ALWAYS take your lanyard off!!!

[Slave to the Phone]

Didn't happen to me this time, but to a co-worker. She broke the rule and despite wearing business casual while at a grocery store where everyone wears uniforms and name badges, her lanyard with her State Employee ID card clearly showing was enough to get her screamed at because she didn't know where something was in that store.

She thinks she was threatened with being fired, but just walked away after being called lazy and stupid.

[Food Lady]

This makes me want to wear mine everywhere just so I can get in this situation and put some dumbunny in his place.

[Swordsman422]

Way back when I was 22, I made the mistake of going into a Wal-Mart wearing khakis and a blue polo. I ended up pissing off one of the managers and getting fired from a job I didn't have. The look on his face when he finally realized I was a customer and not an employee was worth the trouble, and I didn't accept his offers of a gift card or shopping credit because I didn't help him at all by not outright saying I didn't work there.

I learn to do my darnedest to not look like I work someplace whenever I go. Though the number of times I got confused for a cop while in my uniform...

[Food Lady]

I don't even look like the other employees in my own workplace. But then, I dress like it's about 85 years ago.

[Rosco the Iroc]

When I worked at AZ auto parts I sent a driver to a place that sells staples and paper to get some to make fliers.

Both use the gray mgr/ red worker motif.
He rolls in hooks right works the outside isles find the paper and he's crouched down looking he gets lit up from a gray shirt standing 20' away.

"I saw you come in late you should of been here an hr ago, this is going on paper, don't think you'll just slide over there and pretend you've been here and working, take of that jacket!!"

HE stands up and does showing the AZ name tag and flair. WTF dude?
oh sorry......

We had a good laugh when he came back. Our SM made a fake write up for being late to the other store. The joke for the next year was to get on deliveries so the other store doesn't write him up.

[Crossbow]

I did something similar with a now-defunct electronics store where the uniform was a red polo shirt. Got asked where something was and I said I didn't know. Well, you'd think it was the end of the world the way this old guy carried on. He really didn't like it when my response to the fired threat was to burst out laughing.

[Pagan]

I got mistaken for a Target employee the other day. I was wearing a crimson NMSU logo shirt, a grey Balloon Fiesta jacket, and jeans. So I can see the confusion.

[Slave to the Phone]

I've been accosted by people because of a nametag or a uniform (or something that looked like a uniform in their mind), but never over the lanyard. Perhaps that's because it pulls on the back of my neck when I put my seat belt on, so I always take it off before putting my seat belt on.

When co-worker shared her story, some of my co-workers shared stories of people who saw where they worked and wanted to ask questions about their cases. From what I heard, they all seemed to be amazed that we need a computer to be able to look up a case that we have never even touched.

[It shouldn't]

I did the exact opposite once.
I stopped, still in uniform, on my way home from work to pick up a few quick things at the store.
I had a bad day at work and had already been asked twice where stuff was. So as I'm standing in an isle pondering the availability of a particular product, a little old lady meekly asks: "Excuse me...."
I turned around and snapped "I DON'T WORK HERE!"
A minute of quiet pause then "I just wanted to ask you to move your cart so I could get past, please."

[Dreamstalker]

I was once threatened with being fired from a store in my old company that I didn't even work at (I was stupid and didn't take off my uniform on the bus). Somehow it got back to Shithead and we had a good laugh over it...I didn't do anything 'bad', just one of that town's entitled assholes looking for something that I genuinely didn't know about as my old store doesn't carry it.

Though the number of times I got confused for a cop while in my uniform...

Occasionally I've gotten confused for a cop/security (my work pants are 'everything-proof' EMS pants with a zillion pockets). My present store uniform is a brown shirt with subtle logo; combined with the pants and work shoes and my general bearing it does look security-ish if one's not looking closely. One of the mall security guards mistook me for a buddy last week, then bought me a coffee to make up for the mistake (totally unexpected, but nice--getting to know the guards here is a Good Thing)

[WishfulSpirit]

I had that happen in the local grocery store while shopping with my coat on and hauling my wheelie. Either the SC was too stupid to see that even if I worked there I was off the clock, or too self-centered to care that he'd be asking me to work off the clock.

[An Haddock]

This makes me want to wear mine everywhere just so I can get in this situation and put some dumbunny in his place.

I would do this for fun. I'll have to find my old networking group lanyard.

[WishfulSpirit]

Go to Target wearing a red shirt and khaki pants. You won't even have to find a lanyard.

[Dreamstalker]

That's one of the reasons I stopped wearing khakis. No matter what shirt I had on, if I was shopping in a store whose uniform included them...although I do not mind people asking me for help in the local Not-Yellow-Tag chain computer store. I practically live there anyway, and I know the salespeople can be hard to find but if I can get someone to the department they want there will be sales personnel there.

[Nashida]

I still laugh remembering getting stopped at Bullseye or Yellow Tag when I was coming off work at uBash....wearing a purple Tshirt with their bright yellow logo on it. Not a polo, mind you, a Tshirt.