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#Post#: 34010--------------------------------------------------
Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: spunkyboy08 Date: July 6, 2019, 4:55 pm
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I need advice regarding how to deal with a co-worker of mine.
He is a special needs co-worker. When you have a conversation
with him, you notice that there is a disconnect in his brain.
So, getting your point across to him is challenging.
Both of us are cashiers working for a major grocery store chain.
He makes noises while working such as “yee haw,
yahoo!!” and so on which is a distraction for me and for
my co-workers. My co-workers and I have talked about how
distracting he is at work.
Front-end management and store management have spoken to him
about his behavior, but he continues to act this way.
He also acts like a supervisor even though he is not. He reminds
you of what you need to do as a cashier.
He also reaches over the cash register where you are to grab the
receipt for your customer, and then gives it to them. This
happens when he is working at the cash register in front of you.
He keeps track of his co-workers’ schedules, and when you
either start work early or leave later, he says to you
“aren’t you supposed to work from x time to x
time?” This happens when you are either asked by a
supervisor or a manager to either come in early or stay late.
Many of us are losing our patience when dealing with him.
#Post#: 34013--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: Sycorax Date: July 6, 2019, 5:23 pm
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Do you speak to him in the moment? Like telling him not to grab
the receipt right when he does it? Or telling him that you
already know you need do to X? Or just telling him he's not your
supervisor?
#Post#: 34020--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: Dazi Date: July 6, 2019, 6:48 pm
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Ugh, this sounds like my long ago former co-irker, Bob. Bob
annoyed the Hell out of me and I'm a pretty darn patient person.
Bob also was notorious for keeping track of everyone's schedules
and acting like he was a manager even though he was the
janitor/stocker.
I WAS actually a manager, though not directly over Bob. One day,
I came in different from my regular schedule because of an
appointment (note: I MADE the dang schedule for the entire
store). Bob started quizzing me over why I was coming in
different than my regular schedule. I flat out told him it was
none of his business and he was not my manager, in fact he was
no one's manager, and he needed to drop it now. He kept it up.
So, I wrote him up for harassment and insubordination. Boy, crap
hit the fan then! He tried to get that write up off his record,
but every employee that heard about it started coming forward to
make complaints about the nonsense he pulled on them. The write
up stuck, he was given extreme retraining, and he was very lucky
to keep his job at all.
Sometimes you have to make a unified stink.
#Post#: 34032--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: lakey Date: July 6, 2019, 10:35 pm
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[quote]Many of us are losing our patience when dealing with
him.[/quote]
This is the problem. If this isn't resolved people will get more
and more upset with him and sooner or later someone will react
badly.
His supervisor needs to deal with this. Other than that, make
direct, short statements, but keep your tone so you don't sound
angry.
"Don't do that."
"You aren't my supervisor."
It sounds like this person has some sort of disability, in which
case, it is up to supervisors to work with him on his job
skills. Hiring someone like this and hoping for the best makes
no sense. Sometimes supervisors don't bother to do their jobs.
#Post#: 34039--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: jpcher Date: July 7, 2019, 5:10 am
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There is a man at my grocery store who is obviously a
special-needs person. (maybe Downs Syndrome? I think? Doesn't
really matter, though, does it.)
He's been there for many years. From what I can see his jobs are
bagging, collecting carts from the parking lot and aisle
clean-up.
At times I can hear him from the other side of the store yelling
out a YOO! HOOO! for some reason or another. Sometimes he'll
break out in song. He's usually very polite and sometimes overly
so (if that makes sense).
Sometimes I'll avoid getting into line where he is bagging
because he is very slow yet precise on the way he bags the
items. Early on in his career he once took a head of lettuce and
slam-dunked it into the bag, threw his arms up and yelled
"SCORE!" He has since learned that that was not the proper way
to bag items.
What I'm trying to say is that he is a staple at that store and
I would miss him if he were gone.
Coming back around to your question, spunkyboy08 . . . Today I
stopped at the store for a short pick-up and went to the line
where he was bagging. The cashier tiredly said (to the man)
"Yes, you've already told me that." I've heard similar comments
from other cashiers to the man throughout the years so I do
understand their, and your, angst.
It takes a special person who has the strength/heart to deal
with special-needs people on a daily basis.
I suggest that you talk to management about training classes,
including the SN! So that you can all learn, together, how to
best deal with this situation.
#Post#: 34044--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: Aleko Date: July 7, 2019, 6:48 am
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[quote]It sounds like this person has some sort of disability,
in which case, it is up to supervisors to work with him on his
job skills. [/quote]
[quote]I suggest that you talk to management about training
classes, including the SN! So that you can all learn, together,
how to best deal with this situation.[/quote]
Yes to both of these. Plus, all his co-workers need to be clear
what they can do when his behaviour does start to annoy the heck
out of a customer, or themselves. it needs to be acknowledged
that no matter how well prepared everyone is there will
sometimes be friction, and that it needs to be dealt with in the
best possible way.
#Post#: 34067--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: AnnNottingham Date: July 8, 2019, 1:40 am
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I too have a special needs bagger at my job. He was one of the
first hires when the store went in and he's been there ever
since. He's always prompt, never seems to call out, and does
keep busy. Since we are a small neighborhood store, most of the
regular customers know him and don't mind his behavior. I would
miss him if he left.
With that said, when we're busy and he's the only bagger, it's
challenging. Sometimes we (the cashiers) have to get his
attention when he's on a different planet, or deal with him
talking to people who aren't there. I feel guilty even feeling
aggravated, as I admire his work ethic and how he does his best
with what he has.
#Post#: 34076--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: Isisnin Date: July 8, 2019, 9:09 am
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[quote author=Pandorica link=topic=1219.msg34013#msg34013
date=1562451810]
Do you speak to him in the moment? Like telling him not to grab
the receipt right when he does it? Or telling him that you
already know you need do to X? Or just telling him he's not your
supervisor?
[/quote]
This. Absolutely.
Make a list of things you can say and lather, rinse, repeat.
When he "supervises" you: "co-worker, you need to stop telling
me what to do. You are not my supervisor so it is against policy
for you to tell me what to do. " "again, stop telling me what to
do. You are responsible for your own job. Pay attention to your
own job." Even put your hand out, palm facing him in a "stop"
gesture when you do this. After you do this a couple times, if
you can tell that he is about to supervise you, just put your
hand out in the no gesture.
Similarly, when he is working at the register in front of you.
and your receipt starts to print out, put your hand over it so
he can't get to it. If he does get it, say "co-worker, give me
the receipt. You know the policy. As the cashier I have to check
the receipt and give it to my customer. Give me the receipt."
(If the customer, says "That's fine. He can give it to me." say
"That's nice of you. But they are always watching so this is for
the protection of both of us."). If there is a procedure chart
at the registers, you even show "cashier hands the customer the
receipt" to your coworker. At my grocery, the cashier always
circles something be before giving me the receipt. You are
probably supposed to do something similar. Or just start
writing "Thank you, spunkyboy08" on each receipt.
Keep doing these type of things. If he doesn't stop, you can
even warn him that you will have to tell the supervisors he is
breaking policy.
All us people are the same - we can be retrained!
#Post#: 34096--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: bopper Date: July 8, 2019, 12:54 pm
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Consider being fair, but firm.
Don't say, "It is distracting." He may not understand the
implications of that.
Try "Jake, don't yell while you are working."
"Jake, please don't touch the receipt."
It may be that he knows how the transaction is supposed to work
and he is trying to help out.
It may be that he is aware and more interested in the schedule.
But you can still kindly, but firmly tell him what you need him
to do.
#Post#: 34097--------------------------------------------------
Re: Need help dealing with a co-worker
By: DaDancingPsych Date: July 8, 2019, 1:33 pm
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We are all “trained” in social norms (although some need a
refresher course sometimes). We also “train” our coworkers to
our preferences. However, someone who is special needs may need
extra “training”. Ideally, this would have all come from
management, but we all assist our coworkers with adjusting to
the norms of a job. So, I would just think of this as assisting
with his “training”. It may take some time, but I think if you
use straightforward statements that he will begin to understand.
“Please don’t touch the receipt.” I think if you try to soften
the message with a lot of other details that it could get lost
in translation. The only softening that I would do is to try to
keep my aggravation out of my voice. I don’t believe that it
will solve all of the issues (although, I have coworkers who are
not special needs and they still manage to annoy me), but
hopefully it will fix or lessen some of them.
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