How do they know when I'm on break?

[RammsteinGirl]

At Kmart, we only have two time clocks. One is at the back of the store on the sporting goods register. So if you're punching in/out in the sporting goods department, you're likely to get accosted for help.

The other one is on register 1 at checkouts. Most people punch in on the one at the front of the store on their way in. It's really annoying.. sometimes you'll be waiting to punch in and people will start asking if you're open on register 1. I'd like to strangle the genius who thought it would be a good idea to put time clocks up at the checkouts like that! I go up to punch in and I see customers waiting at the other checkouts staring me down like a cat stalking his prey, waiting for the moment to pounce when I open the register.

I, too, take off my name tag when I am on break and after I punch out. However, since I can't take off my red polo without being arrested for public indecency, I still get stopped for help. To our Kmart customers, RED = MUST BE AN EMPLOYEE!

Last year around the holidays, the poor Frito Lay vendor made the fatal mistake of wearing a RED sweatshirt (with the "Frito Lay" logo emblazoned on the chest) into our store while she was putting out products. She got cornered by a customer DEMANDING to know where the ladies' undergarments were. She told him, "Umm.. I'm with Frito Lay.. not Kmart.."

But that's definitely rude for people to expect you to assist them when you have your coat/purse/lunch in hand and are obviously off the clock, on lunch, on your way home or have the day off. Maybe they think you're salaried or something. I don't mind pointing people in a direction if they ask where an item is located, or having them follow me if I'm headed that way anyway, but I'm not going to walk them anywhere and answer product questions when I'm off the clock, sorry. I'll tell them to go to the customer service desk. They can find someone who is on the clock and being paid to assist them.

[mattm04]

Our contract says we get one 15 minute break if you work from 4-6 hours, 7 hours two 15 minute breaks (or 1 30 min) and we do not need to punch for them. If you work 8 hrs you get the two 15 min breaks, again no punch and a hour lunch which you have to punch for. I can usually get food and pay before a customer spots me. It will never fail that my dept will be totally dead, I will take a break and 5 minutes later they will page me for "customer assistance" despite the closed signs up. I simply call back who ever paged me and tell them that I am on break, and that the contract says that I get a uninterrupted break.

[Retail Associate]

The grocery store where my store is located has about 200 employees and a punch-out system. So if an employee is approached by a customer on break, they have to say, "Sorry, I can't help you right now, please go to customer service." Otherwise, they just lose their time. And the store can get into trouble with the union for that.

It's this way at my store. When we are on break/lunch we're unavailable to SCs. We just tell them we're off the clock.

My breaks and lunch are MY time. I don't work for free! (Although it's awfully hard to tell by the amount of pay I get.)

.

[Tito]

My breaks and lunch are MY time. I don't work for free!

Exactly! You gotta wonder if SCs who demand you help them while you're on break are willing to work off the clock at their jobs. I doubt that they are.

[xlr82xs]

I had this conversation last night with a customer :

C : Do you work here ?
Me : Yes, but i'm not working at the moment. (It was ~65 minutes before i started work and was sitting down the back of the store eating dinner with a friend)
C : But you do work here ?
Me : Not for another hour or so dude
C : Oh...
C : Could you fix my mouse for me ?
Me : I'm not working yet dude, try asking the guy sitting at the front counter.
C : But he doesn't like me
Me : And you bugging me will make me like you ?
C : ...

This vein of conversation continued for about 10 minutes

[worddork]

One of the bookstores I worked at was in an former Old Navy store, and we just kept all their old cash register islands for our own use. Of the three islands, one was for the cash registers, one for employee holds and one for storage. Because there was no backroom, (the old changing rooms did not count cause there was not room for a tabel) most of us just hid in the second island to eat our lunches. This was a bit of a problem cause the customers could still find us, until one of us put up a sign that read "Warning! Employee Dining Area. Stay Back If Don't Want To Be Hurt." After that we could eat in peace.

[blas]

The gas station was the worst. We didn't have timed breaks. Any time the store was empty was break time. I'd look out all the windows, get ready to have a smoke, and the second I stepped outside and lit up, here came a car ripping and tearing down the road and veering into the parking lot.

The worst were the customers who'd laugh and say "Hahaha, no smoke for you!" or "Hahaha, I ruined your smoke break!"

Or if I wanted to eat and it was slow, I'd put something in the microwave and start munching, and some jackass would come in and say "Hahaha, you can't eat!"

I so desperately wanted to go to their work and yell at them "NO food for you! You have to help me!" or find them smoking and go "No smoke for you! Ha ha ha!"

[xlr82xs]

The worst were the customers who'd laugh and say "Hahaha, no smoke for you!" or "Hahaha, I ruined your smoke break!

I get that at work sometimes, my response is now typically "hahahahaha we're full, go play your counterstrike somewhere else until you learn to not be so damned annoying"

[Lace Neil Singer]

Where I work, depending on when you're working (evening or during the day) and for how long, you can have either a fifteen minute or half hour paid break, or an hour long unpaid one (always during the day on an 8 hour shift and for lunch; 8 hour evening shift gets the half hour) and we are timed from leaving the till to returning. We have up to 5 minutes grace to get to and fro from the till to staffroom to till; we don't get to take extra under any circumstances. Therefore, if a customer stops me, I get to say "Sorry, I'm on break." The daft thing is, we have to walk thru fruit and veg to reach the safety of the staff area; that section is always teaming with staff. Why do the SCs always home in on the one who is not working, but walking briskly towards the staff area?! -___-

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I used to work at Sears, and I swear that place attracted ninja customers.

I was in shopping on my day off, looking completely normal, no uniform, nametag nothing. I was browsing through some stuff in the juniors department when I hear from behind me...

"Excuse me, do you carry suchnsuch brand?"

WHAT?!?

I look around confused. How the hell does she know I work here? I was so stunned, I answered her question.

[Interior Desecrator]

The phone in my office seems to have a sensor connected to the bathroom door. It won't ring all morning, but the minute I take a bathroom break...RING!

But the worst is my half-hour lunch break, which I usually spend at my desk in the office (usually trying to read the latest on Customers Suck ). I've learned to not answer the phone, but the office is still technically open. That's when the UPS/FedEx guy will come around, or some random walk-in customer looking for some obscure cabinetry component. What I really hate are the well-meaning customers that say, "Oh, you're eating lunch. Go ahead and finish." Or "You can keep eating while I talk to you." Umm....NO! Lunch is my time, not work time. I'm not going to cut it short so I can talk to you, nor am I going to multi-task by eating and working with you. This is something my boss can't quite comprehend, as he insists on asking me for updates on jobs while I'm trying to eat. His idea of a lunch break is hitting a drive-through between job sites. At least I've now learned to tack on time to my break if I get interrupted.

[MadMike]

I have been asked for help while wearing jeans/sneakers/sweatshirt (IOW, nothing even remotely complying with the dress code) and carrying 2 cups of Starbucks (I had stopped in to visit my friend and made a coffe run for him).

I got stopped once on my way to the break room, with my lunch in my hands, and not wearing my smock. Not sure how he even knew I worked there, but he did. And then he called me an asshole for daring to be on my lunch.

He actually ended up screwing himself. I was going to page someone for him, but once the name-calling started, I decided that since I was off the clock, I wasn't obligated to do jack for him.

[Saydrah]

I was in Regent Awesome's (a grocery store) at 2 AM the other day- I'm always up late, and I needed some baby food for my kittens (malnourished orphans who need a little extra foods to grow properly). I don't work there. I never HAVE worked there. EVER. I was wearing a hoody, hood up, and jeans with sneakers. I'm kneeling down going through the organic baby food looking for a flavor without onion powder. Another customer walked by, looked at me, walked by the other way, then came into the aisle.

"Uh, where's the paper towels?"

Not even politely- no excuse me, no ma'am, no sorry to interrupt- guess she thought she was the ONLY customer in the store this late and anyone else could not POSSIBLY be there to shop, they must be there to help her!

Not only that, but she had just walked by the paper towels.

I responded, "I don't know, I don't work here," and went back to what I was doing. I COULD have told her where they were, but really, how RUDE- I was obviously reading labels and busy!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

It's this way at my store. When we are on break/lunch we're unavailable to SCs. We just tell them we're off the clock.

My breaks and lunch are MY time. I don't work for free! (Although it's awfully hard to tell by the amount of pay I get.)

.

That's pretty much the same thing I do . . . send them to Customer Service.

But then usually, if I'm on break I'm either in the breakroom or the backroom area (or Receiving.)

I'm also a bad one for removing my nametag whenever I get ready to leave - it stays in my purse when I'm not wearing it and it won't be put on until I'm in the breakroom locking up my purse after I clock in. It comes off before I leave the backroom area and my coat goes on (if cold enough.)

98% of the time I'm left alone. The other 2% I either tell them what aisle to find x item on or send them up front to CS.

And nope, I don't work for free either.

[PorkChop]

My husband works at a big box retail store. When he works a 9am to 6pm shift, he takes his hour lunch at 1pm. On those days, I meet up with him so we can have lunch together before I go to school.Of course, no one bothers him while on the clock in the garden shop. But, after he clocks out for lunch and takes off his name tag, some one asks him a question. Of course he answers there question. After a couple of times, I got annoyed that a customer is interrupting the little time that we have together. I told the customer that he is on lunch break and someone else can help them. What can the customer do? Get me fired? Ha!