Like i haven't heard that one before.

[Getoutofmylobby]

I'm sure most of you know the drill. Leave work and be back in 8 hours. Sucks huh? Lack of sleep, no chance to do laundry... not to mention the fact that you leave a place you hate and have to be back in less than a day...

At a hotel there is one aspect about turn arounds that makes it worse. While checking out, customers from the night before look at me and say something like... "Don't you ever leave?"

It never fails. And every time i hear it, the joker says it like its the first time i've ever heard it.

My replies have grown increasingly... er... salty... throughout the years.

[SuperB]

That reminds me of something my Mother-in-law did last week. I have no idea what the conversation was, I just know that she told a customer that she couldn't afford to lose this job because all her husband ever did was sleep all day. According to a friend who was in the store at the time, she said it utterly deadpan.

I didn't even ask what the conflict might have been, if there even was one.

[Giggle Goose]

That sounds like this one time when I was working a lot of hours one week when the owners were on vacation. When I was standing at the counter this guy who is a regular looks behind me, and when I asked what he was doing, he said: "I was just looking to see if you were chained here!" The sad thing is, I felt like I was.

[Becks]

I tend to make comments about how they're going to build me a nice shack on the roof, with a firefighter's pole. Yeah, I sometimes spend more time at work than at home.

[Bella_Vixen]

Tell me about it. I've worked all 3 shifts at work-sometimes all in the same week, and customers are convinced that I literally never go home. Just before Thanksgiving, I worked 1st, went home for about 3 hours, then finished 2nd shift. You wouldn't believe how many customer freaked out to see me there at 8 PM when they first saw me at 8AM, if not earlier. ::sigh:: The joys of being Assistant Manager.

My boss really tries to not schedule me for a 1st the day after a 2nd, but if he has to, he'll let me come in about 2 hours late.

[pbmods]

Where I work, we have one register for cigarettes. If you want cigarettes, you check out at the cigarettes register. Maybe if you're at the register across from it, they might be nice and toss over your pack. Maybe.

But at the photo counter, we don't sell cigarettes.

Now then, in order to get customers out of the store more quickly, we'll often open up the photo registers and check out customers waiting at the front of the store. If they're not buying cigarettes.

We do get the occasional dummy who only heard the words Check Out, Photo and Cigarettes and then gets upset when he has to go wait in the line that he just lost his place in.

But along the lines of this thread, I hate it when customers come up to my counter and pretend that they want to buy cigarettes. It's not funny, and the only reason why I haven't heard it that much so far this year is because it's January 4th! By the end of the week, it'll be older than your great-great-grandma, may she rest in peace.

Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a good comeback yet, so all I do is pretend that they're being serious and tell them they have to check out up front. At least it makes them sorry that they tried to be annoying.

[Rahmota]

I know what you mean. when I worked security I think I worked every shift known to humanity and management. 8 on 8 off, 12 on 8 off, 12 on 12 off, 8 on 16 off, 16 on 8 off, no days off for 30 days in a row, and people wondered why I was having a caffiene IV.

And yes occasionally i would get the do you ever leave. I think my response would be a smart alec Just ensuring 24 hr protective services or osmething along those lines.

[chrislb]

My job isn't quite that bad. I have been on call on almost every day off. I have worked 16 days with only four days off. And I have been called in for two of those days.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

During telethons at channel 25, I would sleep at the station.

I figured I could spend 30 minutes driving home, and another coming back, OR I get an hour extra of sleep.

Yeah, the schedule was that grueling. It was a 24 hour, weekend long, round the clock thing. Sleep was at a premium. I slept on an air mattress in my boss's office (no, my boss wasn't there. He lived less than 5 minutes away from where there telethon was going on. )

[decisivemoment]

I work at a camera and photofinishing store in addition to being a full-time student.

Naturally, the store prepared for its busiest buying season, requiring that part-time associates like myself be available a little more. It was interesting to say the least. Only one other associate actually attended school (most were older than I) and she was a high school student who always complained about "being exhausted."

Not just a little more. Posted on our schedule wall is the interesting contrast: I worked 20 hours last week, but will need to work 37+ the next, all while doing the minor assignments created by our instructors and typing 30+ pages of finals.

So, after working from 1-9 (we were only open till 8, but during the holiday season, we usually had a significant amount of cleaning and photofinishing to deal with) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, along with being at school the entire day Tuesday and Thursday, then working the entire weekend - I got a little tired.

The response, several times, "Do you ever leave?"

To anyone has completed a degree while working full time - I respect you!