heres a couple things

[Ljt09863]

a couple things happened the past few days. nothing too big, but still left me kinda annoyed.

yesterday, i was talking to the head cashier. he was saying he was going to start a nieghborhood watch thing in his neighborhood cause somebody was just shot there a few days ago.

well,we went over to cosmetics so he could ring me up real quick. he started talking about the way downtown has really fallen apart. he said he blames it on the "slumlords" or something. a customer came around the corner, and says,"EXCUSE ME! i really don't want to have to listen to that while im shopping! i have to hear about it all day at work and don't want to hear abou it here!"

fine. fine. we understand. head cashier says,"im sorry ma'am. have a nice day!" and he finishes ringing me up. not another word is said about ANYTHING we were just talking about. a few minutes later,the lady comes back, SLAMS her stuff down and says,"THATS IT! im just calling Walgreens!" and stormed out the door. im just like, dude, what else did you want? you asked us to stop, we stopped, apologized, and were even told to have a nice day, in a very polite manner (head casier has the way about saying things in a way you know he is being polite and not obnoxious). if you had really been that upset wouldn't you have walked out the door right after telling us to stop instead of waiting a few minutes? im sorry if we offended her, but we apologized and stopped doing it. what else did she want?


Today, i went into work. the front cashier came in late, so i had to open up front. as i was getting the four drawers into the register, i noticed a customer at the door. i only had two drawers in and had to finish before opening the doors. took me two minutes.

i went over and unlocked the door. lady comes in. she looks at me, looks at the clock on the wall and says in a real nasty tone,"I thought you opened at 8 on saturdays." what time did the clock(which, did i mention, is a few minutes ahead?) read? it read....8:03. what did her receipt(that as the right timeon it) AFTER her purchase say?8:02.so if anything, we opened a minute early.

it seems there is another one, but i can't think of it. must not have been too important

[Special Patrol Group]

Jeez, did she ever consider that if she didn't eavesdrop on other people's conversations this wouldn't be a problem

[friendofjimmyk]

As long as you are not yelling fire in a crowded theatre (or anything similiar), you can say whatever you want wherever you want...freedom of speech, man.

[Becks]

As long as you are not yelling fire in a crowded theatre (or anything similiar), you can say whatever you want wherever you want...freedom of speech, man.

Made me think of one of my away messages...

"The right to free speech stops short of shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater."
--Mark Twain

[friendofjimmyk]

Yeah, that's the quote I was thinking of!

[XCashier]

You might want to find the number of a good proctologist, so you can give it to these customers who so desperately need those sticks removed from their arses!

[Jester]

As long as you are not yelling fire in a crowded theatre (or anything similiar), you can say whatever you want wherever you want...freedom of speech, man.

Not completely true.

Now I need to add right up front that I am a First Amendment/free speech junkie, and am always in favor of freedom of expression, and against its being curtailed.

But to say you can say whatever you want wherever you want is simply not true or realistic. Especially if you are at work. See, your employer can in fact restrict things you can say.

For example, they can restrict you from using vulgarities at work. They can restrict you from discussing certain policies with customers. They can restrict you from talking about non-work related subjects on company time. They can restrict you from discussing "hot button" topics (such as religion, politics, etc.) with customers, as this can lead to some awkward situations.

Now, with all that said, I am guessing that the original poster's employer had not in fact made such restrictions regarding the topic they were discussing with their coworker. However, as we on this board all know by now, many many customers feel that they have the right to dictate how we can and will behave when at work. In this particular case, I am guessing that, for whatever reason, the customer felt that the topic at hand was inappropriate, that she did not want to hear it, and that she was offended that people who were supposed to be working and serving her were discussing said topic.

Personally, I would have told her to fuck off and mind her own business. I would have...but my employer has instructed me not to be rude to customers for some bizarre reason.

[Amalthea]

"EXCUSE ME! i really don't want to have to listen to that while im shopping! i have to hear about it all day at work and don't want to hear abou it here!"

fine. fine. we understand. head cashier says,"im sorry ma'am. have a nice day!" and he finishes ringing me up. not another word is said about ANYTHING we were just talking about. a few minutes later,the lady comes back, SLAMS her stuff down and says,"THATS IT! im just calling Walgreens!" and stormed out the door.

Ah, yes, but did you just change the subject or stop talking altogether? Perhaps what she MEANT was "Would you stop talking, period! I hate it when people TALK! I have to listen to TALKING all day, and it gets on my nerves! I want to live in my own little soundproof bubble and then when anyone tries to tell me something helpful like 'Watch out, there's a car coming' I won't be able to hear it. But it's a small price to pay for blissful silence. And if you don't listen to my imperious demand for silence, I will leave my crap here so that you have to put it away and go shop at Walgreens. Wah ha ha!" See, your problem was you gave her too much credit, assuming she was making a semi-reasonable-if-rude request.

[Ljt09863]

Amalthea, we actually stopped talking period. which is why i don't understand why she got even madder.

[blaubent]

Okay. In the first instance, you were a customer too. She cannot dictate how a customer interacts with the employee of a particular store, even if the customer happens to be a co-worker of said employee. Secondly, she should have minded her own business. What if it was not you and your co-worker having that conversation. Let's say two different paying customers were having that conversation, what right would that lady have to tell them to change the subject. None. She over reacted. District will be all over you. Demand your boss apologize to her.

Secondly, there's two different times in the world: Walgreen's time and real world time. Just ask H. from cosmetics in the store I work at. She swore there was a difference. I did not believe her. So, I tested it. I set my watch to the clocks in my house. I compared my watch to every other clock at college, my car, and other stores. All matched up, give or take a minute. Then I went to work. Walgreen's time: Five minutes slower.

Anyways, good luck with nosey customer. Hopefully district won't be too harsh. (Providing she even calls).

--Beth

[Drakstern]

Amalthea, we actually stopped talking period. which is why i don't understand why she got even madder.

Actually, she probably got it into her head that you stopped talking entirely to spite her.

[Amalthea]

Amalthea, we actually stopped talking period. which is why i don't understand why she got even madder.

Okay, I got nothing then. She's just crazy. Don't let her get her crazy on me! ::runs away::

[AFpheonix]

Secondly, there's two different times in the world: Walgreen's time and real world time. Just ask H. from cosmetics in the store I work at. She swore there was a difference. I did not believe her. So, I tested it. I set my watch to the clocks in my house. I compared my watch to every other clock at college, my car, and other stores. All matched up, give or take a minute. Then I went to work. Walgreen's time: Five minutes slower.

--Beth

Isn't that funky? The punch in clock is 5 minutes slower, but all the wall clocks, the computer clocks, and phones are 5 minutes faster at my store.

[Margrave]

I set my watch to the clocks in my house. I compared my watch to every other clock at college, my car, and other stores. All matched up, give or take a minute. Then I went to work. Walgreen's time: Five minutes slower.

Oddly enough, I once noticed a similar phenomenon, where (and I was with a group of about 20 people, so there were enough watches among us to confirm this) there was about a five-minute time difference (I forget which direction) between New York time and Virginia time.

[Arachne]

While the the lady in the first story was rude, she was not out of line because she was infringing on anyone's freedom of speech, she was out of line because she was rude.

This is something that I hear a lot, the idea that "freedom of speech" in the US means "anyone can say anything anywhere". That's not what it means. What it means is that THE GOVERNMENT cannot infringe upon an individual's free speech. A private company can infringe all it wants. If my boss came to work and told us all that she was going to fire us if we didn't do all of our work as mimes, or without saying The Word That The Knights Of Ni Cannot Bear To Hear, she'd be within her rights to do so. She'd be insane, but she wouldn't be infringing on our freedom of speech. If the governor said the same thing, he would.

That having been said, hate speech and speech that causes chaos and havoc, such as shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater is a gray area, as is disturbing the peace. I think that the rule of thumb is that while the government cannot censor what you say, it can censor how you say it, and when, and at what volume.

(My parents met at an ACLU meeting, so I had this drilled into me at a pretty young age.)

All of THAT having been said, there is also no listed right in the bill of rights to the tune of No Individual Shall Be Forced To Listen To Talk About Slumlords When She Hears About It All The Time At Work. You know what I think? I think she stalked off because she'd been all riled up to pick a fight, she'd made her unreasonable demand, and when her unreasonable demand was met with unrelenting politeness, it broke her brain.