What happened ? - Eric Nolan's Blog

So I find myself venting and decided to share. I was pressed for time today finishing a long work week and stopped at Wendy's for a quick bite. As it was noon the lunchtime crowd was in full swing. The gal at the register being approximately 18-20 years of age was doing her best to keep up with all the little demands customers were bellowing at her when suddenly the register stopped working. She suddenly panicked because she didn't know how much change to return to her current customer. She yelled to the manager "this lady gave me $14.00 and her bill was $13.41 how much do I give her back?" What ? did she really just ask that ? To which I shouted .59 cents which she didn't hear so I did it again. The lady at the counter turned to me and said take it easy she's under alot of pressure, to which I replied it's not pressure it's called simple arithmetic which produced muffled snickers among the crowd. Now I did not do this embarrass or offend anyone but for some reason I became quite irritated with this girls inability to perform simple calculations in a job that may sometimes require it. Perhaps I am just getting old and cranky but I do find it disturbing that the next generation of America just doesn't seem to be up to the task, I don't say this because of this one example I have seen many others and it's troubling. In any case your feedback is always welcome.

So the question is am I just a cranky old man or do my observations hold true ?  

Carol Eastman Date: 3/2/2014 9:08:00 AM She's not failing in math. The schools are! They are expected to use calculators in class. Even on tests! I pushed my son to learn the multiplication tables and kept hearing 'Why? We use calculators!' The poor thing is beginning to learn the need for math from her head... She'll catch on amongst all her embarrassment... Basically the schools think 'math' is to teach how to use a calculator... Sad but true... I wouldn't be to hard on her... She's young and inexperienced... I'd go for attacking the school boards... You should attend them... They don't even hand out books to each child! Too expensive! They give the kids copies of certain work book pages each day! Sic em Tiger! This is our kids. Login to Reply

David Williams Date: 3/1/2014 6:03:00 AM Hey it's the world over... Login to Reply

Andrea Dietrich Date: 2/28/2014 9:57:00 PM I can understand the frustration. this has happened to me a few times in a grocery store and a Walmart, where i had given, for example, a 20 dollar bill plus a nickel to someone that asked me for 15.05 and i merely wanted back a five dollar bill. The stupidity out there is astounding. But you still have to be polite to them, or they will break down and cry or something. The one guy was trying to argue with me over that example I just gave you. He had to call his manager over to be told I was right. Login to Reply

Eric Nolan Date: 2/28/2014 7:36:00 PM I understand both your points of discretion, I am just from a time when coddling isn't a priority and besides better they know early that life can be hard sometimes. Login to Reply

Debbie Guzzi Date: 2/28/2014 7:24:00 PM They are too used to the easy way out, the register tells them the change, no one ever taught her to count backwards! [BUT maybe if you whispered in her ear and didn't further embarrassed her she could have been taught something?] If we can not speak in a way that people can hear there's really no sense in speaking? Login to Reply