Jobsworths

[Camp Tramp]

My friend got 'Challenge 25'd' at Sainsbury's last week, over a DIY tool of some sort. He had no ID but is clearly a 40 year old man. The security guard was called over, shook his head in puzzlement then swiped him through. She then asked the even older man following him for ID.

This morning I was in the same store at the self service checkouts. The supervisor was watching me like a hawk, tutted and straightened the bags after I took one, then came rushing over when I finished, and swiped a bag through so I paid the 5p charge, just before I got to the prompt. She then moaned, "You have to pay for your bags." With no evidence that I wasn't going to.

Some people take their shitty jobs too seriously.

[New Jack]

The supervisor was watching me like a hawk, tutted and straightened the bags after I took one, then came rushing over when I finished, and swiped a bag through so I paid the 5p charge, just before I got to the prompt. She then moaned, "You have to pay for your bags." With no evidence that I wasn't going to.

This has happened to me, supermarket drama fans, I asked what the cuntshitting fuck was up (maybe not those exact words) and the explained protocol was to ask for a bag, they get them for you as they need to scan em to charge you.

Ironically I was trying to nick one when I found this out

[ASFTSN]

Some people take their shitty jobs too seriously.

Agreed.  But some of those people are the pedant middle-managers who repeatedly tell their checkout staff they'll be the ones coughing up a £10k fine if a secret shopper turns out to have been sold something without having their ID checked.

[greenman]

Some people take their shitty jobs too seriously.

Problem is the law has been shifted so they take much of the punishment for underage sales of drink, knives, etc rather than the company.

[a duncandisorderly]

I steal from the supermarket at every opportunity that presents itself. the carrots-for-other-things thing is chicken feed.

[Wet Blanket]

I got IDd buying a beer at the cinema the other day, despite being 34 and bald. They obviously get told to do it by managers and are at risk of some sort of punishment if they don't. People in those kind of jobs don't get much leeway in terms of exercising discretion so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

When I was 21 I used to get the right hump about being asked to prove my age, whereas now I understand it, because 21 year olds all look like kids.

[Noonling]

Agreed.  But some of those people are the pedant middle-managers who repeatedly tell their checkout staff they'll be the ones coughing up a £10k fine if a secret shopper turns out to have been sold something without having their ID checked.

Yep. When I was working on a checkout every couple of months we'd have to fill in a quiz thing which asks "How much will the supermarket get fined if you sell restricted items to an underage person?" and "How much could you personally be fined?", along with what's acceptable ID and so on. Sometimes the supervisor would whisper to me to ID check someone further in the queue, or literally hover at the end of the till waiting for me to ask.

I did dutifully ask for ID a lot, and several times it was someone over 25. We weren't supposed to go back on our words once we asked, but usually I just looked up at their face properly and just went "Yeah ok". To be honest, I didn't really look closely at people before asking for their ID, so it was often a decision I made in half a second and then regretted.

Not to say that some people aren't awful pedants too though.

[shiftwork2]

That 'if you are lucky enough to look...' tee hee horseshit appears to have gone, or maybe it just washes over me now.

Got asked for ID in Sainsburys two years ago, at the age of 44 and with salt-and-pepper hair.  After complying I asked her what on earth she was thinking and her answer was 'you got caught in the rain and are wet' which is still making me scratch my head even now.

[Icehaven]

I once moved from one self-service checkout to another halfway through the transaction because the first one broke down. An assistant appeared (after being nowhere in sight when I was standing waiting for someone to come and fix it before I gave up and moved) and quite aggressively started telling me I ''can't just do that'' and so on. I explained to her in no uncertain terms that I just had done that, so yes you can, and that you really, really shouldn't speak to customers like that. She gave up and huffed away then but it was nuts, really sounded like someone more used to scolding naughty children than speaking to adult customers

[Camp Tramp]

I got IDd buying a beer at the cinema the other day, despite being 34 and bald. They obviously get told to do it by managers and are at risk of some sort of punishment if they don't. People in those kind of jobs don't get much leeway in terms of exercising discretion so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

When I was 21 I used to get the right hump about being asked to prove my age, whereas now I understand it, because 21 year olds all look like kids.

If there is reasonable doubt, then fine. I'm pretty sure the random ID checks aren't carried out by people who are obviously over 40 though?

[Camp Tramp]

At IBM in Portsmouth, they used to have people stand at the top and bottom of the stairs. Their only job would be to counsel people who didn't use the handrails.

[New Jack]

I've not been IDd in years apart from at the job shop, I buy booze and knives* all the time

Always understood it to be challenge 25, eg. Look 25 at minimum to buy 18 rated shite.

I think those jobsworths are jobsworths but any excuse to blame Middle management is fine (as its probably spot-on)

*not as often

[Yussef Dent]

I used to have to ID people back in the day at Threshers, the only time you actually like doing it is when it's a kid who is clearly underage, then it can be bloody funny. The ramifications of you not checking though just aren't worth the consequences. A lass who worked at the Bargain Booze in my home town got done for it, lost her job, was personally fined and the store was forced to shut at 5pm, so they had to get rid of two other staff who just did evenings.

[Dog Botherer]

Wife got done for not IDing one time in a bar, couple of undercover lads on a Sunday morning after she'd worked a 12 hour shift the previous night. The only reason she wasn't fired is because she basically held the place together on the weekends and the bar would have gone under while they found someone to replace her, the manager knew that, and told corporate to get fucked when they wanted to fire her. Bartered them down to a weeks suspension then just never actually did it. Great lad. Anyway she ended up with a 100 dollar fine and a slap on the wrist.

Since then she ID's absolutely everyone, because second offence jumps to fines of over a grand and possible jail time. Yanks don't fuck around.

[Ferris]

I always present my ID whenever buying stuff because I think the checkout people have to ask, and look, here, I've made it easy for them and removed the embarrassment for all concerned.

An angry Russian lady in my lobby tutted and said "what are you doing! Jesus!" because me and Mrs Ferris brushed a fern with a bag on our way out. I nearly said something rude but didn't, because she was very old and probably mad.

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

I got IDed buying a magnum of vintage champagne (biggest supermarket in town has a "rarities" cabinet). The guy had to unlock it to give me the bottle in a wooden case, and said to me that he presumed I was over-age but refused to ask as what underage drinker makes a beeline for the most expensive item in the store (if you exclude the TVs they sometimes flog). At checkout I got IDed properly (tills here beep and flash up a message to the cashier) as although the cashier just hit OK the supervisor pounced and I eventually managed to convince him with my work ID that I was (at the time) 38.

[idunnosomename]

If punishments are so harsh on underage selling, why don't the nice young people Aldi ever bother? It's always old dodderers in Morrisons.

[New Jack]

Any procedure that potentially slows down the Aldi cashiers is immediately jettisoned, be this asking for ID or waiting til you have a bag ready so as to avoid your coffee being slung off the end of the till, crashing to the floor

[Paul Calf]

At IBM in Portsmouth, they used to have people stand at the top and bottom of the stairs. Their only job would be to counsel people who didn't use the handrails.

On the Bangkok Skytrain (urban light rail system - think the DLR with air conditioning that'd keep your milk fresh) they have people at the stations whose job it is to blow their whistles and bellow like drill instructors if passengers poke even a toe over the yellow line on the platform keeping waiting a metre passengers from the edge, and certain death.

[DrGreggles]

I got asked for ID in Sainsburys when buying a cheese and onion slice.
There was probably some ID in my wallet, but it was much more fun to become incredulous.
"You have to show me some ID - it's the law!"
I laughed in his face.
A manager overheard and took the jobsworth away for a quiet word...

[Danger Man]

Working the till made me aware of class consciousness. If a young man in a suit was buying a bottle of wine then I wouldn't ask for ID. But if the same young man was wearing a hoodie and buying Frosty Jack's I'd get all uppity and demand to see proof of age.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Relieving a minor inconvenience from my path probably is more than somebody's job is worth. Get the sack so that I can have a bottle of mirin you peasant.

My wife was buying a Davina McCall exercise DVD in the big Tesco. Exercise DVDs are not classified by the BBFC and are not age restricted, but for some reason the checkout lady asked for ID. I laughed and suggested that the Davina McCall exercise DVD might contain 'strong language and scenes of a sexual nature'. I'm used to my jokes falling flat but the look she gave me was chilling.

[St_Eddie]

A few years back, I'd had a single pint at my local and then walked down to Sainsbury's to buy a bottle of wine because I was on my way to my mate's flat.  I took the wine, along with various food stuffs, to the checkout and the following exchange occurred between myself and the cashier...

MYSELF: "Hello, how are you?"

CASHIER: "Good, thanks.  Can I ask, have you been drinking today, Sir?"

MYSELF: "Yes, I've just had a pint at the pub."

CASHIER: "I thought so, as I could smell it on your breath.  I'm sorry, Sir but I can't sell you this alcohol if you're under the influence."

MYSELF: "Oh, it's okay.  I've literally just had a single pint of beer.  I'm not drunk."

CASHIER: "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do.  I can still scan the food items through though."

MYSELF: "You can surely tell by my voice and mannerisms that I'm sober."

CASHIER: "I'm sorry but I can't sell you alcohol.  Shall I scan the food items through?"

MYSELF [visibly annoyed]: "No, don't worry about it.  I'll go elsewhere, thanks."

[Steven]

[Myself, visibly annoyed] "No, don't worry about it.  I'll go elsewhere, thanks."

Trust you to get steaming wrecked on one pint and drunkenly wander into a Greggs by mistake.

[St_Eddie]

Trust you to get steaming wrecked on one pint and drunkenly wander into a Greggs by mistake.

Oh, shit, that explains so much!  I wondered why all Sainsbury's was selling were pasties and why the bloke next to the shelf which looked like a shopping bag, angrily protested when I picked up a bottle of wine from within and took it to the counter.

[madhair60]

Also explains the frot golem

[madhair60]

Got jobsworthed at work by a fat old bitch for looking at my Gmail for ten seconds. She spends all day on Facetime with her stupid grandchildren, cooing at their distorted, carbon footprinty faces.

[New Jack]

Got jobsworthed at work by a fat old bitch for looking at my Gmail for ten seconds. She spends all day on Facetime with her stupid grandchildren, cooing at their distorted, carbon footprinty faces.

I hope you have a go at her when she's next doing it.

[Steven]

Oh, shit, that explains so much!  I wondered why all Sainsbury's was selling were pasties and why the bloke next to the shelf which looked like a shopping bag, angrily protested when I picked up a bottle of wine from within and took it to the counter.

That wasn't a bottle of wine, it was a 'CAUTION - SLIPPERY WHEN WET' cone, you embarrasing light-weight.

[Sebastian Cobb]

A few years back, I'd had a single pint at my local and then walked down to Sainsbury's to buy a bottle of wine because I was on my way to my mate's flat.  I took the wine, along with various food stuffs, to the checkout and the following exchange occurred between myself and the cashier...

MYSELF: "Hello, how are you?"

CASHIER: "Good, thanks.  Can I ask, have you been drinking today, Sir?"

MYSELF: "Yes, I've just had a pint at the pub."

CASHIER: "I thought so, as I could smell it on your breath.  I'm sorry, Sir but I can't sell you this alcohol if you're under the influence."

MYSELF: "Oh, it's okay.  I've literally just had a single pint of beer.  I'm not drunk."

CASHIER: "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do.  I can still scan the food items through though."

MYSELF: "You can surely tell by my voice and mannerisms that I'm sober."

CASHIER: "I'm sorry but I can't sell you alcohol.  Shall I scan the food items through?"

MYSELF [visibly annoyed]: "No, don't worry about it.  I'll go elsewhere, thanks."

Whereas I actually do enjoy the odd half-cut adventure around the supermarket.