Poundland made my 9 year old wait outside the shop..aibu to think it's out of order?

[pointlesss]

Popped into Poundland after school with my daughter.
They have 1 till on and the other side is self service.
Got to the checkout and the lady stops us and says "are you both together? "
I said yes
Then she reply's "I'm sorry but only 1 person allowed at checkout due to social distancing.
There was a queue of a few behind but nobody to our side of us.
So she said unless one of us went outside the store she was unable to serve me.
My daughter waited just outside the front door.
Aibu to think that's ridiculous?
Bare in mind no social distancing in any of the aisles,people walking all over the shop.
Yet my daughter couldn't stand next to me whilst I paid and packed my bag.

It's short for 'it's more than my job's worth [to do this]'
Okay, googled and it seems you're right. I don't get it though, if it's more than your job is worth, then your job is worth less than what you are being asked to do, not more. Wouldn't you say 'my job's worth more than that'?

I wouldn't want my 9 year old stood alone outside. The cashier would be told to shove the rules up her arse. It makes sense for two adults when shopping together but not children!

You did the right thing, because hopefully the manager can have a word and it won’t happen again. The Pp who asked if she was wearing a mask.. it’s completely irrelevant, as she doesn’t have to. So weather she was or she wasn’t, the outcome should be the same.

i'm very impressed that you managed to get through on the phone! ours closes at 6.

I would have ignore her. She’s not the boss.

@DenimDrift ours closes at 8, so not that impressive

@WitchesSpelleas

Do people ever think about what the word 'jobsworth' actually means, before tossing it out as an insult?

It's short for 'it's more than my job's worth [to do this]'

I.e. the 'jobsworths' you complain about are worried they'll lose their job if they don't enforce the policies their head offices have made.

Losing their jobs = unable to feed their families, forced to join the mass of people unemployed as a result of Covid19, possibly with 'gross misconduct' on their reference.

So, just think about the term 'jobsworth' before deploying it as a lazy insult.

Lack of common sense and judgement at work in this situation - jobsworth.

The mother and child are in the same bubble so it makes no odds if one of them has it, chances are so does the other one. Worst case scenario they could have said child has to stand back.

Where I work, the public don’t always wear masks and we aren’t allowed to say anything.

There was a man with his father today and the man has a learning disability. He was standing with his dad and that meant there was 1 extra body in that should be.

Did I say ‘right, you’ll have to wait outside as we’ve got 5 people in already....’ absolutely I didn’t. I used my common sense.

Perhaps you’re right and that’s the store policy but that’s ridiculous if it is!!

@Stripesnomore

‘The ridiculousness of this is they'll have spent (for example) 10 minutes walking round the store together in busy aisles, including queuing for the tills. But cannot spend a further 3 minute (for example) stood together at the checkout. Does no one see the absolute stupidly or these rules??‘

If they are following the rules they stayed 2 metres away from other people during that time, which is impossible at the till. How is that ridiculous?

It's impossible in store as well, have you ever been in a Poundland? Ours is packed out most days and even the staff don't SD with customers.

To add- we are allowed to say when there’s too many people in but there are certain situations where common sense prevails

Some people are loving their perceived power since all this started! I went to Tesco and a man was directing people: "This way madam"; "Just wait there sir"! This was at the top of his voice repeatedly! I had a similar thing at Chessington at the weekend, telling us exactly where to stand all the time!

@LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus

Some people are loving their perceived power since all this started! I went to Tesco and a man was directing people: "This way madam"; "Just wait there sir"! This was at the top of his voice repeatedly! I had a similar thing at Chessington at the weekend, telling us exactly where to stand all the time!

Made me giggle 🤣 ‘power’ going to their heads

I would have walked out and made a fuss on social media. #singleparentsnotwelcomeatpoundland

‘Where I work, the public don’t always wear masks and we aren’t allowed to say anything.‘

We are the same, because the person might have an underlying condition.

We are allowed to walk away from people who come within 2 metres though.

I would not want to leave a 9 year old outside alone..I would have walked out. Really silly..

@Stripesnomore

‘Where I work, the public don’t always wear masks and we aren’t allowed to say anything.‘

We are the same, because the person might have an underlying condition.

We are allowed to walk away from people who come within 2 metres though.

That’s it. We have to assume that they are except and it’s not seen as out place to start policing them. (Some of them I know just refuse to wear one but the majority have genuine reasons)

@kowari

It's short for 'it's more than my job's worth [to do this]' Okay, googled and it seems you're right. I don't get it though, if it's more than your job is worth, then your job is worth less than what you are being asked to do, not more. Wouldn't you say 'my job's worth more than that'?

It's a similar idiom to 'more than my life is worth' as applied to a dangerous situation. That is, the dangerous situation carries more weight than than the person's life, in a struggle between the two, the dangerous situation would win.

On the same lines, the employer for 'job's worth sees the misconduct as having more weight than than the job - the seriousness of breaking the rule is 'worth' more than the person's job.

Exempt I mean haha and our place

Equally ‘jobsworth’ is a term used sarcastically when someone goes OTT......

‘That’s it. We have to assume that they are except and it’s not seen as out place to start policing them. (Some of them I know just refuse to wear one but the majority have genuine reasons)‘

I also don’t want to police people. It just isn’t worth the hassle when I can just walk away. Fortunately I don’t work on a till so don’t have the issue of being stuck in one place.

@TableFlowerss

Equally ‘jobsworth’ is a term used sarcastically when someone goes OTT......

It is, but these days, in an employer's market with mass redundancies due to a pandemic and people in genuine fear for their jobs and futures, 99/100 times, it's used unfairly.

‘The mother and child are in the same bubble so it makes no odds if one of them has it, chances are so does the other one. Worst case scenario they could have said child has to stand back.’

This makes no sense in any scenario. Two people with Covid shed twice as much virus and so are more likely to infect someone else.

Funnily enough I saw something similar happen a few months ago in the queue outside the supermarket. Father and son, I’d say the son was around 7. They got to the front of the queue and the security guard told them they had two choices - they could go in but would have to stay 2 metres apart OR the child could stay outside the store by himself.

The dad tried to protest but got shouted down - he obviously didn’t want to leave his son alone outside the store, so he ended up just agreeing to keep his son 2 metres away from him at all times in stores. As they walked in the security guard said ‘I don’t think they’re going to stick to that if I’m honest’ shaking his head.

Never seen anything so ridiculous in my life.

Anyway YANBU OP. I’m surprised from a risk perspective that any shop would think it’s a good idea to tell people to leave their children outside alone.

@WitchesSpelleas Sorry, still can't get my head around it, still seems backwards to me. I'd be more likely to say 'Yeah, no, my life/health is more important' or 'Sorry, I need this job, have to follow the rules'.

@midnightstar66

Alternatively you could have let your 9 year old pay and wait outside yourself for those who think it's terrible or unsafe

exactly. simples. what's with this attitude of treating all children a if they are toddlers. does them, and adults no good.

Yanbu, I used to work for Poundland and still speak to several of the employees from the store. This is not a company wide rule, please complain.