From Little Mall Worker, November 2010:

1.) Stinky

Mr. Stinky got his name for the obvious reason. 

He smells and he's grimy. He is also a bit touched in the head and has a weird infatuation with little ole me. 

Stinky is C-R-E-E-P-Y. 

When someone is in "his" massage chair he will stare at them until they get out.  He also watches the children in the store. Not cool dude. 

However, he received a ban from our store by making the comment "I love little girls. I like to put them in my lap and love on them." 

I know he is slightly retarded, but that was too much for us. 

Banned. 

2.) Asshole

Mr. Asshole comes in once a week and asks for you to set up the chair for him because he cannot figure it out.

He has been doing this for 5 years.  He is the most bigoted person I have met and he will take up at least an hour of your time asking you questions.

Guess what Mr. Asshole corporate has banned you.

Happy day.

3.) Mr. Wild Trip Guy

Not annoying, but a hard customer.

This guy is not hard because he is mean or rude but because he is deaf...and from Spain.  I do not speak sign language or Spanish...but I am wicked good at charades.

It always takes me a long time to figure out what he wants though.

4.) Untechnological People

We are a tech store. You don't have to be an expert, but please know what a CD player is for and have some inkling what a MP3 player is. 

Oh and wireless speakers are not, I repeat, not "new" technology. They have been around for years; probably even decades now. 

5.) Rich Snobby People 

Self-explanatory.

6.) Hellspawn

Same as above.

7.) Old people

Here are some rules for you:

1. Do not hit on me. It's gross and creepy. 

2. If you fall asleep easily stay out of my massage chairs. I cannot tell if you are sleeping or dead and I do not have a long enough poll to give you a poke. 

3. If you can see your bones under your skin do not touch the pounding massagers. 

4. Speak up. I am playing loud music and the air conditioner is loud as shit. Don't get mad if I ask you to repeat yourself.

8.) Teenagers

Do not hang out in my store. This is a place of business not a park. Yes you are not wanted here and yes I will kick you out.

And epic eye-rolls amuse me.

And no I am not scared of you so don't try anything to intimidate me. I will drop kick you straight over the railing to the second floor below.

9.) Piggy/Nasty/Entitled/Thieving Customers

Go back to the slime ridden muck hole you climbed out of.  I do not want to deal with you.

Last but not least

10.) People Who Ignore Me

I said hello. Just say hi back or wave a little. It's just common courtesy.

Oh and don't respond to Hi, welcome to (insert store name here) with "Just looking" "No thank-you" or "Ok" none of those responses make any sense at all.

Well, that is it for today.  Hell is fast approaching. I hate retail during Christmas. 60 hour work weeks.  Listening to Christmas music for 9 hours a day. Trying to find parking. Customers...so many customers. 

Here's hoping I'll survive it.

--Little Mall Worker

read more RHU Stories here

read more Crazy Customer Stories here

From Former Mchell Manager:

I am so very, very, very, VERY frustrated right now. Frustrated, sad, and lonely. I may get a bit of flack for this, but I am quite honestly done with people who have kids getting priority over me. I am childless. But that does not mean I do not have a family or a life. 

I have worked in the Fast Food industry for years. Too many years to admit. And time and time again, I see people who have kids get priority over people who do not. Now, I am not talking about "Oh, you have to work Halloween because Suzy needs to take her kids out for Halloween". I'm talking about people who have fairly older kids and go "I need to be out by X time and can't work weekends because of my child" and then jumps on Facebook every weekend and posts about how they dump their child onto a supposed non-existent babysitter and goes out camping/partying. 

I'm talking about the Assistant Manager who never works a closing shift because she has kids, though her oldest is 12 years old, but "I want to be home to see them and to eat dinner with them!" That manager rarely works a closing shift. Last month, she had no closing shifts at all. If she does work a closing shift, it's maybe twice a month.

--Former McHell Manager

Okay, so I'm apologizing in advance for some formatting hiccups. Getting these tweet screenshots on the page is a little wonky. But I thought this would be good for RHU discussion. It's entirely voluntary, and no one's asking you to divulge personal information about yourselves. But if any of you were willing to give suggestions (on behalf of yourself or for a friend, you don't have to say) it would be eye opening, perhaps to hear what would help in some cases.

--Ilia

From Nubbinz:

So it has been awhile. I am currently keeping small children alive at a drop in daycare center in a gym.

However, I am feeling quite underappreciated by the boss lately...or actually stream of bosses.

Going on 3 years, 3 bosses, one temp boss.

1st boss was nice and I liked her however she got into an argument with a coworker over medical treatments and restrictions. Coworker went up the food chain and 1st boss was found to be WILDLY incompetent. 

Temp boss comes in to clean her mess while the search for a new person goes on. Under Temp boss I am given the authority to basically run the daycares hours. We had 7 people 3 quit. I pull 45 hour weeks to keep it covered. After new boss is hired I am thanked and given a gift card. People were hired so I did not have to kill myself covering things 

2nd boss is better. However it has been a year. Nubbinz knows there should be a performance review and raise. Nothing happens. Words were said and write ups were threatened. Pattern repeats with new boss over tiny things. 

Year 2 of work passes and 2nd boss is stepping down. Her last week she gives me a performance review I agree with and a raise that is double a yearly one. 

However, I had a chat with a friend who was briefly hired by 2nd boss right after she started. 2nd boss had given her a STARTING rate that was still higher than my raise. I have also overheard a conversation that I should not have heard that another coworker is also receiving higher since she started.

I am back and forth if I should ask what the f is up with this to new 3rd boss. All of us in the daycare have similar backgrounds. I have been working the longest and while I have had arguements my record is clean. I just want to know why it took me 2 years of working my butt off to get the same rate that my coworkers were given from the start. The consensus IRL is that if I ask I need to have another job on hand.

 --:/ Nubbinz 

Ok RHU I come to you in the hopes that the community I have come to love through the years can offer me advice through a troubling time.

About a year ago I rejoined the retail world (higher end apparel). Up until 2 months ago I loved where I worked. My co-workers were awesome, my boss (B) was great, my DM was one of the most lovely persons I had ever the pleasure to meet. Then it all came crashing down when The Harpy Bitch Queen from Hell returned (HQ). Apparently long before my time and my amazing DM oversaw my store, HQ had been the DM previously, and oh my how the stories of the terrible atrocities set upon the staff haunted me in my sleep. One story summed HQ up nicely - Once they bullied a female customer into purchasing nearly $500 in merchandise because HQ wouldn't stop chasing her around the store badgering them about all the new products in. The following day that same customer came back to return all the merchandise complaining she had to buy just to get HQ off her case. Naturally when we all found out about the return of HQ, the older staff - B included - were not happy. Morale plummeted and anxiety skyrocketed as suddenly we were overwhelmed with e-mails demanding every minute detail of our workday. If we so much put a toe outside of plan we better damn well have a reason and a plan of action the following day to never let it happen again. HQ loves to blame people for mistakes - they want a scapegoat to pin a bad day on. Where my previous DM was so encouraging, HQ will degrade and humiliate you. I swear it's like a switch flipped in our store because overnight it the whole thing went to shit.

From Tales From Retail, tlsampl:

I have had this happen two or three times the last few days.

I have a customer come to the register on their phone.

I will be Me and the Customer will be OTP (On The Phone):

Me: How are you today ? (as I notice they are on the phone)

OTP: (smiles) continues their phone conversation

Me: Did you find everything today ?

OTP: (smiles) continues their phone conversation

I ring up and bag the items and announce the total

OTP is still talking and takes out their card and swipes it but it has a chip

Me: The chip reader does work

OTP: (smiles) inserts the card

Me: I need a signature please

OTP (smiles) still having her phone conversation but signs the credit card receipt

Me: Have a great evening

OTP: (smiles) picks up the bag while continuing her phone conversation

The person never said anything to me the entire time, just facial expressions to me and never missed a beat in their phone conversation

I still do not understand if you are going to check out at a store why you feel the need to continue your phone conversation and basically ignore the person helping you check out

-- tlsampl

Have you had custys do this to you while you were serving them? Share with RHU. Do you think it has gotten worse over the years?