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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be slightly "wow really" at this

150 replies

Lonnie · 13/05/2010 19:14

I wasnt in the mood to cook tonight dh was out and it was just me and the kids so we decided to have a take away went to fish and chips shop was served by a very polite I would estimate 16-17 year old whom took my order and then said that will be £11.90 I handed her £22 and at this point the chip shop owner stepped closer to her and said "seeing you how gave wrong change yesterday with the £10 now be careful today" She went "I dont know how to do that I dont know how much I need to give her back" I was quite shocked and just said "£10.10" but after i was thinking this is really not a hard piece of math and I would expect someone working in a shop to be able to do a piece of math like that in their head. at the dinner table I asked my lot whom could do it asking them to put their hand up in the air once they had it all bar dd3 (age 6) could do it within 1 min ds and dn (8 and 16) doing it within max 10 seconds.. (ds being a bit of a math wiz I did expect him to be able to that fast) dd2 whom struggles in school was the longest (age 10 ) but still got it within the minute..

So I am obviously aware that this girl could have had issues but I find it quite that she wasnt able to do this if she worked in a fish and chips shop (she isnt new Ive seen her there before she has been working there for a while)

I did ask cant the till do that for you?"+ and she went no but the owner went well yes so perhaps once I left she was taught how to use the till in that way

OP posts:

OrmRenewed · 13/05/2010 19:51

AIBU to be like 'really wow' at how rude unpleasant you make yourself sound.

LetThereBeRock · 13/05/2010 19:51

'I am puzzled by paying a £11.90 bill with £22. It just does not make sense to me'

One would do this in order to be left with just one note and one coin rather than a lot of loose change.

LetThereBeRock · 13/05/2010 19:52

The OP is BU.

Original poster

Lonnie · 13/05/2010 19:53

BAFE not that I feel it is relevant but I am a Breastfeeding counsellor and before that I was a SAHM and I have been the 2 things for the last 14 years.

I am dyslexic I struggle hugely with English grammar I try BlINKING hard (clearly not well enough for MN people) and unlike me in my original posting where I stated I was aware that there could have been issues none of you gave me that curtsey.

bibbbitybobbityhat I assume that you have corrected my grammar. Thank You from the bottom of my heart. I shall now laboruously go through it and learn greatly because NO ONE has ever before tried to teach me. (yes I'm being sarcastic)

OP posts:

Bumblingbovine · 13/05/2010 19:54

Well I would have trouble working out in my head to know the AMOUNT to give back. However I worked in shops a lot as a teenager (now an ancient 45 years old) and in those prehistoric days we often didn't have electronic type tills. I was taught the "count it out method" of giving change

Price is £11.90. I am given £22.00. I give 10p back to make it up to the nearest £ saying, "that's £12 and then £10 makes £22" (picking up a £10 out of the till at the same time)

If the price is £3.32 a I am given £10 I start at 32p and count out change up to £1 saying that makes £4, then give £6 saying that makes £10. It is much easier that way.

Doing all that stuff in my head gives me a headache

Nowadays we use electronic devices so much we don't tend to know the tricks for dealing with this if we can't do quick mental arithmatic.

And OP - try counting 10secs and see how long that seems when someone is standing waiting for their change. The girl in the shop just needs to be taught the technique or giving change so that she doesn't get flustered.

Quattrocento · 13/05/2010 19:55

I know a group of ladies who lunch, from DD's school. Anyhow, we all went out for a meal.

There were eight of us. All well-educated (degree++) ladies, pretty well-heeled and unequivocally middle-class.

The bill, which included service, came to £280. Much twittering ensued. It transpired that no-one there could divide £280 by 8. I was convulsed with giggles, but still managed to shout out £35. But because I was giggling so much, they thought I was joking. So they carefully worked it out with a pen and pencil (at this point I was shrieking with laughter) and carefully worked out that the answer was £42.

They paid £42, and the manager came over and very kindly told us all we'd left too much money and refunded the extra cash ... Can you imagine what he must have thought?

The point of this anecdote is that innumeracy really isn't confined to people working in fish and chip shops. It's so widespread as to be endemic. I don't think our education system helps either - people tend to choose arts or sciences or humanities at 16.

Original poster

Lonnie · 13/05/2010 19:56

Bumblingbovine I from how the girl said she didnt know that the til could work it out for her, and the fact the Owner went on to show her would assume she from now on would use the til to do it. What you are doing there is what I understand number bonds to be about. (I will likely be shouted down now about that too)

OP posts:

catinthehat2 · 13/05/2010 19:57

I would probaably give £21 or £22 for £11.90.

I would get £10 note rather than lots of change, plus 10p or £1.10 - one or two decent coins.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 13/05/2010 19:58

You know what OP. I bet that poor girl "tries blinking hard" at maths.

I work in a shop. Im shit at maths. Should I be hand my notice in right now or should I give my boss time to find a replacement?

It throws you when someone does that (though after ten years in retail im sort of used to it) Not many people actually do it, so I dont think it's that shocking that she was flustered.

scurryfunge · 13/05/2010 19:58

Lonnie, chill out....you seem offended that people have criticised you for having a disability.

Imagine the post " I was posting on an internet forum the other day and someone replied to me without any full stops and puctuation. I mean, WOW, fancy trying to converse with someone without a basic command of written English?"

bibbitybobbityhat · 13/05/2010 19:59

But, Lonnie, you are being ENTIRELY UNREASONABLE!

Your weakness is writing/reading and the written word.

Other people's weakness is "math" as you put it.

FGS woman!!!! As someone with a learning disability, why can you not be more accommodating to someone else who might possibliy have a mild learning disability?

You have gone from unreasonable to absofuckinglutely completely and utterly unreasonable in my book now.

Original poster

Lonnie · 13/05/2010 19:59

I dont know amazing have you been taught how to use the til? If you read my op you would notice I asked her if the till couldnt and she then went on to say she didnt know it was able to. I later on point out that as I left the Owner was showing her how to.

OP posts:

nickytwotimes · 13/05/2010 20:00

So what, Lonnie? You struggle with dyslexia, but not mental arithmetic, therefore only those with dyslexia are deserving of a little patience and empathy?!

Personally I have been lucky enough to find punctuation, spelling and grammar easy (most of the time!) but understand not everyone does. Perhaps you, as someone who is good at mental arithmetic, should show a little patience with those who are less skilled in that area.

BAFE · 13/05/2010 20:00

The only reason I ask what you do for a living is because I wondered whether you'd ever worked on a till before and I can see now you haven't, and you don't understand how tills work.

When you work with a till, the till does all the work, adds up the items and deducts the total sum of the item from the total amount of money handed over. So you were right when you said "can't the till do that for you". So you don't actually need to be able to add and subtract.

It just depends what sort of till she's been used to using.

I'm sorry if you've been slated here, but your OP did sound really smug.

cupcakesandbunting · 13/05/2010 20:00

OP, you might not have patronised her face-to-face, so I suppose you are to be commended for that, but you have posted reams about it here which kind of suggests that it's affected you a wee bit more than it should.

How would you like it if you'd written a memo for someone and it was badly punctuated and spelled then the recipient came and wrote about it on here?

So yes, you did say that you suspected she could have issues so why not just leave it at that instead of posting about it here? it's not that big a deal. Some of us are bad at maths.

Original poster

Lonnie · 13/05/2010 20:03

Scurry I am offended because I didn't make the girl feel bad I smiled at her I gave her a way out so she likely will find the job easier in the future, and I didnt give her a hard time, I was polite and pleasant. Something I do not feel was extended to me.

bibbity etc

if you read the above then more or less the same applies. If I had been having a go at the girl like some of you have here at me, yes 100% I would have deserved it but really I dont feel I deserved the patronising comments Ive had here.

shrugs

OP posts:

Supercherry · 13/05/2010 20:04

YABU to be 'slightly wow' at this yes. The girl would be of a generation (mine too) where calculators are used rather than our heads. We don't get much practice at this kind of mental arithemetic do we?

Furthermore, as others have pointed out, she would have been put on the spot so probably couldn't think straight.

Everyone is good at different things- we can't all be good at everything.

I have worked in lots of shops and bars but most have tills that calculate for you so you don't really have to do the math.

I am shit at mental arithmetic and Math but still got a B in GCSE Math- no idea how actually.

bibbitybobbityhat · 13/05/2010 20:06

Why not? Why don't you deserve the patronising comments? Why is it only ok for you to make them? Have a think about it Lonnie and then come back and admit you were being BU (if you are grown up enough).

Supercherry · 13/05/2010 20:06

My sister works in a sandwich shop and the lady who has just taken it over didn't know (she said herself) how to chop an onion.

AhLaVache · 13/05/2010 20:06

Even if this girl is thick as as two short planks SHE IS WORKING IN A CHIPPY! What would you rather she do??

nickytwotimes · 13/05/2010 20:06

But you have been having a go at her, or at least it comes across that way!

EricNorthmansmistress · 13/05/2010 20:08

Snobby. And you keep using 'whom' when you mean 'who'.

Also - describing possible learning difficulties as 'issues' is really rude.

cupcakesandbunting · 13/05/2010 20:08

No, but you did make a post about it here saying that even your children could work it out ever so quickly. Yes, even children could work it out quicker than she could. Big deal. My ten year old nephew could construct a paragraph better than you but I wouldn't bloody well bleat about it.

Being condescending about someone being a bit slow isn't really going to get you much sympathy when it turns out that you're a bit slow yourself. Sorry, OP.

Supercherry · 13/05/2010 20:11

Just because the girl is crap at maths doesn't mean she is a 'bit slow' or that 'that's OK because she works in chippy' a some of you are implying.

Some of the brainiest people are shit at maths you know, and it doesn't matter one jot because we have calculators!

EricNorthmansmistress · 13/05/2010 20:12

If you have dyslexia you should have a bit more patience and understanding of people whose mild learning difficulties might make mental arithmetic as difficult for them as reading/typing quickly is for you.

The reason I pointed out your grammatical mistakes was to point out the 'irony' of a person bitching about someone's maths skills when they haven't got the equivalent written english skills themselves. The fact that you have dyslexia doesn't invalidate my point - it strengthens it.

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