When you work at a store for a long time, you can become a well-known face in the community. That’s undoubtedly a nice thing, since your regulars will spend a little extra time talking to you, brightening up both of your days in the meantime. And a long work day can feel like it goes a lot faster when it’s packed with friendly exchanges and neighbourhood gossip.

However, that kind of low-level local recognisability does come with some drawbacks. First of all, people know you, they know where you work, and they know who you work with. So if, at some times, you might want a little anonymity – well think again, you’re not getting that. If you’re on a first date with someone or seen staggering drunkenly around on a night out and you’re seen by the wrong person? Well, the whole store – no, the whole community – is going to know about it.

And if you’re on your day off and you need to pick something up from the store you work at, you might find yourself accosted by customers who know you work there, and know that you can tell them where something is. They’ll see past the fact that you’re not wearing your uniform, seeing your face and associating it with help. For the retail worker in this story that is an accepted part of the job. The real problem? The store he’s in – and being accused of working at – isn’t the store he works at, and he absolutely doesn’t know where things are.

Read on to find out what happened here.

When “I don’t work here!” doesn’t work

I work in retail and have for years.

For some reason, people who work in retail somehow get some sort of retail stink on them where they end up being approached by customers when they aren’t even in their own store. This can happen anywhere, and is most common when we’re wearing our uniforms, even when not in our home stores.

But the crazy part is it can happen when we’re in street clothes too.

I’m always polite when this happens, but there is one time that just made me shake my head. It occurred at a drug store a year or two ago.

Let’s see what happened when this person was minding their own business in a drug store.

I had stopped in to pick up some toilet paper and saw that they had soda (pop) on sale. I decided that it was a great deal and I’d buy some, so I leaned down to pick up a couple of cases when I heard this voice behind me.

The woman was saying, “Excuse me. Can you help me?” I obviously wasn’t answering, because I didn’t realise she was talking to me. Then she said louder, “EXCUSE ME! I need some help!”

I put down the case I’d just picked up and turned towards her. She was well dressed and looked like she was in her late thirties.

I said, “I’m sorry, were you talking to me?”

Read on to find out how the woman responded.

She said, “Of COURSE I was talking to you. I need help finding this drug.” I replied, “I’m sorry Ma’am. I don’t work here.” To that, she said, “Yes you do. Now will you please help me?”

At this point, I pointed to my Pac-man T-shirt that has Pac-man chasing a ghost emblazoned across the front, saying, “No Ma’am. I do not work here.”

Still, she insisted, “Yes you do work here! I’ve seen you here before.”

I reiterated, “I do not work here. I never have worked here. I’m trying to shop, just like you. I’m sure if you go to the registers they can get someone to help you.”

Let’s see if the woman decided to follow his advice.

She proceeded to give me a nasty look and walk away to the registers. When I got to the registers to check out, she’d found her bottle of aspirin or whatever and was waiting in line. AND she refused to even look at me.

I said, “Oh hey. You found what you were looking for!”

Sarcastically, she replied, “Yeah. Thanks for the help.”

I said, “Right. Sorry about not working here!” She ignored me after that, which was fine by me.

It would be kind of understandable if he was in his work uniform, but he was literally wearing a Pac-Man shirt.

How more obvious can you get?

Maybe she recognises him from the other store and got confused, but even if did work at the drug store and had just popped in on his day off, he would still be under no obligation to help her!

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person was baffled by her attitude.

While others could really relate.

And this Redditor agreed that he would be under no obligation to help her on his day off anyway.

In most parts of the world, employees have certain rights. Amongst those vital rights, are the right to have time off work. Regardless of whether or not the woman recognises this guy as a sales assistant somewhere, definitely doesn’t mean that he’s a sales assistant everywhere. And even if he was a sales assistant in this particular drug store (which he wasn’t), his attire should have immediately indicated that he was on a day off.

Spoiler alert: when an employee is not at work, they’re under no obligation to help you, even if you have been their customer before. Even if they’re in the store they work in. They’re on a day off, they’re not being paid to work. And just because you can’t find your favourite item in the store, doesn’t mean that they should spend their free time, totally unpaid, helping you out.

It feels like none of that should need to be said, that it should be common sense. Nevertheless, all too often people are expected to go above and beyond for customers who refuse to try to find an item themselves – or at least try to find a real employee – instead taking their frustration out on random fellow customers. Let’s be real, the audacity to tell him that he definitely does work at the store even though he told her he didn’t? She needs to learn to take no for an answer.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was on break when she was physically dragged back to the register by a customer.