pettyrevenge:

So, I’m a cashier at a hardware store. The sales people on the floor have stickers and/or employee numbers that they attach to big ticket items to get “credit” for it. They don’t make commission, but it is kept track of in our systems so it can be looked up and we can see who makes the most money for the company in each department and sometimes small bonuses are given, but they’re not expected or required. It’s mostly bragging rights and bargaining chips for promotions and raises.

Tammy in the Lumber department is not a nice lady to cashiers. I don’t know why, but somehow she feels that if we make a mistake and sell something wrong from her department, it is a personal insult to her, despite there being at least 4 more people who work in that department.

So, she takes it upon herself to leave her department and come to the front of the store to read the riot act to any cashier that rang something up wrong. Now, normally, if a cashier makes a mistake, the person who finds it let’s them know in a civil, calm manner or the cashier notices their accuracy numbers are down and tries to fix it themselves. Tammy is the only person in the store who feels it necessary to loudly, and angrily lecture the cashiers. On the clock. In front of customers and coworkers. Keep in mind, that a cashier making a mistake doesn’t actually effect her personally very much at all. At the most, inventory might be off because someone sold a 2x2x8 oak that was actually a 2x2x8 fir, which, yes, is annoying but not worth humiliating a human being who made a human error.

After the second time she chewed me out, I decided that hmm… oh jee whiz, when she sells $400 worth of stuff, when I ring it up, oh boy, I just didn’t happen to SEE her employee number on it. Despite it being right next to the barcode.

I’ve told one other cashier who adopted this practice (who told another… who told another…) and so far it’s quietly spread across at least half the cashiers who’ve been disrespectfully shouted at and talked down to by Tammy. Most of us have now memorized her 6 digit number so even if she sneaks it on there, just numbers by themselves instead of including her name too, we still won’t add it.

Guess whose no longer the #1 sales person in lumber anymore? She’s not even in the top 3 as of two weeks after ripping me a new one.

Maybe don’t screw with your cashiers.