"You're gonna fall and hurt yourself!"

[iron2004]

At my store we have large windows at the front in which we have signs advertising our sales. They are changed every week, and I get this privilege.

Now to do this I climb up on the row of shopping carts, standing with one foot on the carts and the other on the window ledge. There are two rows of carts, and I only stand on one at a time, so customers with common sense take carts from the row I'm not on, because taking the carts I'm using can upset the balance and lead to a nasty spill on my part.

And of course, there are the jokers:

"Don't Fall!"

"They got you doin' the dangerous work, don't they."

"You should get hazard pay."

Now onto the story, I'm up on the carts putting up the signs, and customer after customer takes the carts from the row I'm standing on. Then comes this gem; a woman comes up takes a cart and sees me nearly lose my balance, looks at me, chuckles, and says with a smile on her face......

"You're gonna fall and hurt yourself!"

Wow, just wow.

[EricKei]

so customers with common sense take carts from the row I'm not on, ...

I'm sorry o_O I'm amazed you have any carts left to stand on...

btw Welcome to CS!

[bainsidhe]

Huh. You'd think the store would have a second person guiding shoppers to the correct row of carts. But then somewhere else would be short-handed and I'm sure your safety isn't considered that important.

[iron2004]

Well, I'm partially to blame for this being a one man operation; when I was training, two people would work on hanging the signs. One would climb up hang the sign while the other guy would hold the carts in place so they wouldn't jostle.

I discovered that one person could do it as long as there were plenty of carts in the row, thus saving labor. Since then, every week when I get to work I hear, "the window signs need to be put up."

Usually the customers are cool and go for the other row of carts, but that day, who knows?

[Hyena Dandy]

I can see saying "Don't Fall" if they're concerned, and maybe as a joke especially if you already caught your balance. I can see the "They got you doing the hazardous work, don't they?" comment could be considered humorous, if it wasn't said so much. But "You're gonna fall and hurt yourself"? That's just... Rude. And stupid.

[simplyanother]

Those are the same people who will purposely bang into the very very tall ladder while I'm at the tippy top.

I hate them. Though, if it were me, and my store...I'd move the carts (no matter how much "they" bitched at me), and drag the giant ladder over to the window, rather than rely on customers to have any sort of decency or concern for me.

[crashhelmet]

That's a workman's comp issue waiting to be filed. All joking aside, be careful up there.

CH

[draco664]

That's a workman's comp issue waiting to be filed. All joking aside, be careful up there.

CH

QFT. If that scenario was found on the building site I'm working at, it would be cause for stopping work.

Seriously, invest in a bloody stepladder.

[purplecat41877]

I agree with the stepladder idea. That would be much better than the shopping carts.

[HawaiianShirts]

It almost sounds like that last woman wanted to see you fall and hurt yourself, like she wanted to teach you a lesson for climbing around on carts or something. Perhaps that's not the case, but that's the image I got when I read the description of her.

"You should get hazard pay."

I got that one working retail. One of our inventory guys was much taller than anyone in the computer department, but he still stacked product on our top-stock shelves as high as he could reach. So I had to climb the ladder and some some precarious balancing on the top of it and on the lip of the shelf to get products down. Miraculously, I never fell, but I had several customers use variations of the hazard pay line. It showed me that they were trying to show some lighthearted genuine concern for my well-being. I usually told them I'd pay for part of their purchase if they could convince management that I deserved hazard pay, but nobody ever took me up on the offer.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

When I worked at the games store in Canada I had a CW take a tumble off the ladder. She was ok. A couple of customers saw it, and laughed at her. Neither offered help, they just laughed and went back to browsing.

[Zeddmore]

QFT. If that scenario was found on the building site I'm working at, it would be cause for stopping work.

Seriously, invest in a bloody stepladder.

Add me to that bandwagon. That is no way to run a railroad, and you're putting yourself in unnecessary risk.

[mattm04]

Those are the same people who will purposely bang into the very very tall ladder while I'm at the tippy top.

I hate them. Though, if it were me, and my store...I'd move the carts (no matter how much "they" bitched at me), and drag the giant ladder over to the window, rather than rely on customers to have any sort of decency or concern for me.

Or whey you are doing anything that does no involve standing on the floor doing nothing, such as on a step stool, rolling ladder, A frame ladder, whatever. I once had a guy shale the hand rail of the rolling stairs I was on when hanging up a sign for the ceiling. I decide not to help him.

[raw456]

Wouldn't standing on the carts constitute a major OH&S breach????

I heartily add my voice to the "Get a Step Ladder" initiative cause one day, someone will get hurt and landing on shopping carts is not fun (I speak from experience)

[Rapscallion]

Geographically challenged as a Limey though I may be, OSHA.

Rapscallion