Asking for a job application

[aurelemsrealm]

I was working at my beloved convenience store job Sunday morning. It was me at the register enjoying the generally slow pace of Sunday mornings, and the manager in the office doing her daily paperwork. A woman comes in to wait in the warmth while her husband, boyfriend, whatever he is to her, pumps gas. She was friendly enough to be chatty while she wandered around the store, but also seemed a little uppity for my taste. In any case, I was not interested enough to care because it's just another day at work to me. I've worked at these jobs so long that I just tend to let my mind wander out of boredom. I half-heartedly responded to her conversation, but really didn't feel that involved in the conversation.

Anyway, the guy comes in after pumping gas. The customers wander around for a few minutes before they come to the counter. I ring up their items, and tell them the total. They pay, and then the guy asks for an application while pointing at the door. We have a "Now Hiring" sign clinging to the door, and it's been there forever. So, I grab him an application. He then asks how much the job pays. I tell him it varies with experience.

He then smirks, "Experience? It's just a gas station."

I just give him the raised eyebrows look and ask him if he's ever worked in a convenience store. He just looked at me funny without answering.

I just shook my head, "A lot of people think it's easy, but they never last long."

He then repeated, "But it's just a gas station."

I just rolled my eyes and walked back to the office. "Yeah, whatever. I hope you're smarter than that if you decide to bring the application back."

They left without saying anything else. The manager asked me what was going on, so I told her. I was able to shrug it off because I just don't care enough to be offended any more.

She got mad though, "What's that supposed to mean?" Then she went into a tirade about being tired of people who think they're better.

I just shrugged it off. I didn't care enough to get upset about it, but did think it was a rather ballsy comment considering he asked for an application.

[hinakiba777]

I've always found the jobs I get no respect for like being a cashier, or working at a restaurant, are the jobs I find the hardest. Everyone rolls their eyes at it, but it's usually a lot of work and a lot of stuff to remember.

For the most part though, I do desk work. I worked at a hotel, for my university, and at a museum. I get a lot of respect for these jobs, but they are much easier for me.

People need to learn respect for people who work hard at these jobs.

[BrenDAnn]

My cousin (and co-worker) K learned this lesson the hard way, on his first night of training. See, our AM is his future step-mom, and he was always giving her crap about having and easy job and blah blah whatever. First night of training, within a couple of hours, he said "I take it back, this job is really hard!" Most folks that go into a c-store job think it's nothing but standing there, waiting on people. Oh, how wrong they are. I don't know about the c-store you work in, but in mine, the night shift has a two-page (horizontal) list of chores that have to be completed every day, by the clerks. It's mostly cleaning and stocking, but it has to be done, busy or not. I'd like to see Mr. "It's just a gas station" bust his ass the way I do most nights, then see what he has to say!

[Midnight12]

Agreed. At one point during my early years of job hunting I got so tired of being turned away for not enough experience due to my only other job being a cashier that I wrote then typed up a reference note on my resume of what my job as a cashier or courtesy clerk entailed.

My favorite was being able to complete repetitive mind numbing tasks while keeping a friendly professional attitude whilst bending over backwards for customers.

Which came out as "performing simple yet not limited to difficult tasks on the set interface while keeping an upbeat, positive and friendly repertoire with each customer. Keeping your workspace clean and neat, being able to use a 10 key pad, keep up with produce codes (PLU's) report any product scan issues, answer the phone at your station....etc all while working at a regular if not up to fast pace during your shift."

heh I even got one of the stores to print out their version of what a cashier's tasks are. wish i had managed to salvage that file from the last computer crash years ago

[Anakah]

I actually had that mentallity once about my job. That being because I didn't know what a cage cashier did. I thought, how hard can it be? I went home crying the first day saying its too hard lol Four years later, its still hard but I still have the job and I love it regardless how stressful it is or how hard.

And I get angry too when people say: Well, all you do is give change out all day. I thought that too but never knew that NO that's just the tip of the ice berg.

But until they actually try the job they'll never know how "easy" the job is. I have learned to NEVER assume any job is easy. The definiton of a job has never had the word easy attachted.

[The Last to Know]

Where I work it is a convenience store, along with a truck stop, and we have the regular C-store stuff, along with truck merchandise, booths to sit at & eat, showers & we also make fried chicken, multiple multiple sides to go with the fried chicken, biscuits & croissants in the mornings, 4 different kinds of pizza, and last, but not least we have a sub shop inside the store. I can't even begin to tell you of the number of people who have applied, been hired, started their first day and then went outside for their first "break" and NEVER came back. It's happened so many times that when a new person is hired, we call them "the new victim" until they prove they can hack it during the busiest of times.

[bean]

Don't roll your eyes at me and tell me "How hard can it be?" when you're asking for a job application. For a cashier position in one of the busiest grocery stores in the entire metro area, aside from Walmart.

Yes, you WILL have to remember thousands of PLUs. I'm dyslexic (specifically with numbers) and have pretty severe ADD, and I know all of the common and many of the not so common produce PLUs. Hell, I've got several complete UPCs stuck in my brain for stuff that management has decided not to give us short PLUs for (or in a couple of cases, they did give us short PLUs but I memorized the entire barcode before we got the PLUs... 02259205302 = 24 pack of Ozarka bottled water, for example, drop the leading 0 because our registers don't require it).

You will also have to remember a ton of "open" PLUs for various departments, since we're forbidden from keying items directly into departments without a barcode. Bakery, beer/wine, and meat have working open PLUs, the rest of the depts you have to get really creative if something won't ring up. If I can't find any other way to do it, I'll ring it into a department, but if I do that more than once every few months I'll get bitched at.

Out of every retail and food service job I've ever worked, grocery cashier requires far more thinking than anything else. And requires quite a bit more thinking than most tech support jobs I've held as well. What really adds to it is my store specializes in organics, and every day I'm expected to "walk produce" to see what is/isn't organic. I'm one of the few cashiers that walk it more than once a week, I normally do it daily. Most of our cashiers never walk it and just enter most stuff as conventional (even though organic may be quite a bit cheaper, and they may really have organic items).

[Apathy]

That's what everyone I've ever met says. "Oh, it must be easy." I try then to refrain from punching them and explain that being on the other side of the counter is WAY different than you morons think.

It really hurts when your friends and family say crap like that too.

[LadyAndreca]

It really hurts when your friends and family say crap like that too.

It really really hurts when your husband says it AFTER WATCHING YOU HAVE TO QUIT YOUR LAST RETAIL JOB BECAUSE OF STRESS. Apparently the same job at a different store is now 'easy' because I no longer bitch constantly, and me being worn out is because I don't sleep enough. I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with shifting around power tools and rock salt and large lumber and being on my feet for six hours...while also taking classes after work...and not getting meals at regular times because of my work/class schedule...

Gah. I REALLY hope someone gets me that squeak mallet I wanted for Christmas...

[Jay 2K Winger]

We once had this asshole come to the wholesale club and fill out a job application, then DEMAND to speak to a manager. In loud, rude, entitled tones.

This was back when BT, aka Big Mama Awesome, still worked at the club. She was the one who gave him his interview, a very short, abbreviated one. Then she told us about it, and we all shook our heads and pretty much agreed he wasn't gonna get the job.

I think BT's daughter, CT, aka Little Mama Awesome, probably had similar stories from some of her previous jobs. I just don't remember them because I like remembering the stories about working Verizon Center and being on a first name basis with the professional wrestlers when they came to town, or being on first name terms with OZZY F'N OSBOURNE. (Any wonder why I call her Little Mama Awesome?)

[Primer]

It really really hurts when your husband says it AFTER WATCHING YOU HAVE TO QUIT YOUR LAST RETAIL JOB BECAUSE OF STRESS. Apparently the same job at a different store is now 'easy' because I no longer bitch constantly, and me being worn out is because I don't sleep enough. I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with shifting around power tools and rock salt and large lumber and being on my feet for six hours...while also taking classes after work...and not getting meals at regular times because of my work/class schedule...

Gah. I REALLY hope someone gets me that squeak mallet I wanted for Christmas...

How about I get you a dead blow mallet and watch as your DH provides the squeaks when you use it on him. O wait..that would be condoning violence. Hmm...ok, a squeaky mallet it is. With a side of bird shot...

[tropicsgoddess]

Looks can be deceiving. I'll admit, I thought being a Hostess was easy..I was wrong. I had to deal with servers and customers bitching at me if something isn't right to their likings and also reservations.

[hotelnpa]

To be honest, when I first applied at a hotel, I thought it would be easy work. Check guests in, direct them to their room, check them out. Sounds easy.

But there's alot more though than just that. Dealing with difficult guests, big rushes that occur when you least expect them, malfunctioning computers, houskeeping mishaps...I admit, it's probably not as demanding as convenience stores. I put in an application once for Sheetz (a regional C.Store) but after I saw the constant business and general bitchiness of customers, I never turned it in.

[Brojekk]

Aurel,
What you should have said...."the last 3 employees said the same thing...but they only lasted a couple of weeks cause they couldn't handle the job"
Or something similar to that.

[Bright_Star]

People say the same thing when they blurt out..."It's just retail, how how hard could it be?"