This isn't about me but about a very lovely Goodwill cashier who obviously isn't getting paid nearly enough for what she does.
Today was my first time stepping foot into Goodwill after 3 years or so.
While I was in line, I noticed that there was only one cashier taking care of all the customers. She was trying to check out one person while dealing with a lost purse that someone turned in as well as taking phone calls. She had called her manager to come to take the lost purse, told the customer on the phone that she had to transfer her call to the office, and was profusely apologizing to the customer that she had to take the phone call while trying to check her out. She had to balance being on the phone and scanning items.
After a few minutes of the cashier juggling tasks, the manager lazily walks up, takes the purse, and tells the cashier “answer the phone” before walking away. The cashier told her she had already transferred the call to the back office but, amazingly, the manager doesn't hear her despite the cashier calling out her name 4 times while she slowly walked away.
This poor girl, who honestly couldn't have been much older than 18, had to take the phone call while apologizing to the same customer again. Finally, she was able to check her out and move the line along. By the time I got up to her, I could see that she was frustrated but was still very sweet and trying not to let it show.
Would it have been so hard for the manager to just answer the phone?
I've worked many customer service jobs and they either had certain people on phones separate from the cashier or we were ALWAYS told to help the customer in front of us first before answering the phone. I'm not annoyed that I had to wait in line. That wasn't an issue for me but to see the manager care so little that the cashier had to pretty much do everything while the manager was in the back made me frustrated.
This is one of the reasons I will never work a customer service job again if I can help it.