- Joined
- Mar 31, 2016
- Messages
- 2,117
- Purraise
- 2,891
It can be really nice to know you aren't crazy. I'm paranoid delusional, and that's not a joke. I'm on an anti-psychotic to keep the delusions in check, and even with that my paranoia level is higher than most people's.
I don't work as a cashier very often, since the person holding the phone doesn't get called up when they need additional cashiers. Lately though they've been putting me on the sales floor more often, so I'm starting to do more cashier work. I hate it. First, I'm an extreme introvert. Working on the sales floor, I can take mental breaks between customers by focusing on the merchandise. Working as a cashier, you always have to be in people mode, there are no mental breaks. Second, while everyone on the sales floor is trained as a cashier, that's about an hour's worth of training on your orientation day. Then they push you into the shallow end by letting you work for an hour or two under supervision and then you're in over your head. But when you do it a lot you learn all the little things that can go wrong and how to fix them. When you are like me and go months between being called up to run a register during a busy time, you don't learn the hows and whats that happen. And if you are like me and never called up, you've forgotten half the cashier orientation that took place 10 months ago.
So today two women were in line, they had three transactions between them, and the first woman gave me an employee discount card that was issued by another store. I scanned it (remember, 10 months ago) and then she pulled out a state sales tax exemption card. I told her I had no clue how to do that and told her I'd call a manager over. Nope, no need to do that, it's only a few bucks, she's not going to worry about that.
Then before I ended the transaction I remembered something I heard at some point and asked for the employee discount card back and her ID. She spent forever looking through her bag, quite some time and then she said I could just remove it. That triggered my paranoia, the bag was like a cosmetic bag size and she was taking her sweet time and she didn't seem to want to deal with a manager. I told her I didn't know how to do that (which was the truth) and I'd have to get a manager to do it. Right after I said that she found both the card and her ID and the names didn't match. So I told her that I would have to get a manager to approve it and she was still insisting there was no need for a manager, I could just remove the discount. That heightened my paranoia, three times now she's told me there's no need for a manager, she'll take a financial hit instead.
She also said she had a Target red card but she wasn't going to be using it today (which I've heard more than once) but she was paying with cash. Hit #3 on my paranoia problem, no financial paper trail to follow her. By itself I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but added on top of her seeming stalling and not wanting to deal with a manager, yeah. The manager looked carefully at both cards and the woman said that the card actually came from a friend that helps with camp supplies, yada yada. He very politely handed the card back to her and helped me remove it, went on his way. The other two transactions were also cash transactions.
I didn't have a chance to talk to him privately, but I was released from the register shortly after and while heading back to my area I ran into a different manager. He said that if I was that bothered by the whole thing I could just either call for AP on the radio or knock on the door to their office. He really, really downplayed it though. Still, I was bothered, knowing it could be just my imagination -or- it could be something like a stolen card, so I went and knocked on AP's door.
And it turned out that the manager who had been helping me at the register had also stopped by AP's office and told them what happened and given the name that was on the employee discount card. I confirmed that was the name I saw and I remembered one item that was bought. It was in the third transaction and it was a plushie doll and it didn't have a tag, just a clearance sticker affixed to the actual item. With my paranoia at the level it was, I read the description that popped up when I punched in the clearance number to make sure it matched what was in my hand, that's why it was memorable. The two AP guys scrambled for note paper when I said that I remembered one of the items and told them what it was and which transaction had it.
So between their scramble to grab note paper and that the manager went there before I did, my paranoia wasn't a delusion and was seemingly justified. Makes me feel a lot better about my current mental state.
I don't work as a cashier very often, since the person holding the phone doesn't get called up when they need additional cashiers. Lately though they've been putting me on the sales floor more often, so I'm starting to do more cashier work. I hate it. First, I'm an extreme introvert. Working on the sales floor, I can take mental breaks between customers by focusing on the merchandise. Working as a cashier, you always have to be in people mode, there are no mental breaks. Second, while everyone on the sales floor is trained as a cashier, that's about an hour's worth of training on your orientation day. Then they push you into the shallow end by letting you work for an hour or two under supervision and then you're in over your head. But when you do it a lot you learn all the little things that can go wrong and how to fix them. When you are like me and go months between being called up to run a register during a busy time, you don't learn the hows and whats that happen. And if you are like me and never called up, you've forgotten half the cashier orientation that took place 10 months ago.
So today two women were in line, they had three transactions between them, and the first woman gave me an employee discount card that was issued by another store. I scanned it (remember, 10 months ago) and then she pulled out a state sales tax exemption card. I told her I had no clue how to do that and told her I'd call a manager over. Nope, no need to do that, it's only a few bucks, she's not going to worry about that.
Then before I ended the transaction I remembered something I heard at some point and asked for the employee discount card back and her ID. She spent forever looking through her bag, quite some time and then she said I could just remove it. That triggered my paranoia, the bag was like a cosmetic bag size and she was taking her sweet time and she didn't seem to want to deal with a manager. I told her I didn't know how to do that (which was the truth) and I'd have to get a manager to do it. Right after I said that she found both the card and her ID and the names didn't match. So I told her that I would have to get a manager to approve it and she was still insisting there was no need for a manager, I could just remove the discount. That heightened my paranoia, three times now she's told me there's no need for a manager, she'll take a financial hit instead.
She also said she had a Target red card but she wasn't going to be using it today (which I've heard more than once) but she was paying with cash. Hit #3 on my paranoia problem, no financial paper trail to follow her. By itself I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but added on top of her seeming stalling and not wanting to deal with a manager, yeah. The manager looked carefully at both cards and the woman said that the card actually came from a friend that helps with camp supplies, yada yada. He very politely handed the card back to her and helped me remove it, went on his way. The other two transactions were also cash transactions.
I didn't have a chance to talk to him privately, but I was released from the register shortly after and while heading back to my area I ran into a different manager. He said that if I was that bothered by the whole thing I could just either call for AP on the radio or knock on the door to their office. He really, really downplayed it though. Still, I was bothered, knowing it could be just my imagination -or- it could be something like a stolen card, so I went and knocked on AP's door.
And it turned out that the manager who had been helping me at the register had also stopped by AP's office and told them what happened and given the name that was on the employee discount card. I confirmed that was the name I saw and I remembered one item that was bought. It was in the third transaction and it was a plushie doll and it didn't have a tag, just a clearance sticker affixed to the actual item. With my paranoia at the level it was, I read the description that popped up when I punched in the clearance number to make sure it matched what was in my hand, that's why it was memorable. The two AP guys scrambled for note paper when I said that I remembered one of the items and told them what it was and which transaction had it.
So between their scramble to grab note paper and that the manager went there before I did, my paranoia wasn't a delusion and was seemingly justified. Makes me feel a lot better about my current mental state.