Saturday, June 18, 2005

Am I a Babysitter?

I'm a retail manager. Is there anything about that job title that is unclear? Am I a childcare worker? Does "babysit stray children" appear on my job duties list?

Some people need to be sterilized. Who would let a 5-year-old wander a store by himself?! He could pull large items onto himself, drink poison, get cut, get stuck going places he shouldn't, get abducted, WRECK MY STORE, etc. Or the 13-year-old mentally disabled boy who used his arm as a rake to clear merchandise off entire shelves, while his mother was in an entirely different area of the store. I asked the kid to stop and he went crazy and I though he was going to attack me. What was his mother thinking when she left him unsupervised?

Our store is in an OK neighborhood, but near several major highways. A kid could disappear awfully fast. (Besides the fact that some regular customers are registered child sex offenders. I know. I looked at our county sheriff's website.)

What annoys me even more is when I tell a kid who's using a shelf as a ladder to stop and his mother hears me and replies, "I think that's my job" or "You can't tell him that." Well, do your job then, lady! I'm just doing mine! Part of my job is to keep the store safe and clean (and I'd also like to avoid filling out accident report forms).

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