It was HELL.
I have to get this off my chest, I am completely overwhelmed and drowning in anxiety.
Yesterday my shift started normal until I checked the schedule and realized one of the dispensers called out. That meant I was the only one there for closing, meaning that I HAD to dispense the entire rest of the night by myself when it’s not even my regular job. I only come and help on dispense when they need help, despite me being a picker as usual.
Earlier when there was another person also there, I was being ignored when I asked questions. Eventually they also had to clock out, which left me as the only person on dispensing for the rest of the night. Everything seemed okay at first until a customer came inside to pick up an order. Once I was getting all the items to dispense it to them, there was one frozen item that was missing (it was peas). I looked EVERYWHERE and it was not staged nor was it to be found. Since I don’t dispense that often I was panicking looking around everywhere for it as the customer got more anxious and annoyed.
I went to go find team leads from other departments since the lead in my department left and told me to go to them if I needed help. They were nowhere to be found. I went across the entire store to find another employee for help after I already went to customer service, only to be lied to that a team lead was coming when they weren’t coming at all. I went to try to find the second team lead, only to be told that they left the floor to go get food and ice cream.
As I’m drowning in regret and anxiety, a random employee from a different department did their best to try to help me. Everyone thought that it was me not allowing them to leave over a frozen item, when I repeatedly had to explain I wanted to but the system would not let me dispense all their stuff without the tote being attached for it. As 40 minutes go by, the employee decided to buy the peas for them. The customer scanned just the item themselves with no tote attached and it allowed me to dispense it, so 40 minutes went to waste over a system workaround I didn't know about.
After that, I was backed up on all the dispensing orders and had to rush as fast as possible. A Team Lead then came, said they don’t know how to dispense, and just left me. I continued to fall behind and deal with a lot of upset customers as my face was bright red dealing with all the embarrassment, trying to hold back tears. A customer angrily barged in screaming demanding their items, and I proceeded to freeze, then quickly scramble to find all their items while shaking in fear before finally handing it to them. I apologized for being late and luckily they said “I’m not mad at you, they should have had more people to help you.” Despite this, her loud tone and attitude still frightened me to death and still does just thinking about it.
After that, a big delivery order was cancelled by the driver, so I had to carry it all the way back inside while a security guard just stared at me like the mess was my fault. I then had customers waiting and a delivery driver who was annoyed because I had to scan all the items. That’s when a random employee from a different department temporarily came and helped me scan one item.
When it was time for me to clock out, I tried to turn my TC in and leave through the back doors only for another employee to tell me to wait so that a coach could come and restart the system so it won’t kick me out and then to watch me leave and to help the remaining customers but the coach still didn’t come so I then spent the next 17 minutes and went back to help a customer who was calm; they gave me their phone to scan but the barcode wasn’t working so I scrambled back and forth to try to get help. When I managed to get the code, the customer told me “you’re very overwhelmed, I know what it’s like.” That was the most compassion I had all night. I gave another customer their order, clocked out, and finally was able to go home.
I called out for today because I was so angry and hurt by the lack of a support system. They cannot just have one person on closing when someone else clocks out. Sometimes I’m closing when I’m the only one normally scheduled to close that night and it’s not fair for the amount of anxiety this has given me. This is exactly why I hate being forced to do a task I am not properly trained or supported to do.
Sorry for my long rant I needed to get this off my chest, hopefully tomorrow will be better since I’m not closing off 😭 the amount of anxiety I had yesterday was unbelievable I literally wanted to faint… and one more thing… there making us pull the carts like you all predicted…