Sucky Employee? You Decide!

[AnaKhouri]

Last night we went to a local Enormo-Store for some groceries. After spending an hour trying to find everything in that massive place, we finally checked out.

The girl who checked us out seemed to have a cough. It didn't sound that serious to me but you never know. Anyway, the whole time she was checking us out she was whining about how she'd asked to go home three times and the manager wouldn't let her and she guessed she would just have to stay there and make the customers sick too. I felt bad for her but at the same time I was thinking, 'Wow, talk about unprofessional!'

I have gone to work sick many times (luckily where I work if you are seriously sick they will send you home, but I hate to lose the money) but never once have I complained about it to a customer. It took her all of 6 minutes to deal with us, you'd think she could keep her complaints to herself for that long! Maybe she expected us to go to the service desk and demand she be sent home? She was disappointed then. Even my husband commented on her unprofessional behavior.

I know working in one of those places probably kills your soul, but you can still take pride in what you do. I just found it annoying and a little startling.

So, was she sucky, or am I not sympathetic enough?

[Gurndigarn]

Probably the company. Some of them are always shortstaffed and try to prevent employees from calling off, even when they should. (And then they wonder why they have a hard time retaining employees.)

[rerant]

I don't think she was all that sucky.
I've been in situations like that before and, being the open, talkative person I am, I sometimes forget that not everyone wants to hear about my gripes.
That being I typically try to talk to customers like I would talk to my friends, because it makes the interraction that much easier.
Maybe I'm unprofessional too, or maybe I'm too open. In any event, depending on how she said it it doesn't sound to me like she was all that sucky, just sharing her bitterness towards sucky managers who wouldn't let an obvious sick person go home to rest.

[Bright_Star]

So because she's sick BUT working then that means she's not allowed to be human? I'm sorry but I have to side with the cashier. When you're feeling sick then you're not at your best so professionalism be damned, I say.
Somebody in that store shoulda had a clue & sent her sick ass home. Then again...IF she knew was sick then just maybe she should have called off & not gone in. You can look at that in 2 ways.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Maybe a tad unprofessional of the cashier, but I can't say I blame her.

It needs to be drilled into sucky managers' heads that sick employees aren't as productive as healthy ones, probably will not deliver as good of service as healthy ones, and additionally can turn healthy employees into sick ones.

Therefore, if an employee truly is sick, they should be able to call in sick with no questions asked, or go home early if they suddenly become sick during their shift. If you don't want your employees complaining that their managers are making them work while sick, then don't force them to stay at work when they're sick.

[Kiwi]

The only time I have ever mentioned being sick to a customer is when I had the flu and lost 5kg in two weeks from not being able to keep down food or water.

I was in Canada (and 21) for the first time and got sick two days before Christmas. My evil boss was going to fire me if I didnt make it in for boxing day because I had the audacity to call in sick 23rd and 24th of December, the manager said I looked like death... I felt like it. I HAD tried to go to work, two of my flat mates had to physically pick me up and put me back in bed as I tried to stand up to get dressed.

I most likely lost more sales for the cosmetics counter that week than gained them because I couldnt stop coughing or vomiting.

Now that Im older, I dont even ask about going home, I TELL my manager that Im not fit to work and im going. No job (especially and easy come easy go retail job) is worth my health... for $12 an hour haha your kidding me!

[JLRodgers]

I've seen sick cashiers not be sent home because they were short staffed (and if they called in were told "show up, or don't bother [fired]"). Sadly.... unless a customer complained about the sick cashier, they wouldn't get sent home (and then they'd be sent home asking "why did you even come in?"). I knew one cashier who was told that... and came in with a hundred three temp! She was so out of it she was using the register to hold herself up. A manager sent her home (within a few hours -- her productivity was crap for "some reason"). Next week she was working at another place -- they fired her for it! Not being sick, but being "unproductive" that day at work and having to be sent home over it.

But in the instances where an employee was sick... it seemed like about a quarter of the people gave them dirty looks about "how DARE you be here and get me and my kids sick!"

So employees, from my experience, end up saying why they're there sick. They get a dirty look, they say why. They say nothing, they get asked. They just say why to avoid the being asked or dirty looks from other people.


Of course when I was management at a food place... employee said "I'm sick" I said immediately "go home". Of course it was for two reasons, if they were sick they couldn't (and it was actually "illegal" of sorts) to work; if they weren't (and lying) they wouldn't be worth crap at work. But managers these days don't seem to care.

[tropicsgoddess]

That's pretty unprofessional of her to kvetch like that in front of you and other customers about not being able to go home early for being sick. I can understand it sucks to be at work when you're sick, but hey shit happens. If you can't call out or go home early because the place is short staffed, tough. Keep the complaints to yourself.

[wagegoth]

But in the instances where an employee was sick... it seemed like about a quarter of the people gave them dirty looks about "how DARE you be here and get me and my kids sick!"

So employees, from my experience, end up saying why they're there sick. They get a dirty look, they say why. They say nothing, they get asked. They just say why to avoid the being asked or dirty looks from other people.

That was my thought. She probably had had people complaining about her cough, so she just started volunteering to everyone who came through her aisle. Maybe she hoped that a customer would complain to a manager about having someone sick working, so that the manager would send her home to keep down the complaints.

[MoxisPilot]

Personal work ethic aside (I will not take off from work unless it's a scheduled vacation, or I literally can't walk - I very rarely get sick), I think if people are contagious, they ought to stay home. Especially if they're going to bitch about it if they DO go to work.

Suck is the company. The cashier was just unprofessional.

[Gerrinson]

I think the cashier was just really sick and probably wasn't thinking at all about being professional or not. I've been there a time or two when I worked at the grocery store.