bring in enough staffing.

[teelabrown]

I can believe that. A few days ago, I visited a popular local dispensary to buy some seedlings. It was a weekday, and I got there as soon as they opened, but the place was doing business hand-over-fist. They were doing a great job of crowd control, too: no customer stayed inside longer than a few minutes. But, man - they had a dozen budtenders selling, selling, selling. If they had had room for more workers, they’d have been selling even more.

[Kelevra]

Just have to say all this talk of “budtenders” and “budistas” cracks me up. I grew up at a time when marijuana use was seriously stigmatized so it all seems surreal. I can still hear Nancy Reagan saying “Just say no!”

[digs]

Seriously stigmatized …

… as awesome.

Weed was cool, underground, clandestine, grown by ninjas, weed was “Stickin’ it to the man, man…” Now it’s all legit and The Man can buy it from a store.

Man …

[purplehorseshoe]

Now ( * ) when you buy weed, you get a receipt. Like it’s a legitimate retail transaction an’ all that!

( * ) Assuming a cannabis-legal state - there’s more every year! - and that you’re buying at a licensed dispensary, and not from Mr. Black Market on the corner over there.