Every job requires certain skills, and for cashiers, one of the most important is counting money.

Imagine you were called to help a cashier who entered the wrong amount on the register and couldn’t figure out the correct change while a customer was waiting. Would you just hurry up and count it out so the customer can leave? Or would you break it down and walk her through how to count money?

In the following story, a man finds himself in this situation and uses it as a teaching experience. Here’s how it went down.

If You Can’t Handle Money Don’t Work As A Cashier

We had a new-ish(she has been with us about a month and a half) girl working our register tonight because it is slow, and Monday night is freight night, which she isn’t able to do because of back problems.

I have been assigned the dubious task of running her backup register in the unlikely event that we are busy enough to need another register open.

Maybe fifteen minutes before we lock the doors, I hear it come over the intercom: “RedHeadedBug to the front for register assistance!”

The cashier had entered the wrong amount of money into the register.

So I go up, and there is the new girl, staring at her open register with a twenty-dollar bill in hand and a terrified/confused look on her face.

The customer looks half-amused and half-irritated. Oh joy.

New Girl: “They gave me a twenty, but I told the register I had a fifty, and I don’t know what change to give them! How do I figure it out??”

Me: “Well, fifty is just thirty more than twenty, so you could just subtract thirty from the change the computer is telling you and count back to make sure you got it right.”

He tried to explain it to her, but the cashier wasn’t getting it.

NG:(looks at me blankly) “I don’t know how to count back.”

Me:(sigh. Great) “Just count the change up from the total until you get to twenty. See? Their total is $3.56, so you want to count up from that.”

NG: (more blank staring)

He really broke it down.

Me: “Alright, I’ll show you. Four pennies bring us to 3.60, a dime brings us to 3.70, add a nickel, and we get to 3.75, a quarter brings us to 4, a dollar more, and we get 5, and then a 5-dollar bill brings us to 10, and a 10-dollar bill brings us to twenty, you see how it is done? The computer is telling you to give them $46.44, subtract 30, and we get $16.44. We have the correct change. You understand how I did that?”

NG: “No, I don’t, but is that their change?”

Me: “Yes (hand it to the guy), Have a lovely evening, sir. I’m sorry about your wait.”

There’s no excuse for her lack of money-counting skills.

Our customer thanks us, gives me a sort of pained smile, and heads out the door without another word. Thank God!

Now I know that not everyone knows how to count back anymore (though if you work a register, you really should know how, just in case), but if you can’t figure out the change difference between a twenty and a fifty, I really think that you should not be working on a register.

And this girl is a bit older than I am, so it isn’t like she is fresh out of high school and this is her first job, and she is still learning. She claimed to have worked as a cashier before she got hired.

Wow! Her problem-solving skills leave a lot to be desired.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.

Let’s see if the people over at Reddit have ever dealt with someone like this.

This reader has a different way of explaining it.

Here’s an interesting thought.

This is such a common thing to do.

According to this person, you learn that math in elementary school.

This woman needs to learn how to count.