It was a pretty typical day. I came into work, signed onto a register and was taking customers. When I first got there it was pretty slow but it was starting to pick up. I was working with 4 other cashiers--Maria, Nick, Chuck, and Andrew. They were standing in a group, at the end of one of the registers, talking and joking around. Now, I have no problem with people talking or having fun while they're at work but I think you also have to know when to step up and actually do your job. So while they were standing around (doing absolutely nothing work-related) my line started to get backed up with customers. Nick noticed this and (thankfully) he called some customers over to his registers. Valerie (still standing there doing nothing) said to Nick, "Awww, that was nice of you." Now, please don't get me wrong I definitely appreciate that he helped me out by taking some customers--but it's also his job. Nick gets paid to be there, right? I mean, it's not like he's volunteering to be at the grocery store out of the goodness of his heart. So why would Maria say it was nice of him to do what he gets paid to do?
Maybe this will sort of sound like sour grapes, since I happened to be the cashier taking the customers and not one of the cashiers standing there talking and laughing, but I think a group of cashiers shouldn't be standing around doing nothing if there is another cashier who has a line of three or four other customers. Just to state the obvious here--cashiers work in the customer service department and it isn't very good customer service to leave customers waiting (unnecessarily) in line. So while I definitely believe in rewarding good work and giving recognition to those who do an exceptional job I think in this particular case what Valerie failed to realize was the Nick was doing his job-nothing exceptional, nothing extraordinary. He was just taking customers which is what he is paid to do in the first place
Take care and happy shopping!
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