Duh gets pet store employee in trouble because he didn't lie about kid's dead hamster

Quote
punctuator
It doesn't fucking matter if he's making "minimum wage." You do the job you're paid to do-- or your ass gets shown the door. I am sick of shit of little entitled assholes who think they're better than whatever job they oh-so-unfairly have to do.

And the father and parent were engaging in unethical behavior. The fact that a minimum wage kid acted in a manner that was correct and showed far more leadership and moral courage should be an embarrassment to both the so called leaders - manager and father. The teen showed respect to the child in the fact he refused to lie, he refused to mislead a child and refused to be intimidated, The kid was not entitled, unlike his manager and the gutless duh, he was willing to risk it to do what is right.

The father, the manager and you show exactly what is wrong with this country. The breeder is always right, the worker may be abused for the parents convenience . The entitled asshat is the father who shirked his responsibility to the child and demanded someone else lie to cover it up. The manger was a gutless coward to support this. As someone who is in a leadership position in a volunteer organization I got rid of several people like the manager and the parent and kept the one like the kid because the kid represented our organization's core values and the manger did not.

I'd love to know the name of the pet store because obviously they do not run an ethical business and I do not want to shop there,

_______________________________________________
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

I agree with Thom C here. The duh came up with some sitcom like plan at home to shirk responsibility for having to face his daughter and explain to her that living things do not live forever. That was his JOB as a parent. Not to head to the store to play games. The manager probably feared duh would take it to Facebook and the store would be front page on yahoo.com, so he got rid of the employee to cover his ass. There are too many breeders wanting others to do the dirty work of parenting for them. My cousin married a farmer 30 years ago and a cow was struck and killled by lightening in front of both kids. The kids were small at the time and the parents dealt with it. Both kids today graduated university and are hard workers. They survived it.

Quote
punctuator

Quote
Zzelda
THE FUCK IS THIS?

If I had, let alone was a lowly employee of - a pet shop - regardless - I'd tell the customer to spin their own tales.

And take your Dr. Phil shit ELSEWHERE. Store employees ARE NOT "Grief Counselors". (Another Moo invention. Excuse me - MooVention!)

It's a STORE - not Magical Make Believe Land.

You want that? DIY.

"Dr. Phil shit"? Fuck you. Forty seconds of make-believe and a smile is not psychotherapy. I work at Target. What the fuck should I do at Christmas, honey? Go around telling every guest under the age of ten that Santa doesn't exist...?

That's why it's called "customer service," bucky. Some of us actually take pride in it.

Excuse me, ASSHOLE - Customer Service means helping the customer with products for sale. PERIOD.

My name is not Bucky, either. Or is that what you call your 'customers' that you blow in the parking lot?

Quote
punctuator

Quote
Zzelda
THE FUCK IS THIS?

If I had, let alone was a lowly employee of - a pet shop - regardless - I'd tell the customer to spin their own tales.

And take your Dr. Phil shit ELSEWHERE. Store employees ARE NOT "Grief Counselors". (Another Moo invention. Excuse me - MooVention!)

It's a STORE - not Magical Make Believe Land.

You want that? DIY.

"Dr. Phil shit"? Fuck you. Forty seconds of make-believe and a smile is not psychotherapy. I work at Target. What the fuck should I do at Christmas, honey? Go around telling every guest under the age of ten that Santa doesn't exist...?

That's why it's called "customer service," bucky. Some of us actually take pride in it.

I see you, pet store duhd. Now go parent your kids before one of the lil' dumplings chokes on a laundry pod.

For starters, russian hamsters, whilst adorable to look at, can be seriously mean little fuckers. I used to work at a pet store, and this is not a critter I would reccomend for a very small child. It WILL bite her.

Second off, I was not paid enough to care diddly shit about you, or your dead hamster's name. Get over yourself.
Thirdly, I don't lie. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to your brat. You pull this shit with me and I'll outright tell your brat the truth.

and finally... if it was the big-name store I worked for... in all likelihood, the "chewing out" that the employee got by the manager was a complete show. When I worked there, the managers would do it all the time. None of it meant anything and we all knew it. After the asshole customers left, the manager would tell us that we did the right thing for being honest, rather than encouraging breeders to lie to their spawn.

Quote
bookworm

Quote
the noodler
Just for the record I want to say that Special Patrol Group is a stupid name for a hamster.






I'm sorry. I had to. For Lucy. And Lucy's mom.

Fans of The Young Ones?

I was going to say the same! I remember when they had Amazulu playing live and someone said "Amazulu" and SPG said "Am a Glaswegian". You probably had to be there!

Quote
mrs. chinaski
The only rodent which tends not to bite is guinea pig (as far as I know).

My friend's two Guinea pigs bite

Quote
the noodler
Just for the record I want to say that Special Patrol Group is a stupid name for a hamster.






I'm sorry. I had to. For Lucy. And Lucy's mom.

Oh my god, thank you!!! (I hadn't thought about that line in years....)

Quote
mrs. chinaski
The only rodent which tends not to bite is guinea pig (as far as I know).

Rats and mice don't tend to bite, either. (At least in my experience of 9 rats (that I've owned-- I've known a few more) and 3 mice (same).

I will always sing their praises, particularly rats. )~~~~

I still have a little scar on my thumb from a hamster bite 30 years ago. Don't know why the hamster went off on me like that. I think I was about 11 or 12 at the time and had the hamster for at least a good year or more when it happened. He was normally calm and gentle. I tried to take him out so I could clean his cage and he latched onto my thumb and wouldn't let go. I'm not sure what breed he was, but thankfully that was the only time he acted aggressively. Something must have freaked him out!

We had guinea pigs as well. I don't remember one ever biting me, but I think my brother got bit once.

Wow. Gotta love the noobs storming on to the board and being pissy with long standing members.

As for Mr. Entitled Liar Duh he is an asshole and a small little man to first expect employees to play his little lying game AND for being all proud to have the poor dude yelled at and fired. Fuck him.

Quote
bunny
Second off, I was not paid enough to care diddly shit about you, or your dead hamster's name. Get over yourself.

Agree. Normally I would side with the customer - playing along for five minutes isn't going to kill you and it does a customer a favor. Big whoop. But minimum wage today is pretty much an insult. It's a giant "fuck you" to the people you're asking to trade their time on Earth to help you make a living. If stores want quality they should have to start paying for it.

Kids actually don't like being lied to. Even about big things, like death. She knew her dad was lying. If she's smart, she might put together that he was lying to either spare himself the complication (gee, thanks, dad), or, he was lying so she didn't have to lose her hamster (well meaning, but she could take it as her father calling her stupid.) Either way, the second she knew something was up, he should have apologized to her, and told her why he lied.

But no, he blamed a third party, because of course he did. I can't wait until she grows up and people I care about have to pay taxes to support his worthless family, because stupid gives rise to stupid, naturally. This kid doesn't stand a fucking chance if he can't NOT be honest with her about a damn hamster.

You know what? When I was 9, my beloved hamster got EATEN by the other two in the cage, and I found her remains. I screamed. I'd like to know what he would have done about that one. Raise it from the fucking dead? Shit.
(We never kept female hamsters together again.)

Quote
suncard
Kids actually don't like being lied to.

I hated it. Even as a young kid, I saw lies as a betrayal, and I hated being talked to "like a child"-- like I couldn't understand the conversation. HATED it, and resented adults for it when they did it.

I hated being lied to as well. Parents are supposed to be people you trust, so how can you trust them when they lie to your face? Meanwhile, I would get screamed at until my ears just about bled if I was caught lying. I had it shoved down my throat that I had better not fucking lie to my lunatic harpy mother, but boy oh boy, she was happy to lie to me about everything. Yeah, I lied through my teeth to her at every turn, and I got away with it too because she thought that just because she told me to tell the truth that I'd automatically listen.

And don't get me wrong, I think sometimes you do have to lie to kids because they're stupid or they won't understand the real reason behind something because it's not something that would upset a child like it would an adult. But when it comes to important things, I think truth is crucial regardless of age. You might have to dumb something down so the kid can get it, but sometimes they gotta hear the truth.

Breeders love to foist their jobs onto other people, especially underpaid employees, so that Junior will be mad or upset with this random stranger than with Mommy/Daddy. Like when parents will say, "You better be good, or the policeman over there will arrest you and take you to jail!" or "Be a good boy/girl, or the mean nurse will give you a shot!" It's fine when they blame shit on imaginary people like Santa Claus in order to make their kids behave, but there's no reason to drag real people into their goddamn lying.

No, it's not easy to tell your kid that her beloved pet has died, but parenting isn't supposed to be easy. Sit her down and tell her as gently as possible (but without sugar-coating it) that her hamster died and let her be upset and cry. Don't tell her to get over it or "it's just an animal" because she needs to know that the loss of a companion is an acceptable thing to cry over (unlike when brats cry because their younger sibling looked at them wrong or they were served an incorrect number of fish sticks). Once an acceptable amount of time has passed and she feels a little better, it might be okay to ask her if she'd like to have another pet. This way, the girl learns that nothing will live forever and that if she wants to have her pets for as long as possible, she needs to treat them nice and take good care of them. It's not some poor minimum wage schmuck's job to lie to a kid about her dead pet because the kid's parent doesn't feel like fucking parenting.

Eat me Punctuator. It's not the job of a minimum wage teen to lie to a parent, and it's neither their responsibility to do the parenting responsibilities for someone else - both of which entitled breeders routinely expect of poor service personnel. You of all people know the shitstorm that will occur if some sales assistant gets called up for lying.

What if the sales assistant was overheard by the asshole boss blatantly lying to the customer? He would have his ass handed to him, and no doubt the douchebag Duh would instantly change his tune, completely deny any part in the matter, and bay for his blood. It happens all the time.

Duh is a douchebag because he tried to control the situation, scapegoat his parenting responsibilities and wanted to come out smelling like roses. The kid saw through this obvious bull, and made it so Duh got a face full of the shit he tried to fling - hence the anger and retribution.

I'm fully supportive of the teen, and I'm glad he's got an attitude with the service industry, as they are the biggest supporters of repugnant and entitled breeder behaviour.

Still Punctuator, enjoy your career kissing the oversized and stinking asses of these entitled assholes, as they will turn on you for not giving them a 100% discount on a 2c strip of gum.

I wouldn't have liked being lied to as a kid either. We had a family dog, but my brother and I had our own small pets that we took care of. So when a pet got sick or died, our parents didn't try to cover up or lie about it. Of course it was sad and I cried, but it's part of life and part of having pets. We had a little pet cemetery in the yard and my father would do the burial and we'd have a funeral.

I would have been pissed and not believed it had my parents told me my dead hamster or guinea pig was just "sleeping" and was miraculously awake and looking slightly different when I got home from school that day. Kids aren't stupid.

The dad was wrong for expecting the shop employee to play along with his lie. If he wanted to spin a story to his kid then he should have done so without involving the store.

Who the fuck just starts out on a new board and starts insulting senior members? Only a breeder pleaser or breeding scum would do that.

I had a pet budgie when I was little, and I would have KNOWN if my moo tried to replace him, even with an identical budgie. He would sit on my shoulder all day, play Legos with me (I'd build little buildings and he'd run in and out of them) and he'd eat from my plate every morning at breakfast time.

I would have been devastated and felt betrayed if my moo tried to replace him if he had ever died when I was little. Luckily, he lived to a ripe old age and I had him well into my teen years.

Also, on another note, I took my moo to task one morning when she claimed the tooth fairy left money under my pillow. I actually yelled at her, and told her that I knew she left the money there, and that there was no such thing as the tooth fairy. I knew she was lying to me, and it irritated me to no end. Kids KNOW when their parents are lying to them, unless they're extremely stupid. What this duh did was unethical, it insulted his daughter's intelligence, and he had NO business trying to get a store employee to play his little game.

I also hated it when parents lied to me.
I felt betrayed.

F.e. I had a cat when I was 10-11. My father couldn't stand her
so he took her and throw her out on a highway.
Then he lied to me that the cat got lost.
He literally said: The cat run away and couldn't find
her way home.
He acted weird so I knew that he was lying.
He told my mother what he did, they had an argument
about something and to spite him, she told me what
really happened to my cat.

I just remembered something from years back:

A married couple we knew asked mutual friends of ours to birdsit while they were on vacation. The mutual friends had a kid that was about 2 years old. The kid took an interest in the bird, who I'll call Charlie. Being that he was only 2, he called every bird "Charlie", regardless of what kind of bird it was. When the couple came back, they offered to buy the kid his own bird similar to theirs and the parents were like, "Well, he thinks every bird is called Charlie, ", but the couple bought him one anyway and, yes, he called it Charlie. So I suppose at that age, they might not know the difference between their own pet and a replacement, but even so there would be no reason to lie. Just don't say anything if they are too young to understand rather than make up a lie about the pet going on vacation or something.

The kid in the OP sounds as if she is old enough to know how to tell her hamster apart from another one, so the dad should have been honest with the daughter when the employee wouldn't go along with the lie instead of trying to get him fired.

I don't think the employee should have had to participate in the charade, but I also think he should have just told the duh "No" straight up. You shouldn't have to play games to entertain customers, but I don't think you should deliberately be a jerk, either.

Duh is an asshat though. If you didn't want to deal with teaching a child that everything - including you and she - will eventually die, you should have opted out of the parenting thing. Then you don't have to explain to a child that you've sentenced her to eventual death because you "wanted a baby."

I'm really starting to wonder if this is a true story there are a lot of inconsistency and it's not like people don't post this kind of stuff to get some douchebag backpats. I mean, I know that stuff never happens .....

That being said if this gets posted in the Epic threads/posts we can just refer to it as the dead hamster thread.

duh is making a big deal over nothing. and i agree, kids don't like be lied to. hell, adults don't like it either. why not just use the pet's death as a teaching moment about life? I had plenty of pets that died while I was growing up and each one had a funeral and got buried in our back yard.

punctuator, i'm not sure why you would come onto a board and immediately start flaming people; you must need the attention. didn't mommy give you enough huggy wuggies growing up?

Punctuator probably thinks he's cool because he has an account on Bratfree, so he has to act all tough and mean.

Problem is, he comes off as being an asshole.

Quote
Cambion
Breeders love to foist their jobs onto other people

I think this is the crux of a great many problems with children, and our (CF people) problems with them. If they would just fucking PARENT their children, the brats would be a lot easier to deal with-- both while they were children and after they became adults.