When you’ve worked in the same job for some time, and you’re the only one who does it, you’ll realise that no one knows your job the same as you do. Not even your colleagues. Not even your manager. Because it’s you who has the day to day roles that you have perfected. And if that hasn’t become clear a few months into your job, it will become even more so when you move on from that role and have to handover the role you know so well to someone who doesn’t do it at all.

In certain lines of work, you might be working hard while it looks like you’re not really doing anything at all – to the outside world at least. That was the experience of the grocery store service desk worker in this story. Their list of daily responsibilities are seemingly endless, but that doesn’t stop customers from thinking that they were doing nothing at all. And one day, that aspersion really got to the employee, and eventually they flipped.

Read on to find out what happened.

“Do you want to work?”

I used to work in a grocery store on the Service Desk closing shifts five nights per week.

Every Wednesday, a little old German couple would stop at the desk and ask me “Do you want to work?” (heavy emphasis placed on the word work) – meaning would I cash them out?

Despite it looking like I didn’t do much, I had to pull and sort everything from fourteen registers (containing all coupons, credit and debit slips, etc.) process all the WIC vouchers, take in tills and count them and set them up for the next morning, count the change drawer, and re-set it to the opening configuration.

All this was in addition to answering a multi-line phone, making all PA announcements, processing returns, selling lottery tickets, doing bill payments and sending money via Moneygram, giving people directions to where things in the store were located, listening to and attempting to resolve customer complaints, summoning managers, and answering hundreds of questions each night.

And this was never an easy task.

After the desk closed, there was still more work to do! Counting lottery tickets, cash sweeping registers one last time before we close the store, balancing the cash sweep, cash drops, balancing the safe, and waiting for the closing manager to check everything before clocking out.

We were also the only real grocery store for a 50 to 60 mile radius, so we were always hella busy. So, I resented the implication that I stood around all night and do nothing.

Wednesday night again, the old couple strolled up and the wife asked, “So, do you want to work?”

It had been a bad day. I’d had it. My filter slipped a little bit.

Read on to find out what the service desk employee said to the customers.

I said, “Ma’am, if you are asking if I will cash you out, I will gladly assist you. But I am where I am supposed to be, and I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. Simply because it looks to you like I am not busy, does not mean I am not working, or not doing the job I am here to do, so please don’t treat me like I am goofing off, or not doing my job. So, yes, I do want to work, and in fact, I am working. Now, would you like me to cash you out?”

It took her a few seconds to remember how to close her mouth, and then she managed a weak “Yes.”

Ten minutes later, manager moseys on by and asks what I had said to them. Because, of course they complained. I repeated it in the exact same tone and inflection for him. He chuckled, and says he understood, but just dial it back a little bit next time.

Funnily enough, I never saw that old couple again. Think they must have figured out what my day off was so they wouldn’t have to face me again.

It’s not easy at all when you have to deal with situations like this at work, especially when you’re doing exactly what you should be doing.

And that’s all this employee was doing – their job.

It’s no wonder, after weeks of this, they snapped.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person could empathise.

While others thought that this was a matter of customer entitlement.

Meanwhile, this Redditor was insulted by similar questions.

It doesn’t really matter whether it looks like an employee is doing nothing or not, the reality is that it’s none of a customer’s business. If an employee isn’t doing their job properly, that’s something for their manager to account for, not a matter for the customer to take into their own hands. Because stories like this show that doing so just shows the customer as the naive person they are, and that’s never a good look.

Considering the sheer amount that this service desk assistant explains they do, it’s no wonder they were upset by the implication. Because the few moments where they’re not run off their feet must feel like welcome relief. Hearing the comment every now and then would be fine, but the fact that this couple make the same comment every week would get to anyone after a while. Who could blame the employee for responding the way they did?