Eyes in the Back of My Head

We have a couple of newish high school employees that aren't working up to our standards. One of them (A) it's pretty certain that we'll get rid of soon. A pretty good high schooler (B) commented on A not doing the job well. I told B that I noticed what A was and was not doing and that if it continued she wouldn't work for us anymore.

While I try not to mention employees' negative performance with other employees, I had multiple reasons for saying this to him:
1. Demonstrate to B that I see things that I don't always appear to see.
2. Make sure B knew that the behavior was unacceptable so that he wouldn't begin doing it.
3. Knowing how our employees love to gossip, I knew that B would tell A what I had said. Hopefully A will then either get scared into doing the work properly or quit before we have to fire her. Either way it's good for us.

Parts

Asshole of the day:

A man, in his early 70s, wanted to buy a part to a product he bought in our store. I explained that we don't sell parts; we sell the whole thing. I've probably sold a thousand of that item, and not a single person has come asking for parts. Until now.

The man started yelling that no one told him that parts weren't available when he bought it two weeks ago and now he has a thing he can't do anything with, blah, blah, blah, what is he supposed to do, etc. etc. I suggested he try a hardware store or the company who makes the item. "So you're not going to do anything for me?!" That would be correct. If we don't have it, we don't have it. No, I can't order it. If you had taken care of it to start with then you wouldn't need the part now.

Throughout his tirade he liberally used PG-rated words and kept getting closer and closer to me. I backed up, and backed up, and after repeating my advice to try a hardware store, I went to the front of the store and filed some invoices while I kept an eye on the guy and had employees and a phone close by. He made one last try to somehow get me to say I'd get him the part, I repeated that I COULD NOT GET IT, and he cursed a little more before leaving (still PG-rated, if it had been worse I would have made him leave).

A woman browsing in the front commented that someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. You think?

Tissues

Tissues are a good thing, right? Very useful things, they are. But, they should be used in their appropriate location.....the bathroom. They are not meant to be carried around my store so you can wipe your ruby-red nose whenever you need to. If you are that sick then you need to stay at home and out of my store and away from me. To be clear, I'm not talking about a little travel-sized package stuck in your pocket, I'm talking about a full-sized BOX of tissues. Gross!

Why Should I Know?

Today was like my zillionth consecutive day working, including both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. So no deep thoughts from me about the new year or goals or resolutions. In fact, I was so tired that I was asleep way before midnight.....pitiful. Even worse, both Saturday and Sunday the store hardly made enough money to warrant being open. Perhaps eventually we'll be closed on more holidays? No, probably not.

I hate having to repeat myself. A customer asked me if {Company} had {variety of} {product}. I responded that we don't carry products by {Company}, so I wouldn't know. After not listening, she told me why she needed the product (like I care) and then asked, AGAIN, if {Company} made {variety of} {product}. I answered, VERY slowly......"I. Don't. Know. ---------- We. Don't. Sell. ANY. Products. By. {Company}."

She, of course, wasn't satisfied and acted as if I'm not doing my job since I don't know about every product by every manufacturer that's even vaguely related to my industry. I hate that. I know a good bit about the 10,000 or 20,000 or however many items that we DO sell. It doesn't make sense for me to learn about products that we DON'T sell. If it's a new and exciting product that my store has some chance of carrying, yes I probably know a little bit about it, even though it's too new to be in my store yet. But if it's an established product that we for whatever reason don't sell, I don't waste my time learning about it. In this particular case, the company she was asking about makes products inferior to the ones we sell. Spend a little more money for the quality product and in most cases you'll be happier.

How I Feel Sometimes

Malfunction Junction