A Flake Again

 "I have good news and bad news," was how my first manager greeted me when I came into work today.

"Good news." They said. "Is that SoandSo can come in to work from 4-7pm!" 

Having just checked the schedule I could piece together the pieces pretty easily. And so I was like "Oh, does that mean the cashier from 2-7pm called out?" 

"Yep." 

Which honestly.

I wasn't very surprised, but I was kind of irritated. 

As this particular cashier has been....a Thorn in our sides pretty consistently since they were hired.

Mostly in the fact that a) They call out a lot. Like at least once a week call out." To the point where we're pretty sure they just are lying about why they're calling out. and b) When they do come into work....they don't work. Like they're not proactive in doing tasks. We constantly catch them on their phone. We constantly have to remind them to be saying and asking certain things to customers while at register.....it's a mess. Like when they're at work they're basically only doing the bare minimum and will only do the stuff we ask them to do...if there's a manager nearby to call them out on it. But like if there's no manager nearby they stop. *exhales* It's frustrating.

Like the kid is a friendly person. But they're a bad worker. And I just have to wonder why they're even still with us if they're constantly making up reasons to get out of work.

Like the kid literally calls out at least once a week. 

Which considering they've barely been with us like 6 months....is crazy. 

And like... some of the excuses could be believable. Like "My grandma passed away." Sure I can believe that. 
But the kid has used the excuse "I have kidney stones" a couple of times....yet is always fine the next day or the next shift....and I'm pretty sure if the kidney stones were soo bad that you couldn't come into work...you'd be taking the rest of the week off. So it's....a bit more skeptical....like it could be plausible...but at the same time....doesn't seem likely.

But the kid has also used the excuse of "I have a really bad sunburn, my arms and back hurt I can't come in." 

And then on the next shift we saw them at....there is no sign of red skin whatsoever. Kid doesn't even look like they went outside with how pale their skin was. 

So yah....we're all a bit skeptical of just how truthful all these call outs are. 

And again I worked with this cashier last night. Had literally had them say to me "See you tomorrow!" And yet ten hours later they're calling out for a kidney stone?? Not sure how quickly those onset...but it just seems fishy.

Especially when I noticed the trend with this particular cashier....that they seem to call out after receiving criticism at work.

As yesterday I had brought up to this cashier that they needed to be more proactive in signing up customers for our membership program as this cashier had the MOST transactions out of all the cashiers...and yet had the LOWEST sign up rate out of everyone. Like the next cashier had nearly a thousand LESS transactions but at least 6 times the sign up success. 

Like I'm barely on register and I have a higher percentage of success than this Cashier who's ONLY EVER on register for a good EIGHT HOURS a day. The fact that they only have a 3% success rate is....sad.

And like it feels like this is a trend.

Where if I say anything like "Hey, remember to greet customers." or "Remember, you can't be on your phone at register as that gives a bad impression to customers." or "Remember to ask people to donate."

It seems like the next shift they are suddenly unavailable to work.

*exhales*

And it's frustrating. Soooo frustrating.

As I'm not quite sure how to help this cashier out short of having to babysit them and watch them every single moment. 

Maybe next shift we work together I'll have to stick around and just...coach them. "Remember to try and sign up customers. Remember to greet customers as they walk in. Remember to offer them the chance to buy a toy to donate to kids."

Like I hate all the asking we have to do of customers too. But I hate having the DM on our back more. 

I don't know.

In any case. I wasn't too surprised to hear that the cashier had called out today. As again, they end up doing it at least once a week it feels like. And honestly it was nice to have capable cashiers at the register who would do what they needed to do and didn't need to be babysat.

But still. It's annoying to deal with a flakly coworker. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi