Unfortunately, I had an asthma attack while working the register. I hadn’t had one in ages, so I didn’t have my inhaler. Emergency services end up having to be called, and I am taken to the hospital 

When I got back to work a couple of days later, I got called in to the office.

Manager: “Sign that.”

Me: “What’s that?”

Manager: “A write-up.”

Me: “For what?”

Manager: “Leaving halfway through your shift without authorization.”

Me: “Are you serious? You know why I had to leave, right?”

Manager: “You should have had your inhaler. It’s your fault. If it happens again, you will be fired.”

Me: “I also have epilepsy. If I ever have a seizure while at work, will I also be fired?”

Manager: “Asthma attacks and seizures are things you can control?”

Me: “Can I get that in writing? Those exact words? Write down those exact words: that I will be fired if I have another asthma attack or seizure, I will be fired, and then I will sign this write-up.”

The manager, of course, wrote no such thing, and I signed nothing.

One of my regulars is looking around the store as they’re checking out.

Regular: “Why is everyone so lazy these days?”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Regular: “I’ve been coming here since 1995, and I used to be helped all the time. Y’all used to bag for me, too! Now I have to do everything myself. The quality of the service has really gone down. You’re one of the good ones, but the new generation… so lazy!”

Me: “I’ve been here for most of that time, and you’re right, you used to get a lot more help.”

Regular: “I knew it! It’s all those lazy—”

Me: “—Y’see, corporate tried to save money after the 2008 financial crisis, so they cut staff and thought it would be simple to have the remaining crew do the work of those cut and then some. When they saw they could get away with that, they kept on going until what you see here today. Skeleton crews all day, every day.”

Regular: “Oh, well… I didn’t know.”

Me: *Smiling.* “And now you do! Please remember that the next time you want to complain about lazy staff who you can never find, rather than complaining about corporate not approving hiring enough people to actually run the store.”

Regular: “Well… at least you’re here.”

Me: *Smile expanding.* “Actually, this is my last week. I can’t handle the understaffing anymore. And in case you’re wondering, no, they’re not replacing me.”

That week, I told all my regulars as much. It was a great feeling of relief to walk out of that store forever.

Sadly, I still see chronic understaffing in every grocery store I go to in my town.

Our recruitment manager is on the phone with a candidate who failed the email interview.

Recruitment Manager: “Yes, you failed the interview.”

Pause.

Recruitment Manager: “Because we feel you weren’t being genuine.”

Pause.

Recruitment Manager: “Well, for example, when answering the question “What makes you feel like you’d be a good fit?”, you replied: “As an AI language model, I don’t have feelings, but I can provide you with a list of qualities and skills that could make me a great fit for the role”.”

Pause.

Recruitment Manager: “Whether you used it as a tool or not, the other job requirement was an eye for detail and spotting mistakes.”

Pause.

Recruitment Manager: “Yes, I would count that as a mistake, just like this conversation. Good luck in all your future endeavours, sir.”

Back when metered on-ramps were first installed on the main highway in my town in Oregon, the interval between lights on the ramp I used daily was fifteen seconds. Cars would be backed up onto the adjacent feeder streets, and you could be stuck for fifteen to twenty minutes on the ramp.

Took a bit of research to find out that it wasn’t the City or County, but ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) that controlled them.

After repeated complaints and no action, I finally got the names of the two ODOT Traffic Engineers responsible for setting the light intervals. 

I made numerous voice mails, and finally, had one discussion, but still no fix to the issue. 

Well, back in the day (early 2000s), we still had phone books, and both these Engineers had listed home phone numbers.

I got a 4×8 piece of plywood and painted and lettered it:

Sign: “Tired of these idiotic ramp lights? Call the ODOT Engineers responsible for them.”

I then listed both their names and numbers.

Sign: “…And let them know what you think.”

I stood with it on the side of the ramp for two days, from 4 PM to 6 PM. The next day, I get a call from one of them (don’t remember which) begging me to stop.

Me: “Fix the f****** lights.”

ODOT: “You’ll stop with the sign?”

Me: “Fix the f****** lights.”

ODOT: “Okay.”

The very next day, they had a survey crew out there in the afternoon to count cars, and the day after that, the lights were reset to three seconds between cars.

Bottom line…when dealing with government, until those personally responsible are held accountable in a manner that inconveniences or scares them, they will continue to abuse the public, whether from negligence, incompetence, or malice. But bring it home to them, and they will (grudgingly) change their ways.

Years ago, I worked at an organization where everyone’s email had the same format: First initial followed by last name. No exceptions.

Well, then they made one exception.

Tina Watt was very relieved.

Related:
Named And Shamed, Part 11
Named And Shamed, Part 10
Named And Shamed, Part 9
Named And Shamed, Part 8
Named And Shamed, Part 7