Thursday, November 18, 2010

Oh God My Job: Welfare Mentality Edition

Last week I had an interesting occurrence at work.

A van pulled up to one of the pumps and everyone trooped inside without getting gas, which in and of itself is not unusual. Plenty of people pre-pay. They wandered the store for a bit, and one of them finally came up to the counter.

"Can I use ya'lls phone?"

My coworker was watching the registers while I stocked some cigs in the display.

"Is it a local call?" She asked.

"Yes, it's a Denver number."

"I'm sorry, that's not local, we're not allowed."

"Oh." And the woman wandered away, and they conferred in the dining area.

They spread out and took up every table, making a general nuisance of themselves.

Shortly, another one of them walked up while I was the only one at the register, and I braced myself for an attempt at fooling me into thinking it was a local number.

I was pleasantly surprised that instead of asking for the phone, the young woman politely asked me to dial an 800 number for her. She spent a few minutes on the phone, then brought it back with thanks.

An hour later the phone rang and I answered, only to hear a recording. It was an automated notice from a motor club saying that their service would be there in fifteen minutes.

I let them know and went about my work until the local guy who gets those calls came in after doing their "service."

They'd been out of gas, and out of money. They had parked at a gas pump for a couple of hours, preventing anyone else from using that pump, and made a huge mess in the dining area. Aside from the one young lady who actually called the motor club, they showed a lack of manners and common courtesy that made me wish I was allowed to kick them out.

And when the guy showed up to fulfill their service call to the motor club, they demanded enough gas to get them to Denver.

The grin on his face when he related that he'd told them the motor club only allowed him to bring two gallons of gas was just slightly malicious.

That kind of welfare mentality is killing our country.

"I don't have the money for it, but someone owes it to me."

No, folks, they don't. All that's owed you is what you've earned, so get off your ass and take care of business. If you're driving from Texas to Denver, plan far enough ahead to be able to actually get there, and don't spend all of your money on snacks and toys to keep the screaming child quiet. Especially if they don't keep the screaming child quiet. When you need three trips to bring in the kid's toys from the van and I overhear you saying "But Baby this one is NEW we just got it the last time we stopped, you can't be bored with it yet" on three separate occasions while holding different toys, then it's pretty clear to me that your money management skills are lacking.

I'm disappointed in humanity.