What does freedom mean to you?
It was the beginning of her shift,she had resigned two weeks ago, and tonight, after five years ,she would leave and never come back.Well ,she might come back as a customer at Christmas , Wankroses Christmas Food had been quite good and they usually had quite a good range of spices which were handy at Christmas.
The experience of working in a mainstream supermarket had been new to her, and she felt she had fitted in quite well.
Being on the till had seemed quite daunting to her at first ,but she had soon realised that it wasn’t really that difficult,that the powers that be felt they had reduced the complexity of the task to scanning a bar code and swiping from left to right.
She laughed to herself whilst sitting there that her slender wrists movement and a gentle rotation of the hand were done with such aplomb that the customers were in awe of her deftness.
In truth,the customers were in awe of her friendliness and understanding.Something ,she learned that Wankroses Management needed lessons in.
So here they were, an hour and a half into her last shift.She wasn’t allowed near the tills or running the self checkout, which gave the duty manager an absolute headache but made her smile.
“Rules was rules”.
She, on the other hand, knew there was a lot that needed done; so she wasn’t going to be bored on shift. She began by pulling products forward on the shelves which had been in dissaray.There was a spillage by a customer of a fruit yoghurt,she cleaned the squidgy mess up,and put the yellow warning sign over the wet patch so that no one would slip on it,while the wet floor dried.
It was as she came out of the back of the shop;she saw the young man with a rucksack on his back go straight up to the Lottery and Cigarettes area.
Definately, an 18-25 check she thought to herself,and watched as one of the young shop assistants who was as bright as a button and that she really liked went behind the counter and served the young man.
She wasn’t paying much attention as she tidied up some giftwrap and noticed that the young man had left the store. The young shop assistant came over and said to her.
“Would you have age checked him?”
“Well, yes,I think I would,no harm in asking for ID.”
“Oh ,I should have done,I nearly did.”
Just then, the young man returned and walked up to the young shop assistant with a letter and handed it to her.The young lad had been a mystery shopper and the store had been caught selling restricted goods to an underage shopper.
Too late,the Duty Manager came out and started telling everyone that he had heard from another shop that the mystery shopper was in the area and that to be extra careful.
The young shop assistant burst into tears and held out the letter.
Funny, she tried a month or two back to warn the Store Manager that things were not as they should be when the duty manager was on.
It was the second sale of restricted goods to a minor in one month.
All that happened after her talk with the store manager was she had been subjected to further sexist behaviour by said Duty Manager, and things went from bad to worse.She decided it was time to go.If there isn’t a willingness to improve things will never improve.
The said Duty Manager that they were now so short staffed that she would have to do all the things that the rules said she shouldn’t do as the poor bright as a button shop assistant would have to be interviewed and do her training again in the back of the shop.
At the end of the shift, when the shop staff were standing at the door waiting to leave and saying their final goodbyes to her .
The Duty Manager passed by her, and she said “Freedom ” straight in his ear. Knowing that the Duty Manager certainly was not a free man,but she was free now.
thenotsomightyom 