“I worked at a department store. I was in charge of the truck and stocking. Usually, this included making the department I worked look good, refolding clothes, straightening stacks, sizing the clothing racks, etc. I’d just finished the juniors department when I turn around and see so many clothes on the floor. There was a teenager picking up folded shirts to look at them, and then she was just throwing them on the ground.
It was a particularly bad day for me, as all but two of our truck team had called in. I didn’t have time for this nonsense at all. I politely asked her to stop throwing the merchandise on the floor. It’s fine if she wanted to just set the stuff back onto the tables, but seriously stop throwing it on the ground.
This turned into her proceeding to throw piles of folded clothes on the ground. Picking up hanging items and just tossing them. So I asked where her parents were. She refused to answer. So I paged overhead asking for the parent of said teen (I described her clothing and hair) to come to the juniors department, as their daughter had an amazing surprise for them.
It wasn’t long before a lady walked over with a smile on her face, and then it just fell into the most annoyed /disappointed/disgusted look. She looked at me, then her daughter. The girl tried to say I was the one that did this, and was trying to blame her for being bad at my job. Her mom was having NONE of that. Her mom apologized profusely for her daughter’s behavior, and asked me to show her how we folded the clothes. I tried to tell her not to worry about it, I just wanted her kid to stop. She insisted, so I showed her the fold we used on shirts and the ones we used on pants.
I started picking things up, and noticed the mom had gone to work, telling her daughter how to fold everything. Eventually she told me I could go do something else, they weren’t leaving until her daughter fixed everything. I had other things to do, but I came back later and they were finishing up. Daughter was in tears, saying she was humiliated and that this wasn’t her job.
Mom just kind of stood there chuckling and said, ‘It’s your job right now, you make a mess you pick it up. Rules don’t stop at our front door, they apply to anywhere you go.’
Started off as one of the worst experiences but ended on a high note, for me at least.”
