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So there I am, at the wonderful cash 1 of my little Department Store, when all of a sudden, the random fire truck in the parking lot . . .
Ok different type of transformer (and not as fun).
This whole story begins at sometime last night (May 30/31st). Rain was pelting my little corner of Canada, complete with thunder and lightning. The wind was so strong that the windows from our staff room shook enough to actually set off one of our burglar alarms. And that was just a precursor of what was to come . . .
Suddenly, a flash of light from the sky. BOOM! Lightning hit just outside of the building. And what does it hit? The lovely little electrcity box just outside (aka a transformer). And thus the fun began.
Flash forward to 1:00 pm today, when i entered the picture. Now, at this point, the store has been open for a good 4 hours. And those there were about ready to kill things. The shock to our electrical system took out 3 out of 4 . . . somethings in our electrical box. Meaning that most of our power was gone. The lights were working most of the time, but would occasionally all go out. Our time clocks were off. Our freezers were working oddly. The Air Conditioning was off (and it was a HOT day. And of course, the lovely little modem in the back office had been blown somehow. Linked to this modem of course, were all of our debit machines, our credit machines, and the link to our database for gift cards and refund cards, meaning that for the whole morning, it had been cash only.
Now of course, arriving at the same time as me was our Head Cashier. Luckily she managed to find the backup debit machine. Problem? It was on Cash 1. And we didn't know how to use it. And people needing to use debit were on both open cashes (did I mention that we had a great many customers, but only two cashes were receiving power? more fun) meaning that the lucky person on Cash 1 got to take debit orders from both active cashes. In addition, Cash 1 is the only cash where customers can do returns or buy tobacco products (but more on that in a moment) meaning that the lucky person on that cash got to do just about everything.
But of course, in such a situation, you would put the best cashier on that cash, right? The one who knew the ins and outs of that little machine and could make it sing the Theme from M*A*S*H should it need to? Of course not. Instead you stick the newest cashier, the overly-stressed, inexperienced, and most heat-prone cashier in the thick of the action: yours truly.
And so it went, for two hours: panic, confusion, customers angry that their gift cards still won't work, that their credit cards take an extra minute to process, or that it's hot. Then, suddenly, the wonderful workers from Local Hydro showed up. Our sound salvation.
Or so you would think. Suddenly, without warning, the power all at once went off. Cue more angry customers who now can't buy their desperately needed frozen pizza, even if the freezers are off and the store is almost pitch black dark. But we, over a few minutes, go them out, and closed the store.
Brief reprieve (sp?). The now bornderline psychotic employees of the store get a nice break. Our store closed, we are free to go sit outside (while still on the clock) and shoot the breeze a bit. The worst was over. But the day wasn't.
20 minutes later, Ontario Hydro had replaced the transformer. Power was back, AC was back, and the freezers were working. All was good. Oh, except that that modem was still gone. Meaning that the debit machines were still out, credit still a pain, and gift cards unusable. And thus did the day proceed, not as bad as before, but still less than wonderful.
And thus would my story end, after another 5 hours of this, but for one more detail: the modem that was blown must be repaced. The replacement will not be in until tomorrow, roughly 5 o clock, meaning it is all going to happen again. Yippee.
Oh, and the one final complication in the day. As of May 31st, 2008, all tobbacco (sp?) products in my region's stores must be covered from view, and prices and available brands not menionable unless the person is ID'd. On it's own, a minor pain. Today, being the first day (and so it being news to most customers), it was icing on the cake
And thus ends the story of the worst day of work I have yet had. Aargh. Aaargh.
Ok different type of transformer (and not as fun).
This whole story begins at sometime last night (May 30/31st). Rain was pelting my little corner of Canada, complete with thunder and lightning. The wind was so strong that the windows from our staff room shook enough to actually set off one of our burglar alarms. And that was just a precursor of what was to come . . .
Suddenly, a flash of light from the sky. BOOM! Lightning hit just outside of the building. And what does it hit? The lovely little electrcity box just outside (aka a transformer). And thus the fun began.
Flash forward to 1:00 pm today, when i entered the picture. Now, at this point, the store has been open for a good 4 hours. And those there were about ready to kill things. The shock to our electrical system took out 3 out of 4 . . . somethings in our electrical box. Meaning that most of our power was gone. The lights were working most of the time, but would occasionally all go out. Our time clocks were off. Our freezers were working oddly. The Air Conditioning was off (and it was a HOT day. And of course, the lovely little modem in the back office had been blown somehow. Linked to this modem of course, were all of our debit machines, our credit machines, and the link to our database for gift cards and refund cards, meaning that for the whole morning, it had been cash only.
Now of course, arriving at the same time as me was our Head Cashier. Luckily she managed to find the backup debit machine. Problem? It was on Cash 1. And we didn't know how to use it. And people needing to use debit were on both open cashes (did I mention that we had a great many customers, but only two cashes were receiving power? more fun) meaning that the lucky person on Cash 1 got to take debit orders from both active cashes. In addition, Cash 1 is the only cash where customers can do returns or buy tobacco products (but more on that in a moment) meaning that the lucky person on that cash got to do just about everything.
But of course, in such a situation, you would put the best cashier on that cash, right? The one who knew the ins and outs of that little machine and could make it sing the Theme from M*A*S*H should it need to? Of course not. Instead you stick the newest cashier, the overly-stressed, inexperienced, and most heat-prone cashier in the thick of the action: yours truly.
And so it went, for two hours: panic, confusion, customers angry that their gift cards still won't work, that their credit cards take an extra minute to process, or that it's hot. Then, suddenly, the wonderful workers from Local Hydro showed up. Our sound salvation.
Or so you would think. Suddenly, without warning, the power all at once went off. Cue more angry customers who now can't buy their desperately needed frozen pizza, even if the freezers are off and the store is almost pitch black dark. But we, over a few minutes, go them out, and closed the store.
Brief reprieve (sp?). The now bornderline psychotic employees of the store get a nice break. Our store closed, we are free to go sit outside (while still on the clock) and shoot the breeze a bit. The worst was over. But the day wasn't.
20 minutes later, Ontario Hydro had replaced the transformer. Power was back, AC was back, and the freezers were working. All was good. Oh, except that that modem was still gone. Meaning that the debit machines were still out, credit still a pain, and gift cards unusable. And thus did the day proceed, not as bad as before, but still less than wonderful.
And thus would my story end, after another 5 hours of this, but for one more detail: the modem that was blown must be repaced. The replacement will not be in until tomorrow, roughly 5 o clock, meaning it is all going to happen again. Yippee.
Oh, and the one final complication in the day. As of May 31st, 2008, all tobbacco (sp?) products in my region's stores must be covered from view, and prices and available brands not menionable unless the person is ID'd. On it's own, a minor pain. Today, being the first day (and so it being news to most customers), it was icing on the cake
And thus ends the story of the worst day of work I have yet had. Aargh. Aaargh.
) about it though.
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