it's one thing to try and get someone to smile, which is just trying to be nice, but, to *pester* someone into smiling... that's excessive.

Nah, she was middle-aged.

I had 2 incidents yesterday:

The first one started out as my fault. A woman had 18 items. I rung them up. She used a gift card first, then she was gonna pay for the rest with her debit card. I accidentally hit Cash Tender twice instead of EBT Tender twice. That ended the transaction without her actually paying. Essentially, the register believed that the remaining balance (over $100) was paid in cash, so, from its perspective, I was over $100 short of cash.

I told the service desk girl. She manually voided all of the items (using a manager override to do so). The problem was, since the woman used a gift card first, the total that I was short was actually less than the total of the items that the service desk girl voided off. Then the personnel manager voided off what the service desk girl did.

The store manager told me to re-do the entire order, and they'd deal with the cash shortage later. The money had been put back on the woman's gift card (I don't know how they did that). I re-rung the items, used the gift card, then let the woman use her debit card to pay for the rest.

After she was gone, the store manager stood by my register and started manually voiding off the items (I thought he said they'd deal with that later). There were only two registers open, their lines were getting backed up, and I couldn't take any of the customers.

The store manager voided off all of the items, which amounted to more than what I was short, because he didn't take the gift card into consideration.

He wrote stuff on 3 receipts then had me initial all of them and stuff them in my drawer. My cash bag is gonna be all messed up.

Maybe, by "later", he meant after the customer left. Still, he didn't have to do it right then, when we were busy. By the time that he finished (he had to reboot soon after he started, because the register froze up), and I was able to get back on, it was dead in the store.

Maybe he voided off all of the items, so the inventory would be correct, and they'd deal with amount on the gift card in the cash office. I feel sorry for whoever had to count it today.

The second incident occured when I had to cover garden shop for 1 hour to give the woman there a lunch.

A woman called, asking if we had a specific Martha Stewart table with chairs. I said I didn't think so (Halloween had been put in the patio area in the store, just by the garden shop entrance, and now Christmas was there). She said, at this time of year, the stuff is usually kept in the back.

She told me to take down her phone number. I asked her why. She asked how else I was gonna call her back. I was silent for a moment and fumbled for words. This was very unusual. I'd never gotten a customer that wanted me to call her back. We don't do such things. She said, if I had a better way to get in touch with her, I could do so. I said I was just gonna put her on hold and call a stockperson to check. She said she'd be willing to be put on hold, if it wasn't gonna take a half-hour. I said I'd take down her number.

It was a long-distance number - from, like, Tampa or Pinnellas Park or somewhere. Over an hour-and-a-half's drive away, anyway. I told her that I probably wouldn't be allowed to call her back, and I'd have to ask the manager about it. She asked, if she could call me, what was the problem with me calling her.

I told her that she was using her phone account (at least, I hope she was), and I was using the store's account. She told me to put her on hold and call the stockperson. She said she'd wait for a little while. I paged for a stockperson. Twice. No answer.

Eventually, the guy that's in charge of receiving called me and asked what I needed. I told him. He said we had only the Melrose collection in the back. I told the woman. She wanted me to give her a description of the Melrose collection and the prices. I told her that I didn't ask about that (after all, she hadn't told me to ask about that earlier). She was like "Well, can you put me through to someone back there?" in an impatient tone.

I put her on hold again and paged for the receiving guy. A stockperson called me. I explained the situation and asked him to take the call. He said he'd take care of it.

Later, I heard the receiving guy make a page for the customer on the line to be put on hold (I guess so he could take the call).

Comments regarding check-out lanes:

On Sunday, we had 3 or 4 lanes open at a time, even though it was dead.

A while ago, when I had come in, the cashier on an open lane told customers to go to my lane, even though I had just gotten my money. I had to open it, count it (according to store policy, it's our responsibility to make sure that the service desk didn't give us the wrong amount), and sort it in my till, then I had to log into the register and put my till in the drawer. This took a few minutes and upset the customers.

A while before that, I got off of work and clocked out. Even though I had taken off my badge, a woman asked me if I was gonna open up another lane. I said no. She was like "The lines are getting backed up, and you're not going to open another lane?" I couldn't give her an answer, so I just walked away.

I've been attached out from my Company to another Company in the same Battalion to work on a really major project until the start of January, with all aspects of it being approved by my Battalion's Commanding Officer (CO). Now, my Company Sergeant Major (CSM) (from my original Company) insists on pulling me out of the project, despite having been constantly reminded that he's going against my CO's wishes. At this rate, this tug-of-war is going to end up with my CSM getting screwed over by my CO since he insists on ignoring the orders of commissioned officers, who are higher ranked than him (my CSM is only a Warrant Officer).

While I'd like nothing better to see my CSM being knocked down a peg or two, it seems to my friends that I'm being a selfish b@st@rd for being attached out. I was chosen because I'm one of the few people in the entire Battalion who can at least comprehend what is required of the project, and I saw the opportunity as a way to prove myself as actually being useful to my superiors, whereas all my hard work at my original Company usually ends up getting sabotaged by one of my Platoon Commanders. However, it means that my colleague in the Quarter-Master section now has to bear the brunt of all trouble usually meted to the two of us. When he told me that I've always been a selfish b@st@rd to the point I did not need to apologise for it, I felt really bad.

Any ideas as to what to do? My current situation is already a compromised compromise between the two original situations.

It's the fact that my colleague (just the two of us) in the Quarter-Master section has to face the brunt of all the usual screwing/trouble/unfair treatment by himself that makes him think I'm being selfish.

We started double coupons at work again today. This is the third time now. It's a 7-day event. It's also a mess as usual.

I don't see how corporate believes that giving away items for free (or close to free at least) is good for business.

Yesterday, a customer told me that there was crap on the floor by the bras.

Later, when I started to tell the personnel manager, she said she already knew about it - and that it was by jewelry as well.

What the heck is going on in that store?!

Isn't it obvious?  The employees aren't getting to take their breaks, so they have no other choice.