'Sitting' on the till is regarded by most people as an easy job.
For the most part, it is pretty straight forward: Be polite, scan some items, take payment. But for anyone who’s actually done it, it comes with its frustrations.
Needing a wee
Self explanatory.
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Anyone who can cover for two minutes? Please? Anyone? |
The Till Itself
Your temperamental co-worker. Get on well and it’s smooth sailing, but your till normally in a mood.
If it’s got a touchscreen, 99% of the surface will work perfectly, but when trying to hit a key button like OK, or Total, there will only be a single pixel that will work.
The barcode scanner. Only a precise angle of attack will elicit that successful scan beep. That is if the sound is working, otherwise you’ll spend the day double and triple checking the screen to make sure everything has gone through correctly. If the sound is working it will be loud enough to give you tinitus later in life and there’ll be no way to turn it down.
The receipt printer. Even more unreliable than the scanner or screen, the receipt printer will work fine for hours and then all of a sudden only print half the receipt. One person in the store has the magic touch and somehow can fix it by rubbing the roller a couple of times and slamming down the lid, but they’ll never be around when you need them.
| Who's the one who manages to break these? | 
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Not Being in control
If you’ve got the right till permissions, this doesn’t apply, but when you’re rliant on someone else in store having to come and enter a confirm code on your behalf, it’s massively annoying.
Check the time on your phone and your boss will materialize out of no where, but hit your buzzer when a £10 t-shirt comes up at £10,000 and they’re nowhere to be seen. When they eventually show up, they fix the problem in 10 seconds and wander off with your favourite pen.
The same disappearing act occurs when you ask for some more bags and two hours later you’re still putting greetings cards in a carrier designed for a duvet.
| These look identical but for some reason only half the box prints properly | 
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Customers
This is the big one obviously.
Dealing with ‘those’ customers is a whole other topic, but even the less toxic can frustrate.
First there’s pace. Either no one’s in the shop, or you’ve got a queue of fifteen people. At least one of those fifteen people will remark how busy it is today when you were bored out of your mind five minutes ago.
Then there’s only so many times you can make small talk by saying how you can’t believe how hot/cold it is out, or comment that there’s something ‘going round’ when the customer starts sneezing on you.
You also need the tolerance of a saint to keep nodding politely as someone utters the phrase ‘last of the big spenders’ when buying one item, or ‘must be free’ when the code doesn’t scan as though they were the first person in the world to come up with it. It’s likely that there will be an overlap of these ‘fun’ characters and the ones who take all your change. They’re the ones who love to come in first thing with a £20 note and take all your £1 coins for the car park, leaving you to spend the rest of the day stressing. Someone could go to the bank for more change if there were any banks actually open anymore.
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That's a good one and I've definitely not heard it before |
The Seemingly Non-Ending Risk of Physical Harm
If you stand, your legs will hurt. I
f you’ve got a chair, your back will hurt.
Either way, all the leaning, turning and lifting at odd angles will give you all sorts of repetitive strain injuries.
But that’s above ground. Beneath the till lies a deathtrap:
You might be able to spot the rogue tagging gun before stabbing yourself on its uncapped needle, but it is apparently impossible to fish out a new till roll without banging your head on the desk.
Then there’s the the ultra-thin gift wrap that always gives you a paper cut. The prohibited craft knife that’s being used because all the officially designated box-opening tools have gone missing. And look, someone’s left their boiling hot cup of tea under there for you to knock over and scald yourself on. Get a sippy cup at least!
Dehydration
Brought on by not drinking enough, because then you’ll need a wee.
