No work means no play

No work means no play and this cashier definitely has no work. It started when I got hired at my previous job; people never tell you that the hardest job you can have is being a manager especially when you are walking into a store brand new and you have to be the manager. When I walked into my previous job I walked in with every intention of this being my job for a while but I didn't like it. I didn't like it because of how it was run, how the cashiers acted, and of how management handled the store.

I couldn't change that so I continued to grin and bear it, I had to be trained as a cashier and was then moved into my line of work, counting money, and I was faced with much resistance. It started with little tests, to see how far I would let these new cashiers go. The little things such as bagging for their friends or talking on the register and I will admit even I do these things, but they were tests to see if I would chastise them or not. I let it go, my firm belief is that people are capable of behaving, management doesn't need to be on top of them for them to do a good job. However I was wrong again, these cashiers needed someone on their tail for every second of the day. Soon the time for tests were over, but for me they weren't. It doesn't help that I am a woman, it doesn't help that I'm not even 20, and it definitely did not help that management was not supporting me. Management left me out to dry and pushed me into the lions den. They say that customers are the harshest but I insist it's the cashiers. They are the judge and jury when it comes to how long a manager will stay, honestly I can agree that when I see a new manager come in I guesstimate their expiration date.

That is not the point, on whatever time limit they put forth. The point is from the beginning I had problems and I decided to hold them in and dismissed them as not a big deal, whether it was the gossip or stares or jokes, I dismissed it as child's play. I should have reported it but I didn't, i chose to report the fact that my bagger was commanding me to do things, go and get carts or to take out the trash. That problem was taken care of, but like many of the problems I faced I had to face them alone. It started with an incident, when one of my cashiers was feuding with one of the girls in the bakery. It did not help that the bakery girl was sister to a manager in the front, it never helps when someone is related in the store it creates an unprofessional work environment. Let me get back on track, the cashier was feuding for whatever reason, and I could say I was a work acquaintance with the cashier. Not a friend, someone I talked to at work. Because of this the bakery girl, who was friends with all the cashiers because of her relationship with her brother, gave me a hard time which resulted in the cashiers giving me a harder time. In the end the cashier left, and the bakery girl stayed, and the cashiers disliked me.

I may be wrong, I may be talking out my behind, but for me this was the turning point. Since then a certain cashier disliked me. I never knew what I did to her. Maybe I didn't jump high enough when she said to jump. Maybe it was because I took the job she wanted. I never asked but there was tension and it was building up and it built up to a climax recently, but we will get to that in a second. I had specific problems with two of the cashiers, I won't name names, but the people I worked with will know who they are because everyone knows who they are.

Companies love to keep employees, however it is my firm belief that if someone stays with the company and does not move up and stays stagnant in their position that should be moved to different departments to train. I believe this because I have seen this with my very eyes, cashiers who have been working in the field for three or four years and think they know everything. They think they can call the shots and tell a manager how to run the show. Now you might tell me, you let them run the show or call the shots or direct the flow. I had to. I said it, I had to. I had to, because I knew the history of the managers at that store. Do you remember some paragraphs above, cashiers put the expiration date on managers. Well these cashiers had it out for the manager before me and got her fired because she said something that became misconstrued and wrapped into something that was not said. I walked into that store in the after math and was scared for my job, so I held my tounge because I didn't want to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and be without a job and a lawsuit on my back. Like I was previously saying, the cashiers at this job had been there for a while and felt like they knew everything and here I was this young hot shot person calling the shot when they felt like I didn't know the game. How wrong they were mistaken. I knew the tricks, and the games, but I guess they forgot that I already did everything they did and more.

As I was saying, and if you can remember because I am ranting about everything, the time for tests came and went and I began to tighten my grip. I would command, because I believe if your manager says something you should do it because they are in a higher position than you. I would tell the cashiers to move from the furthest register away from me to the closest. One of the cashiers, that gave me a hassle, and when I say a hassle it's the nicest way I can say that made my life a living hell, did not like that I commanded and asked me why. This irritates me, that one single word, why. Why, is the determining factor between an obedient worker and a troublemaker. I simply stated the fact that I was the manager, and I walked away. The cashier followed behind me and in the office, in front of another manager, began to yell at me. She said that she deserves and answer and that I shouldn't have walked away from her and yelled and screamed nonsense. I didn't listen, I didn't care, never in my wildest nightmares of nightmares did I ever think I would be getting yelled at by a cashier. When she was through with her piece I walked out, I was in a rage and I walked out of the office and I went and did my job. The cashier came back to talk to the other manager who then nicely and calmly told her what she did was wrong and that she shouldn't have done that, it was bad. She was forced to offer me a sorry excuse for an apology, because between her stupid smirk and fake laugh it was hard to hear if she was apologizing or thinking it was a comedy act. I was than told that my approach at being a manager was faulty and that I had to be friendly with the cashiers for them to listen to me. My approach was simple, you disrespect me you get your hours cut and you get off the register. I was told I couldn't send a cashier home, let alone "write them up", a formal written warning. I was basically told to take it and let the cashiers mistreat me and abuse me.

The cashier of course never misbehaved to my face, there were comments behind my back and remarks made about me but I never cared for them. A child will talk behind one's back but an adult will confront the situation head on. The other cashier that made my life a living hell, she had a problem listening to managers also. I was told when I went into this position, that if the front was backed up I could call any department to help me. That means, if I need someone to bag groceries I can call the manager, the produce guy or the stock boy, if they were not assisting the customer, and they had to help me. This cashier was not on the register, her duty was to help with the nut department. I called her and several people, she did not come when I did call her and when she finally did, in front of the customers and cashiers, she yelled and said why was she being bothered and that she was not needed. I told the manager on duty, and informed him of my instructions that I was allowed to call anyone if I needed help, he informed me that she was having a bad day and to let it go.

If you are best friends with the managers, they will let you get away with anything. And I mean anything...it seems in this particular store that it was my fault the cashiers were not listening to me. I didn't smile enough or say hello often or talked to them on the right day. This being said I felt like everything was my fault, and everyday I would go home and feel terrible, ask my boyfriend he can testify to the days I would cry and complain and ask what I did wrong, what made them hate me so much. Small incident happened, the stares and comments. I even had one of the trouble making cashiers, put her fingers in a trigger and pretend to blow her head off. She would blow her head off then be in a room with me, and this made me depressed. Another small incident happened when one of the baggers and the other cashier that gave me problems, decided to shove ice cubes down the other cashiers back. This resulted in one of the cashiers screaming out and scaring the customers and manager. When the manager asked me what happened I informed him and he was walking with the cashier and she said I was lying. I had to then tell her how could I be lying if I just witnessed it with my own eyes, the manager then told her what she did wasn't nice. Everything in that store wasn't nice but no one ever thought of that. I was the bad one, and everyone else was doing the right thing.

As I was being pushed to the point of no return, I encountered that my managers lack of concern wasn't just for me but for my workers. One of the cashiers, who gave me problems, took it upon herself to yell at another cashier, in front of the customers and cashiers. Through the many problems I faced, I tried to just grin and bear it as my family and friends have told me. It wasn't until April 9th 2012, that I met my breaking point. I was on the cash register, and a customer came to me very upset, he was yelling and howling about how one of the cashiers, one of them that gave me hell, left him on the register for 20 minutes when she went to the bathroom. I told him I would call the manager, and as I talked to him and scanned the items and even bagged he calmed down and forgot the whole incident. However this upset the cashier, because I had told the man I would call the manager, not that I did but that I said I did. One of the other cashiers even called me and chastised me saying what I did was wrong, and even the though the cashier admonishing me wasn't a supervisor she still felt it was her right to educate me. When I went back to my register, the cashier who gives me hell was pulled out and I was told to move to her old one and that was when the cashier who gave me hell said I will make your life a living hell. I had enough. I went to the back and reported everything to the managers, saying I didn't want to go back. I sat crying and crying upset that the bullying, harrassment, and behavior had gone long enough. The front manager came to the back to see what was going on and the manager told him that I would not return to the front, this caused him to say that's what I expected. I wish I could tell you a happy ending but there isn't one, I came to the store the next day and relayed this message to my store director, indicating that I had faced harrassment. I told him I could not come back to work because I did not feel safe. I then gave him my phone number, because he had to "investigate" what went on. Instead hours later, I was told that what I had faced was unproffessional behavior, and he thought it was best that I do come back but not as a manager, but as a cashier, a lower position. As if to rub salt in my wounds, I felt like I was punished for speaking up and quitting. I declined the offer and since then no one has been fired or let go, let alone punished yet I am the one who is punished because I have no job.

My word of advice for everyone today is to report everything that happens to management, if nothing is done go to district managers, and follow the chain of authority. Speak up and let your voice be heard. You are all precious like diamonds don't let someone treat you like costume jewelry. I wish I would have never left my first job because I learned the grass is not always greener on the other side. I also felt like I lost, and the cashier won. She wanted me out of there and that is what she got. She got me to quit and she gets to keep her job. I remember leaving my store and seeing the new girl, who was training to replace me. I felt terrible for her, what if she faces the same behavior as me, or what if she gets lucky and gets to enjoy her experience there. All I know is that I can never return to that store. The management failed me, they were so concentrated on everything and everyone else that they shrugged me off. I don't feel bad for leaving the store at all, in fact I feel so much happier and stress free. I wish people the best of luck when they apply there because not everyone will face what I face. Instead I wish that everyone respects everyone because in the end, it's not personal, it's just a person just like you trying to get paid on the same day just like you. Thank you, this has been my rant from the register, hope to see you scanning.