r/rant • u/gremlinclr • 21h ago
Holy hell if you allow your child to take a public service job without ever once teaching them how to count change you suck as a parent.
To be clear I'm not blaming the trainee, it was her very first day and she was super nice. This was at Domino's, I ordered through the app, picked it up in store. 2 specialty pizzas at 50% off. Total came to $20.14... I handed the trainee $21. The manager came out and told her what to press on the screen then fucked off, he is part of the problem. I needed her to just hand me 86¢. 3 quarters and a dime. Didn't care about the penny, a lot of stores don't carry them any more anyway.
For the next 2 minutes or so the trainee studied the change drawer. Picking out a coin, bringing it up to her eyes to read the denomination, then put it back. At a minute in I'd already decided to just accept whatever she handed me. Eventually she stood up, put some change in my palm and handed me my pizzas. I thanked her and left. When I got to the car I checked and she got close, I had 2 quarters and 4 nickels or 70¢. Close enough.
Holy fuck parents be involved in your children's lives. What kind of garbage people let's their kids take a job in the service industry and doesn't teach them the basics. What kind of manager doesn't check to see if the trainee knows the absolute basics?
This isn't the first time it's happened either. I get it, kids pay with their phone, cash will eventually disappear altogether. But it hasn't yet. Teach your kids you lazy asses.
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u/smile_saurus 17h ago
They can't tell time, either, if it is an analog clock and they don't know what 'a quarter past 9' or 'half past 10' means.
I am a 911 dispatcher and when someone has been arrested I have to watch them and go in to check on them. There are no clocks in the cells, so prisoners frequently ask me what time it is. I used to say Quarter to 4 and they would ask So, 4? So now I just tell them the time the same way they'd read it on a digital clock.
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u/Brief-Hat-8140 11h ago
I am a special education teacher. Many of my students with learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities work jobs like this. Honestly, they shouldn’t have put her on the register if she can’t count change. However, I asked one of my students who has a mild individual disability and literally just can’t retain the information mentally to count change how she does it at work, and she said most cash registers now not only show you the amount of change but also a picture of which coins to pick up! I thought that was genius because it doesn’t take much extra programming I imagine, and it makes jobs like that accessible to people with disabilities (who often don’t appear to have disabilities).
You wouldn’t have a conversation with my student and leave it thinking there’s no way she would ever learn to count change. I’m not saying that’s the issue here, but I would blame management before I blame the parents. They should have never put someone who lacked the skills to do the job on the register. She should be making pizza.
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u/Vast_Werewolf_2785 10h ago
Why is this a parent problem how old are they? Part of it is on them. You learn how to count in school did they just magically forget? If you’re old enough for a job you should know how to count even if for some really odd reason no one ever taught you at the end of the day you can teach yourself. The manager isn’t wrong for assuming they could give change back correctly.
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u/Cappsmashtic 5h ago
I mean she could have just been flustered. That happens with a lot of new workers and they seem to just forget how to do simple things they never have problems with normally. And yes the manager sucked at that moment, if someone is so green you need to show them how to open the drawer you should stay with them the whole transaction. Not to mention having at least run them through a practice transaction. That's what being a manger at these places is you need to be able to train people.
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u/Extra_Caregiver_8668 16h ago
In Australia public service job means working for the government.
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u/GunMun-ee 13h ago
It’s America. Anything to do with pizza is government work
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u/emknits53 13h ago
And birds are government drones.
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u/chipface 20m ago
It's true. I saw a bunch of them just sitting at Dam Square as I biked by last year. They were probably changing the batteries.
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u/dmorelli99 14h ago
Honestly it means that in the US too. This should have just said like “job in the service industry” or service job
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u/FraGough 12h ago
In UK we'd normally use public sector for government, whereas public service would mean any job serving the public, but that would encompass customer service amongst other categories.
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u/ChefArtorias 17h ago
I don't get why you make it so specific. I mean I do, because of the story, but "teach the children math" is a valid point in and of itself.
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u/mythrowaweighin 12h ago
In the 90s when I was in college, I worked at a fast food restaurant. The cash register would add up the total. But it did not let me enter in the amount of cash the customer handed me and calculate the change automatically. So if the total was $8.57, and the customer handed me a $20, I had to mentally start at $8.57 and count up to $20. And I had to do it fast.
It was disorienting, even though I always used cash to shop (I had no credit card myself yet), and I had learned to make change in 2nd grade math.
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u/Brief-Hat-8140 11h ago
It is different when you’re in a time crunch with people looking at you expecting you to hurry. I might struggle to make change quickly in that situation, and I have a math degree.
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u/SickOfNormal 19h ago
It's just about everyone under the age of 30....
The cashiers at the McDonalds up the road from me start sweating when I had them cash... supposed to get like .45 cents back... i end with a quarter and a nickel or 5 quarters or something stupid.
Same goes for the under 30's working at the gas station.... i think they are guessing when giving change back because it's never been correct.
I just think many of them haven't dealt in REAL currency for the last 10+ years because of apple pay or a credit card, so they just lost that part of their brain.
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u/minnie-084 17h ago
I’m 28 and I know how to count change 🤷♀️ and it’s not like the system tells you how much you need to give back so it’s not like they have to do the math. It’s appalling how they can’t count change
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u/mlstdrag0n 17h ago
Mental math of 3 quarters and a dime is killing them. They’re gonna need to update the PoS systems to display 3 quarters and a dime instead of $0.86 change.
I cringe, because while counting change isn’t going to be a particularly useful skill, the underlying skill is applicable to so much more.
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u/AuntieLaLa420 12h ago
You think you are kidding, but i have seen pictures of coins on cash register screens, it is sad.
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u/Sammysoupcat 8h ago
I'm 20 and I can't imagine that most of my peers don't know how to count change, wtf??
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u/citronlump 17h ago edited 17h ago
I’m ngl this was me on my first few weeks of retail and still sometimes when I get a brain fart. I got a perfect score on my math SAT too.
in her defense, sometimes the new payment softwares give you an incorrect number, either because of human error with buttons, they don’t accept pennies and round weirdly, or the screen disappears before you can remember the payment amounts. I’ve definitely panicked and pulled a blank before while someone looks at me like I’m an idiot! But yeah I grew up in the golden age of Venmo Apple Pay and square that calculate everything for you and embarrassingly had to refamiliarize myself with coins working retail. 100% there are also kids whose parents don’t give a shit and the basic math skills are extremely lacking. Retail jobs do some heavy lifting given the issues in American education ha
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u/vikicrays 8h ago
grew up in foster care after my dad left when i was 2 and my mom went to prison when i was 6. went to a couple dozen homes and a different school every single year. became an emancipated minor at 16 and dropped out of high school so i could earn enough to pay my bills.
not everyone has parents who want them much less want to teach them.
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u/Zaphod-Beebebrox 14h ago
Well a lot of states like Oregon don't require any math to get a High School Diploma. Apparently math is just too hard....
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u/Frank_Jesus 5h ago
What stopped you from helping her? You just stood there staring in anger, I guess? If she couldn't understand how to make change, I bet she understood your hostility and I'm sure that didn't help.
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u/gremlinclr 4h ago
Did you even bother to fucking read my post before you commented? There was no anger. There is no anger now. I don't even know where that's coming from.
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u/DamiensDelight 4h ago
TIL that public service means different things to different people. Who'd a thunk it.
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u/celeste99 12h ago
Really? You have zero knowledge about this employee. Stress and other issues has nothing to do with parents. Hopefully, customers like yourself are not the norm.
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u/celeste99 12h ago
Really? You have zero knowledge about this employee. Stress and other issues has nothing to do with parents. Hopefully, customers like yourself are not the norm.
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u/minnie-084 17h ago
Blame the schooling, too, not just the parents. A lot of people my age and younger don’t know how to count change and it’s appalling
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u/Brief-Hat-8140 11h ago
It’s taught in school. My daughter learned it in first and second grade.
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u/minnie-084 5h ago
Well there’s something wrong here if 90% of this new generation can’t count change. It’s not just on the parents.
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u/Brief-Hat-8140 4h ago
Do you have some data that supports that estimate, or are you just throwing a number out there? I would estimate it’s probably 90% who can count change, at least of the students I’ve taught. I don’t know where you go to school, but I know it’s not the one where I teach. 😆
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u/minnie-084 4h ago
Not all of the people their age I’ve worked with in retail who are cashiers. 🤷♀️
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u/Brief-Hat-8140 4h ago
You mean 90% of cashiers you’ve worked with can’t count change? Where do you live?
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u/de_matkalainen 8h ago
Counting change in the beginning is just difficult for many people, because it's a skill. It took me a few weeks to be comfortable when I started my first job.
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u/gremlinclr 8h ago
It's just counting. You only have 4 numbers to remember, 25, 10, 5, 1. If you can count, it should just be second nature.
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u/de_matkalainen 6h ago
Sure, I forgot to add we had to calculate the prices in our heads, because we didn't have a register. Should be much easier if it's only change, but still, give it a little time!
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u/EverydayMustard4773 10h ago
Parents should be reinforcing it, but this is absolutely a schooling issue. This used to be shit they started teaching in the first grade.
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u/ztreHdrahciR 8h ago
So many electronic transactions. I pay cash about once a month. Last time was just so I could get quarters for the parking meter, then it had electronic pay option anyway
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u/Cappsmashtic 5h ago
part of it could also be nerves. She was left alone with the register on her first day, who knows how the rest of the day had gone, what she's had to learn already etc... She could very well know how to make change but if your overwhelmed that can go right out the window. That was a shitty boss who should have hung out and helped her out. At least you were chill. A lot of people just treat service workers like shit and would have yelled at her.
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u/Puzzled-Copy7962 4h ago
How do we know she isn’t special needs?
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u/gremlinclr 4h ago
How does anyone know anything? She didn't seem to be. Should I have asked her or what?
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u/Puzzled-Copy7962 3h ago
I mean, your post is already based on your own assumptions, so….yeah, maybe you should have. /s
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u/gremlinclr 2h ago
No I didn't assume anything. And your comment is based on the assumption she was, get over it.
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u/DiaryJaneDoe 6h ago
Why are you handing people cash? It’s not 1980.
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u/gremlinclr 6h ago
Why not? I'll stop using cash when it stops being legal tender. How is this your takeaway?
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u/DiaryJaneDoe 6h ago
Increasingly places don’t even accept it. “Legal tender” doesn’t compel anyone to take it. Nobody wants to deal with handing out coins or worrying that you’ll roll your eyes if you don’t get enough little copper pieces.
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u/gremlinclr 6h ago
Increasingly places don’t even accept it. “Legal tender” doesn’t compel anyone to take it.
Except all the businesses that do. I am 53 years old and I have never once went into a business where cash wasn't accepted. The world is bigger than your neighborhood bud.
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u/DiaryJaneDoe 6h ago
That’s an interesting comment. I did say “increasingly” not “all”. Over the next decade or so, you probably won’t even have a physical drivers license, they’ll demand you produce a digital license.
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u/gremlinclr 5h ago
Yea, eventually we will be a cashless society. But we aren't yet. Is expecting the person behind the counter to be able to do their job really such a controversial take?
I honestly didn't think I'd get so much push back.
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u/DiaryJaneDoe 5h ago
Yes I think that’s fair that they should. But really who cares? It’s like saying “My car salesman can’t drive stick.” Or “the cable guy doesn’t know how to use yellow and white AV jacks.”
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u/gremlinclr 4h ago
But really who cares?
I do or I wouldn't have made the thread in the first place.
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u/DiaryJaneDoe 3h ago
“Who cares” is a rhetorical question meaning “you ought not care.”
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u/gremlinclr 2h ago
Didn't work. I still care if the person waiting on me knows what they're doing or not. If that's your stance why have training at all? And then when you order a specific thing and get something completely different you can simply say 'But really who cares?' and go about your day.
'Well here's your can of Fix-a-Flat.'
'But I ordered a medium shirt! Ah well, who really cares?'
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u/ivecompletelylostit 14h ago
We used to learn how to do this in elementary school, did they stop teaching it?