If you’re not the boss at your job, all you can do is follow orders, right?

Hey, that’s just the way it goes.

Today’s story comes from a grocery store worker who could only follow orders…even though they knew it was going to rub some people the wrong way.

Take a look.

You don’t have the authority to say no to customers.

“This is a story from almost a decade ago now when I was promoted to Assistant Service Manger for a large chain health food grocery store.

For reference as to what that actually means for our store there were only two people who outranked myself and the two other managers at my same level. There was an Assistant Store Director and the Store Director, hereafter known as SD.

They knew their roles.

Our day to day responsibilities included making sure each department was getting all their work completed, making sure shelves were staying stocked, cashiering when necessary, counting money and making change for the registers, and most importantly to this story approving returns.

I worked super hard to get that position by learning the ins and outs of the store and picking up shifts in every single department. When I was promoted to the position, I was the youngest person in company history to reach that level.

I don’t mean that as a humble brag, but just to illustrate that I did know what I was talking about on a lot of things, but I was young so many people did not take me seriously.

So like I mentioned before it was my job to approve returns. If a customer brought in something for a return the cashier would do all the work for the return including checking for a receipt, figuring out what the problem was, and determining how they could make it better for the customer (exchange, store credit, refund, etc.).

They would call me over at the end of the exchange, I would check to make sure it was all in order, insert a key, type in a code, and the return would go through.

Now I would like to think I was a reasonable person when it came to what I would approve and not approve. If someone came back with spoiled food, I almost always gave them the benefit of the doubt that they stored it right and it was a faulty product (spoiler: its almost always their fault).

They were pretty lenient with customers.

If someone didn’t like the taste of something, I would always do the return. Even when something was slightly past the expiration date, I would try to work with them and maybe give them an exchange.

Where I drew the line was absolutely ridiculous things.

People would come do things like come in without a receipt or the product and try to get a return saying something like I got some (insert food) here and it was bad so I threw it away, I’d like a return.

Okay so sorry I am not going to do that. Also, if you bring in something we don’t even sell at our store, I’m obviously not going to return it for you.

Now like I said before I was young at the time so a lot of older adults wouldn’t take me seriously. They couldn’t understand someone so young could be the manager they wanted to speak to.

Uh oh…

So one day an irate customer wanted to speak to a manager about a return. My cashier called me, and I do my best to figure out how I can help them. They want a return on chicken that was THREE MONTHS expired. It smelled exactly like you would expect. My cashier was almost dry heaving from the stench.

So I say in my best customer service voice, “I’m sorry ma’am, but we wont be able to do a return on this today. It’s obviously way past its expiration date. If you would like we can dispose of it for you.”

She wouldn’t have any of it. She is now yelling about how she deserves a refund. Now we had cameras in the store, and so SD sees the commotion and comes out from his office to “save the day” (please read this as sarcastically as you can).

He tells the lady, “Oh I’m sorry that he was saying we can’t do a refund on this. Of course we’ll do that.”

She ripped them off!

It didn’t have a bar code so he had no idea what it originally cost, but he gave the lady a $20 gift card to the store right there.

I’m fuming at this point because he just made me look like a powerless idiot in front of a bunch of customers, but we were busy so I keep doing my job.

About an hour later he calls me into his office. I would type out the whole conversation, but it’s pointless because it all boils down to him telling me multiple times explicitly that I was not allowed to say no to a return.

I was to approve all returns because customer satisfaction is more important than a little lost revenue, blah blah blah.

So I think this is the stupidest thing ever, but I am a good employee and I liked getting paid so I kept my mouth shut. I do think from the title and where we stand in the story up to now you can all figure out where this goes.

Fast forward a few weeks and a customer comes in.

During Christmas time, we had sold little 1-2 foot tall Christmas trees in small pots. It was now June. This lady wanted to return her Christmas tree that now made the Charlie Brown tree look full and healthy.

These people sound crazy…

It didn’t have a single needle on it, and the trunk was rotting. Normally I would tell her in the most polite way that I could that there was no way in hell I would do that. I had specific instructions, though, and I was sure as heck going to follow them.

As part of the return, and while trying not to laugh, I asked her why she wanted to return it. She told me flat out, “Well it didn’t do what I was expecting it to.” Now I don’t know what she expected, but I personally don’t buy a Christmas tree thinking its going to live forever. I completed the return though, and sent her on her way.

Here you go!

Where did I take that Christmas tree you might ask? If you guessed straight to the SD’s desk for him to find the next morning you would be a winner.

I had the next day off but the nice note I left him explained the whole situation. The next day when I came back, he immediately called me in.

I was expecting the worst because leaving it on his desk with a note was a little aggressive, but all he said was, “maybe from now on you can say no sometimes. Just use your best judgement.”

It was one of the greatest victories ever and it took all my self restraint not to say something sarcastic about how that should have been the case all along.”

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This was some hilarious malicious compliance!

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