There are some people who work retail who like to constantly ask coworkers to swap shifts with them. These retail coworkers are typically the least reliable because they are unwilling to schedule their lives in advance like the rest of us. After much grief I have decided not to swap shifts with anyone unless they are willing to work a shift, for free, as my personal assistant.
Once I had a coworker ask me if I was off on a certain day. I told him that I was. Naturally the next question was if I might work his shift on that certain day in exchange for him working another shift of mine. I said that was fine with me. I was expecting him to go fill out the necessary paper work for me to sign but he never did. That is part of the deal where I work if you want to switch shifts with someone. After all it was not me who needed to change shifts. I figured he had changed his mind and I forgot all about it.
A couple weeks later I get a call from a manager on my day off. He wanted to know why I was not at work. Apparently I was covering for my coworker and I was expected to work. I go to work and everyone acts like I am such an inconsiderate jerk. I had to endure their snarky remarks about how nice it was I could join the rest of them that actually showed up to work on time.
I did not know which day this coworker was supposed to cover for me in exchange for all this hassle since it was never put in writing. None of the managers seemed to know either so I ended up picking up an extra shift that week that I did not want. It made for a very long week. I tried helping a few other coworkers with their shift swap requests but had similar experiences that left me feeling annoyed and inconvenienced. Finally I decided no more swaps.
Now when people ask me if I will cover for them I tell them I will but that they will not like what I want in return. They ask what that might be. I tell them they will have to be my personal assistant at work for a day. This is not a paid position. They are working off the clock for me.
Being my personal assistant is not easy. My personal assistant will show up a half hour before I am scheduled to come to work. Bring your own cleaning supplies because our company never provides adequate supplies and I want my cash register clean. I will show up to work and my personal assistant will have a nice glass of iced water waiting for me. My assistant is expected to stand the entire shift with me just out of sight of the customers.
Most of our customers are straight-up stupid. They will always find something without a bar code or item number. Of course they have no clue where they found it or how much it costs. Yes, I would like to pay for a tank of gas. I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t sell gas. You don’t? Then what did I just put in my car? I use to try calling the relevant department to get the floor person there to fetch me the item number but they acted like I was being unreasonable. I am not allowed to leave the register because there is money in it and people could walk out the door with merchandise. I can not just go get it myself. If I have a personal assistant to go fetch item numbers I can actually cashier.
Shortly after lunch I usually need to have a major bowel movement. Management acts like I should have done that during lunch. My body just does not work that way. I need new food to push out the old food. We barely have enough people to cover the store and there is no one available to cover someone taking a crap. My personal assistant would come in handy in such a situation. They could not jump on my register for me since they are off the clock but at least they could bring me a chamber pot. I would take a much needed crap right there at the register. Thank you, personal assistant.
There is not much more to it than that. At the end of my shift you get to leave. If you did a satisfactory job as my personal assistant I will cover your shift. I hope it was worth it.