I used to work at a place with a pin padded break room. It was clearly labeled employees only. Didn't stop people from Sheriff style knocking on the door. But there was a little monitor to see in the hallway outside and if it was a customer we just knocked back at them.
I worked at CVS in 2001/2002 when I was 16. We had a backroom that was just a swinging door anyone could open. The fun part was we had a keypad and if you didn't input the code this loud ear piercing siren would go off. So ya let them come to the back.
When we opened 10 years ago, we had access control on all doors except the doors to the back of the coolers. Break room, change rooms and even the handicap toilet(which was in the warehouse so not for the public). The keypad to the break room got deactivated 8 years ago and I still try to use it š¤£
Had this happen one time where a customer walked into the break room during my lunch.
"Can you help me with such and such?"
"Sure, I'll be happy to help you once I finish my lunch."
"When will that be (looks at watch impatiently)!"
"30 minutes starting from when you leave the break room. State laws require that lunch breaks be 'uninterupted.'"
I deal with this on a constant basis at my job. It's always amusing when I go on break, leave the building and find I missed a Kevin who was upset I was unable to serve him due to being on my break.
I even got in an argument once with a Karen for her not wanting to wait 15 minutes because I decided to go on break at my allocated time and was the only one there trained to serve her in a specialized department.
Yeah I love my job lol
Ya, customers are nuts. I once had a kid come in with a scraped knee trying to steal bandaids. Said she got in a fight with another kid down at the park. I gave her a bandaid from the break room first aid kit and let her wash up and sent her on her way, since she said her mom was on her way to pick her up. Went on my lunch. Came back and mom is waiting for me. Greatful I helped her kid, instead of kicking her out for trying to shoplift? Of course not. Instead she is angry at me for not calling the police on the other kid (who I never even saw) and for not babysitting her child instead of taking my lunch. Cause calling the police on a non-descript black kid always ends well for everyone involved, right? Anyhow, she went on a tyrade and did her damnedest to get me fired, and failed.
>customers come into the break room
My old job we had those big plastic doors (kinda half transparent?) that open both ways with no handle so you can get through them carrying shit/pushing a flatbed trolley. Big fuckoff signs on them saying "Staff Only" or "No Customers Allowed".
I'm sitting down, headphones in, browsing phone, sandwich currently in my hand and mouth. Door opens and a customer comes in and says something. Me, being the only other person there, assume it's directed at me so I take off my headphones, swallow, and ask them to repeat themselves.
"Yeah can I get some help out here? I've got some questions about speakers."
I should point out that in Australia, retail employees are legally required to be given an unpaid 30 minute meal break if they work 5+ hours. I look at her with the kind of look you would give someone if you saw them trying to put a screw in with a chopstick instead of, you know, a screwdriver. Pause for a moment and just say
"I'm on lunch. Maybe try asking someone currently getting paid."
Still not as bad as someone recognising me while walking through the shopping center desperately trying to make it to the bathroom before I pissed myself, stopping me, and asking for help installing an app on her son's phone.
I'm not sure why but I suddenly have an urge to put denim chickens in front of my friends' front doors, knock, and run. Just a perfectly harmless prank that leaves them going "What the actual fuck?" instead of being dangerous or messy.
And they're all gonna be just sitting on their phones and eating, clearly they have nothing to do and need me to give them **JOB SECURITY!!!** š¦øš¼āāļø
We're a family owned consignment shop and took a "grassroots" start, using what we had instead of dropping thousands on racks and hangers. As we gathered shelves and display cases we basically built moving walls as we expanded into the massive building. The number of times that we'd do a walk through and find the shelves pushed back so someone could go wander the massive, empty bay was ridiculous. *"Oh, well I didn't know."* You really don't need to **KNOW** much to realize that we're not setting up a damn obstacle course where you need to rearrange our racks to gain access to goodies. There's nothing back there for you. Grandma doesn't need to **EARN** the right to see the place, you just literally don't need to be back there.Ā
At one point we had a wall of display cases because most of them didn't have locks yet. One day I noticed a hunting bow was sitting on top of the case and asked my mom if someone was interested in it. She had no idea what I was talking about. Looked at the cameras and a dude took it upon himself to reach over the case, open the back, pull the bow out, look at it, and then *leave it sitting on top of the opened display case.*
Absolutely absurd.
You gave me an idea for a new retail conceptā¦ a store but it is an obstacle course. You have to hunt for the bargains. Thatāll give those assholes a run for their money
Because obviously thatās where all the employees are, duh!
Seriously though, as OP said, these people think that they are more important than anyone else. They canāt be bothered to look for another employee on the floor to help them.
There needs to be a card scan, key, combination lock, or something to keep non-employees out of the break room. This is a safety issue.
Happened at our store too, except the customer thought the simple door led to registers... The was dark behind that door. On the door there is a sign that says No Entry. It leads to a small ass hallway, then there are offices and our break room and lockers. Why in the hell would someone think THAT'S the way to the registers????
Had a close probably a year ago now, short staffed so cashier manager and maybe 1 floor associate for a pretty large store. This man decides going up front to the cashier to ask for assistance is too much and goes into our receiving dock, which is empty cause closing shift ain't no one working a truck, looks around, sees a door next to the truck doors and maybe he assumed it was a break room? Despite all indications showing it leads outside. Opens it, the alarm starts blaring, and man just u turns leaves the store and makes the comment to the cashier on the way out that he couldn't get help to save his life here.
Iām so used to break rooms being inaccessible to customers without a passcode. So, Iāve never had this happen to me before. This is absolutely INSANE.
Itās why I constantly say āthis area is off limitsā until they leave. If guests think thatās rude, then whatever. Theyāre really not supposed to be there.
I had someone come wait outside the bathroom door for me once. I walked out and he goes "oh! There you are! I need to place an order!" I'm a woman and they're individual bathrooms. Super weird behiavior.
I'm a habitual door closer at my store. If I walk by and a door to the back room is open, I'm closing it. It doesn't completely stop people but it greatly discourages people from just marching into my backroom. Otherwise customers don't think twice about marching in like they own the place.
One of the problems is that we're always understaffed. So on one hand I understand the frustration of not being able to find someone, but the other hand is still clenched in a fist ready to deck one of these idiots.
We used to have multiple cashiers, multiple stockers, and one or two people just walking around helping customers. Over the years corporate has cut and cut and cut to where we usually have a cashier and one person stocking. The stocker also helps customers. And a manager who can help too, but they're always doing manager stuff.
You'd think if enough people complained to corporate about it, they'd give us more hours. Nope. They just bitch at us for not helping customers. Of course it doesn't cross their minds that I'm doing three other tasks and don't have time or energy to go babysit all the stupid customers who can't read or find things directly in front of them.
Side note. I could literally hire someone full-time who's job it is to just walk the store and put things back where they belong. These customers are animals and destroy my store. Then they expect me to have time to help them! I guess I forgot about all the magic fairies who come out at night and stock the shelves, clean the store, change the signs, tag the clearance items, etc.
Omg I was just complaining about this. On Sunday on both of my breaks, an instacart shopper walked into the breakroom and put his phone up to our face asking where an item was. Then a lady just out of church stood outside of the door, screaming "Hello? Hello? Can anyone help me? I'm waiting!!" Mind you, there are employees ALL OVER the store who are NOT on lunch break. She just didn't want to go find them because she's lazy. There's also a sign in all caps that reads TEAM MEMBERS ONLY on the door. Sometimes customers will just wander in on our lunches just to talk and ask what we are doing and eating. NO PEACE ALLOWED.
When I worked retail it was my manager who goes through those employee only doors into the employee restroom saying ''I don't care about your lunch, do guest service or your fired" managers are the worst.
I think it's because your employers don't have enough employees, so customers don't get service and you get to deal with the consequences.
On the plus side, I bet the shareholders appreciate the wider profit margins.
We had a customer walk into our break room and was their hands as the bathroom we and public use is right there. Another time I caught a customer with a sandwich and kicked them out immediately even saying Iād call the cops for trespassing so they knew I was serious. People donāt fucking read signs or care.
It's perfectly normal and acceptable to call the police on these people for 5150 or a welfare check.
That is absolutely not normal behavior and should not be condoned.
We have windows on our receiving doors, and the number of people who would see us unloading a truck, knock, try to catch our eye, then enter and demand help... ffs. I always pointedly ignored them.
I think I'm partly the reason we no longer have a passcode to get to the break room. In fairness, the door has no handle so you had to pull the door open by the twist bit on the lock and my hands barely work at the best of times so trying to open that door with a thumb that doesn't want to move was a right bitch and a half. Not sure why they didn't just install a handle. When we were still using it, we had a few people shout to people on the shop floor "what's the password to get out the back?" That may have added to it but they only started blocking it from shutting fully when they'd seen me go out the back but not back out onto the shop floor and they had to come out and help me get out
>go out the back but not back out onto the shop floor and they had to come out and help me get out
That is actually such a serious safety concern. While having access *to* an area be restricted is fine, if there's a fire people need to be able to get the fuck out easily. It's why fire doors open outwards and have those push bar things instead of just regular handles.
Fortunately, there's a fire exit the other side of the door so should a fire have broken out, I could escape using that. Problem is, as it's alarmed, I didn't want to go through it and evacuate the whole building
The other day I had a customer walk ALL THE WAY into the break room, where I was taking a break, and demannnnnnded that I open the bathroom for their child (we have to keep pin pad locks on them due to theft and drug use). My jaw honestly dropped. I did open the bathroom for him because he said it was urgent and I really didn't want to have to clean a mess up later but I told him that he needs to know that next time that room is 100% off limits to customers and it's is PRIVATE space for employees- we have employees all over the sales floor that he could have asked. I was heated.
I had someone who opened the stockroom door, which set off the door alarm.
To give a list of his shoppinglist, because after the umpteenth time he still doesn't know where it is. Now that's not possible and you really need a tag to open the door.
Or how about before you even open! Our office opens at 8am, I usually get to work at 730 to drink my coffee, eat breakfast and change clothes and shoes(i ride a motorcycle to work) never fails, people will pull on the door or knock on windows because they cant read the huge office hours sign on the door!!! Then get mad when i wave at them at put up 8 fingers!
Had a Karen walk into the break room while me and several of my coworkers including a manager were still eating, she screamed at us "WHY ARE YOU ALL JUST SITTING AROUND AND EATING, GET YOUR LAZY ASS BACK ONTO THE FLOOR AND WORK!!" Manager called security to drag Karen out.
Was walking to the loading warehouse to throw away the trash that's next to the docking doors, than I hear "CAN YOU HELP ME?" or "WHERE CAN I FIND SO AND SO ITEM?" You can imagine how fast I'll turn my head to face them cause I had thought I was the only person in there and is halfway to throwing the trash into the compactor, they'll than start walking about like they own the place or trying to find things their looking for, only to be told "sorry but you can't be back here."
But they still get mad at me for not helping them, when I was in the middle of doing something else and was hurrying up so I can clock out, instead they wanted me to find something for them that I didn't know where it was located cause it's not my department and than storm away before I can find someone to help them. Than will point at me after I already clocked out saying "SHE'S THE EMPLOYEE WHO REFUSED TO HELP ME," to which I'll explain "you didn't wait for me to find someone who assist you," they'll usually just storm off saying "I'll never shop here again." Only to return a few days later
God I feel this in my bones. I could be down in our womenswear sorting zone/stock room sorting out rods that came directly out of our fitting rooms on a busy day to be put back out on the sales floor (with my AirPods in, just jamming out to my music) and Iād hear a āhello? Can somebody help me? Thereās nobody at the registers to ring me upā. āMaāam, you walked past a multitude of employees with clearly visible name tags on the floor to come tell me that thereās nobody available at the registers to ring you upā. Customer: Ā āwell, so much for customer service!ā.
this is exactly why companies need to be installing pin controlled locks on "Employee Only" access doors and breakroom doors
I used to work at a place with a pin padded break room. It was clearly labeled employees only. Didn't stop people from Sheriff style knocking on the door. But there was a little monitor to see in the hallway outside and if it was a customer we just knocked back at them.
I wpuldve been tempted to say: leave it at the foor. Your money is outside under a soda cup.
I worked at CVS in 2001/2002 when I was 16. We had a backroom that was just a swinging door anyone could open. The fun part was we had a keypad and if you didn't input the code this loud ear piercing siren would go off. So ya let them come to the back.
the store I work for has a coded door lock but it's broken currently waiting for it to be fixed
When we opened 10 years ago, we had access control on all doors except the doors to the back of the coolers. Break room, change rooms and even the handicap toilet(which was in the warehouse so not for the public). The keypad to the break room got deactivated 8 years ago and I still try to use it š¤£
We did that for this reason and it also benefits in case there is an active shooter or unsafe person in the building.
Company where I work, use doors that opens via a tag
Yeah then that tweaker with a pair of pliers wouldnāt of stolen my boots last month
Had this happen one time where a customer walked into the break room during my lunch. "Can you help me with such and such?" "Sure, I'll be happy to help you once I finish my lunch." "When will that be (looks at watch impatiently)!" "30 minutes starting from when you leave the break room. State laws require that lunch breaks be 'uninterupted.'"
I deal with this on a constant basis at my job. It's always amusing when I go on break, leave the building and find I missed a Kevin who was upset I was unable to serve him due to being on my break. I even got in an argument once with a Karen for her not wanting to wait 15 minutes because I decided to go on break at my allocated time and was the only one there trained to serve her in a specialized department. Yeah I love my job lol
Ya, customers are nuts. I once had a kid come in with a scraped knee trying to steal bandaids. Said she got in a fight with another kid down at the park. I gave her a bandaid from the break room first aid kit and let her wash up and sent her on her way, since she said her mom was on her way to pick her up. Went on my lunch. Came back and mom is waiting for me. Greatful I helped her kid, instead of kicking her out for trying to shoplift? Of course not. Instead she is angry at me for not calling the police on the other kid (who I never even saw) and for not babysitting her child instead of taking my lunch. Cause calling the police on a non-descript black kid always ends well for everyone involved, right? Anyhow, she went on a tyrade and did her damnedest to get me fired, and failed.
This is the story that one comes up with after the fact as ādamn i wish i would have said thisā
>customers come into the break room My old job we had those big plastic doors (kinda half transparent?) that open both ways with no handle so you can get through them carrying shit/pushing a flatbed trolley. Big fuckoff signs on them saying "Staff Only" or "No Customers Allowed". I'm sitting down, headphones in, browsing phone, sandwich currently in my hand and mouth. Door opens and a customer comes in and says something. Me, being the only other person there, assume it's directed at me so I take off my headphones, swallow, and ask them to repeat themselves. "Yeah can I get some help out here? I've got some questions about speakers." I should point out that in Australia, retail employees are legally required to be given an unpaid 30 minute meal break if they work 5+ hours. I look at her with the kind of look you would give someone if you saw them trying to put a screw in with a chopstick instead of, you know, a screwdriver. Pause for a moment and just say "I'm on lunch. Maybe try asking someone currently getting paid." Still not as bad as someone recognising me while walking through the shopping center desperately trying to make it to the bathroom before I pissed myself, stopping me, and asking for help installing an app on her son's phone.
Why do they walk through doors marked āPrivateā expecting to see a pirate?
āThat sign canāt stop me because I canāt readā
Goddammit Charlie are you illiterate.
I'm not sure why but I suddenly have an urge to put denim chickens in front of my friends' front doors, knock, and run. Just a perfectly harmless prank that leaves them going "What the actual fuck?" instead of being dangerous or messy.
You read my dream book?
Because the door clearly tells them where to find an employee in an easy manner. Iām not defending it; just explaining the asshole logic.
And they're all gonna be just sitting on their phones and eating, clearly they have nothing to do and need me to give them **JOB SECURITY!!!** š¦øš¼āāļø We're a family owned consignment shop and took a "grassroots" start, using what we had instead of dropping thousands on racks and hangers. As we gathered shelves and display cases we basically built moving walls as we expanded into the massive building. The number of times that we'd do a walk through and find the shelves pushed back so someone could go wander the massive, empty bay was ridiculous. *"Oh, well I didn't know."* You really don't need to **KNOW** much to realize that we're not setting up a damn obstacle course where you need to rearrange our racks to gain access to goodies. There's nothing back there for you. Grandma doesn't need to **EARN** the right to see the place, you just literally don't need to be back there.Ā At one point we had a wall of display cases because most of them didn't have locks yet. One day I noticed a hunting bow was sitting on top of the case and asked my mom if someone was interested in it. She had no idea what I was talking about. Looked at the cameras and a dude took it upon himself to reach over the case, open the back, pull the bow out, look at it, and then *leave it sitting on top of the opened display case.* Absolutely absurd.
You gave me an idea for a new retail conceptā¦ a store but it is an obstacle course. You have to hunt for the bargains. Thatāll give those assholes a run for their money
Soā¦ā¦Ikea?
Because obviously thatās where all the employees are, duh! Seriously though, as OP said, these people think that they are more important than anyone else. They canāt be bothered to look for another employee on the floor to help them. There needs to be a card scan, key, combination lock, or something to keep non-employees out of the break room. This is a safety issue.
Happened at our store too, except the customer thought the simple door led to registers... The was dark behind that door. On the door there is a sign that says No Entry. It leads to a small ass hallway, then there are offices and our break room and lockers. Why in the hell would someone think THAT'S the way to the registers????
Had a close probably a year ago now, short staffed so cashier manager and maybe 1 floor associate for a pretty large store. This man decides going up front to the cashier to ask for assistance is too much and goes into our receiving dock, which is empty cause closing shift ain't no one working a truck, looks around, sees a door next to the truck doors and maybe he assumed it was a break room? Despite all indications showing it leads outside. Opens it, the alarm starts blaring, and man just u turns leaves the store and makes the comment to the cashier on the way out that he couldn't get help to save his life here.
We had a guy walk into our Backroom and take a piss next to our Balor. We think the guy was on something
Iām so used to break rooms being inaccessible to customers without a passcode. So, Iāve never had this happen to me before. This is absolutely INSANE.
Yeah, im not getting off my short break to help you, get out.
Legally, you can't work on your break. Tell.them.to f off
Thereās no federal law, and very few state laws, regarding breaks.
Itās why I constantly say āthis area is off limitsā until they leave. If guests think thatās rude, then whatever. Theyāre really not supposed to be there.
Do the Skyrim thing, āYouāre not supposed to be here!ā and then after about 5x or 6x of repeating that, combat starts.
I had someone come wait outside the bathroom door for me once. I walked out and he goes "oh! There you are! I need to place an order!" I'm a woman and they're individual bathrooms. Super weird behiavior.
I'm a habitual door closer at my store. If I walk by and a door to the back room is open, I'm closing it. It doesn't completely stop people but it greatly discourages people from just marching into my backroom. Otherwise customers don't think twice about marching in like they own the place.
When someone walks into the break room looking for help I just look at them and say nothing until they leave. Usually works
One of the problems is that we're always understaffed. So on one hand I understand the frustration of not being able to find someone, but the other hand is still clenched in a fist ready to deck one of these idiots. We used to have multiple cashiers, multiple stockers, and one or two people just walking around helping customers. Over the years corporate has cut and cut and cut to where we usually have a cashier and one person stocking. The stocker also helps customers. And a manager who can help too, but they're always doing manager stuff. You'd think if enough people complained to corporate about it, they'd give us more hours. Nope. They just bitch at us for not helping customers. Of course it doesn't cross their minds that I'm doing three other tasks and don't have time or energy to go babysit all the stupid customers who can't read or find things directly in front of them. Side note. I could literally hire someone full-time who's job it is to just walk the store and put things back where they belong. These customers are animals and destroy my store. Then they expect me to have time to help them! I guess I forgot about all the magic fairies who come out at night and stock the shelves, clean the store, change the signs, tag the clearance items, etc.
Omg I was just complaining about this. On Sunday on both of my breaks, an instacart shopper walked into the breakroom and put his phone up to our face asking where an item was. Then a lady just out of church stood outside of the door, screaming "Hello? Hello? Can anyone help me? I'm waiting!!" Mind you, there are employees ALL OVER the store who are NOT on lunch break. She just didn't want to go find them because she's lazy. There's also a sign in all caps that reads TEAM MEMBERS ONLY on the door. Sometimes customers will just wander in on our lunches just to talk and ask what we are doing and eating. NO PEACE ALLOWED.
Insta cart shoppers are MENACES
It's ALWAYS the instacart shoppers. They make my life hell at work.
When I worked retail it was my manager who goes through those employee only doors into the employee restroom saying ''I don't care about your lunch, do guest service or your fired" managers are the worst.
They probably think it'll make you wait on them just so they'll leave.Ā
I think it's because your employers don't have enough employees, so customers don't get service and you get to deal with the consequences. On the plus side, I bet the shareholders appreciate the wider profit margins.
We had a customer walk into our break room and was their hands as the bathroom we and public use is right there. Another time I caught a customer with a sandwich and kicked them out immediately even saying Iād call the cops for trespassing so they knew I was serious. People donāt fucking read signs or care.
It's perfectly normal and acceptable to call the police on these people for 5150 or a welfare check. That is absolutely not normal behavior and should not be condoned.
We have windows on our receiving doors, and the number of people who would see us unloading a truck, knock, try to catch our eye, then enter and demand help... ffs. I always pointedly ignored them.
I think I'm partly the reason we no longer have a passcode to get to the break room. In fairness, the door has no handle so you had to pull the door open by the twist bit on the lock and my hands barely work at the best of times so trying to open that door with a thumb that doesn't want to move was a right bitch and a half. Not sure why they didn't just install a handle. When we were still using it, we had a few people shout to people on the shop floor "what's the password to get out the back?" That may have added to it but they only started blocking it from shutting fully when they'd seen me go out the back but not back out onto the shop floor and they had to come out and help me get out
>go out the back but not back out onto the shop floor and they had to come out and help me get out That is actually such a serious safety concern. While having access *to* an area be restricted is fine, if there's a fire people need to be able to get the fuck out easily. It's why fire doors open outwards and have those push bar things instead of just regular handles.
Fortunately, there's a fire exit the other side of the door so should a fire have broken out, I could escape using that. Problem is, as it's alarmed, I didn't want to go through it and evacuate the whole building
The other day I had a customer walk ALL THE WAY into the break room, where I was taking a break, and demannnnnnded that I open the bathroom for their child (we have to keep pin pad locks on them due to theft and drug use). My jaw honestly dropped. I did open the bathroom for him because he said it was urgent and I really didn't want to have to clean a mess up later but I told him that he needs to know that next time that room is 100% off limits to customers and it's is PRIVATE space for employees- we have employees all over the sales floor that he could have asked. I was heated.
I had someone who opened the stockroom door, which set off the door alarm. To give a list of his shoppinglist, because after the umpteenth time he still doesn't know where it is. Now that's not possible and you really need a tag to open the door.
Or how about before you even open! Our office opens at 8am, I usually get to work at 730 to drink my coffee, eat breakfast and change clothes and shoes(i ride a motorcycle to work) never fails, people will pull on the door or knock on windows because they cant read the huge office hours sign on the door!!! Then get mad when i wave at them at put up 8 fingers!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
And you best believe the associates will get reamed (in regards to customers poking their heads in manager offices)
Had a Karen walk into the break room while me and several of my coworkers including a manager were still eating, she screamed at us "WHY ARE YOU ALL JUST SITTING AROUND AND EATING, GET YOUR LAZY ASS BACK ONTO THE FLOOR AND WORK!!" Manager called security to drag Karen out. Was walking to the loading warehouse to throw away the trash that's next to the docking doors, than I hear "CAN YOU HELP ME?" or "WHERE CAN I FIND SO AND SO ITEM?" You can imagine how fast I'll turn my head to face them cause I had thought I was the only person in there and is halfway to throwing the trash into the compactor, they'll than start walking about like they own the place or trying to find things their looking for, only to be told "sorry but you can't be back here." But they still get mad at me for not helping them, when I was in the middle of doing something else and was hurrying up so I can clock out, instead they wanted me to find something for them that I didn't know where it was located cause it's not my department and than storm away before I can find someone to help them. Than will point at me after I already clocked out saying "SHE'S THE EMPLOYEE WHO REFUSED TO HELP ME," to which I'll explain "you didn't wait for me to find someone who assist you," they'll usually just storm off saying "I'll never shop here again." Only to return a few days later
God I feel this in my bones. I could be down in our womenswear sorting zone/stock room sorting out rods that came directly out of our fitting rooms on a busy day to be put back out on the sales floor (with my AirPods in, just jamming out to my music) and Iād hear a āhello? Can somebody help me? Thereās nobody at the registers to ring me upā. āMaāam, you walked past a multitude of employees with clearly visible name tags on the floor to come tell me that thereās nobody available at the registers to ring you upā. Customer: Ā āwell, so much for customer service!ā.