Sc with a twist less suck more fishy

[pssorens]

This story needs a little background first of all. My company has a policy of any item of 45 pounds needing to be a team lift. It is a policy that you can be instantly terminated by breaking in some cases.

so i have a customer that wants me place said a 55 pound bag of dog food in her cart. i tell her that i cannot due this by myself due to store policy and i will get someone and we will load it and take it up to the frontlanes for her and then out to her vehicle. i get the usual thats ridiculous and the rolling of the eyes.... no big, i'm used to it but sorry it's not my policy. get her paid up and as we leave the store tell her to pull up to the loading zone and the ap guy and i will load it for her. she then goes off again on how ridiculous it is in ear shot of both the ap guy and myself. We load her up and as she drives off i reveal the twist to the ap guy

she used a team member/ team member dependent discount card!!!!! My companies policies shouldn't be a suprise to her if she or a family member work here. It struck both of us as fishy.

[depechemodefan]

Wow, I don't know if she just like the idea of people getting hernias. If it takes longer to get the dogfood, she just has to deal. And no doubt she will act the same way next time she comes in.

[pssorens]

The problem is that I can easily lift it. Its the fact that it's an automatic write up at the least if caught violating the policy other than that. it pretty much what i told her I'd meet her at the front lanes with product

[marasbaras]

(bit of background on me: I'm 41, 5'6", I used to weight-lift, now am older and fatter ... but, can still bench nearly 200#, two-armed bar curl over 100# (don't know how much over, didn't try) and can leg press well over 600#)

It sucks in some ways, yes. 45 pounds isn't very much for many of us.

On the other hand, a company has to draw the line somewhere. In a way, the 45 pound line ensures that other employees and SCs can't demand that some 5', 105# small framed girl isn't expected to haul big items alone.

I've had stores send similarly-sized girls to come help me with things and I've simply refused. Not only is it moronic to send someone so small to lift things ... but, as a man, it would just be simply rude of me to accept help lifting heavy objects from such a small woman ... heck, from such a small person.

Even when stores send over Brunhilda, ex-East German Powerlifting Champion, I hesitate to accept help. It is just so in my basic make-up: a man carries things for a woman. NOT the other way around. Not because a woman can't ... just because a woman shouldn't have to. Us guys should just be nice.

I've even helped complete strangers in the past on this. On my way out to my car, I saw a store worker and a customer, but relatively petite women, struggling with this 60# bag of some nasty fertilizer product. They were trying to get it from the cart into the customer's car. It was like asking a couple of Ford Escorts to win the Daytona 500 ... it was just too large and too heavy for them. I don't know how it got into the cart in the first place and I wondered "where's the store worker who put it there" because the tiny employee girl most certainly did not lift that on her own.

Anyway, I walk up. "Can I help you with that?" I receive the usual "No, we're fine" from the store worker. As someone who was raised to be polite to women (open doors, hold doors extra long while someone walks the last 10 feet to the door, carry things, etc), I'm used to this ... it's a pride thing. I really wish women didn't do this ... there's no reason to not accept help if you need it ... no shame in accepting help. There are things we all struggle with and help makes life easier.

I say "Really, are you sure?" The customer says "You know, that'd be great."

So, I lift it out, put and put it in her trunk. Quick and easy. Both girls were happy.

Oops, long story, sorry.

Anyway, not everyone can easily lift large weights. And, they shouldn't be expected to do so. Half of 45 pounds is 22.5 pounds. Nearly anyone, short of a disability, can lift that without issue.

Keeps employees safe and healthy. Sounds good to me.

[workerbee222]

Our company has started a program using telephone calls to see how different situations are being handled. Basically, stores make calls to one another, pretending to be customers, to report on customer service.

It would be the easy way out to get rid of someone who didn't follow company policy, without the added expense of hiring a secret shopper.