Had a meltdown at work

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Well I recently got hired at safeway as a courtesy clerk. The person who bags the groceries, pushes carts, sweeps floors, helps customers, etc. And well Im still struggling with the social interaction parts of the job. So theres this cashier who's already on my case, and its only been 2 weeks, no surprise. At this point, she thinks Im mentally challenged. I do my work to the best of my abilities, I do every single duty Im placed on, sure I miss some stuff here and there because Im not that fast yet. She's been barking orders at me, at first I was ok with it, and I simply followed thru. The problem, she doesnt think I followed thru. Like I will walk in from pushing carts and she'll be like, did u push carts. She scolds me for everything possible even when I dont disserve a scolding. She scolds me for not looking under the cart, I did. I just dont make it obvious like she does....sheesh. I have trouble telling the cashiers when Im gonna go do something mainly because Im very bad at social timing and I dont know when to insert a comment. Ive always had trouble with social timing. There often busy with customers and I just dont know when to insert it in. Im bad at all the types of social interaction the job requires, greeting, making sparse small talk and social timing. I can hold a conversation with someone a lot better then I can greet someone.

Well yesturday, she went too far. She called my name repeatly over the speaker, however I do have a slight auditory processing problems. When talking over phones and that type speaker mediums, I cant always hear clearly what people are saying, I just hear noise. So I didnt hear my name. So she gave me a whole lecture. And what was even worse, she was trying to call one of the other cashiers to talk over at the same time 3 or 4 times and when guess what, when he finally came, she was all friendly and stuff to him. After the lecture, he took over for her so she could go on break, and I left out to the parking lot almost in tears and starting crying and supposedly pushed carts for an hr to avoid her. Then afterwards I came in bagged grocery's for a while avoiding her checkstand and then later she came up to me with the clip board which designated the tasks and asked if I understood and I said yes. Then she said, "we are just trying to make things easier for you". Then I was seriously offending because she thinks Im mentally challenged. She thinks I cant read a clip board, excuse me I do calculus.

Her constant scolding me, especially in front of the customers is not helping at all. Its making it worse. I dont know how to communicate any of this to her?

Some individuals in the world have what's known as a type A personality. They tend to be bossy and impatient. They worry that if people don't do things their way, then they aren't doing them the right way, and they feel the need to lord over those they view as subordinates to ensure work gets done "the right way". These people tend to be good at multitasking with menial and clerical duties and don't understand how others might not excel in this area because they consider these tasks to be simple.

When faced with single tasks which are time consuming and might require more abstract thinking, they tend to struggle.

This cashier is probably in her optimal place in life. You, on the other hand, are in a sub-optimal place.

You could tough it out but there is no reason why such a job should be so stressful and I think you should consider finding a new one.

I am trying to find a new one, this is just a temporary job to hold me over, I need to make some $ and save up. If this cashier continues to scold me repeatedly, I might meltdown again. It was already not good crying in front of the customers. See heres the thing, even when I was a kid, scolding me in front of people has never ever ever been the way to go. The effective way is pulling me aside and talking to me about whats going on. Scolding me in front of others often makes it worse.

Scolding people is not good, period. This is a human thing, not just an AS thing.

I would talk back to your 'boss' and interrupt them before they speak. I think this is an AS intuition thing but we can see patterns and this includes knowing your boss is about to complain about x before they open their mouth. For example, if you've just finished pushing carts then as soon as you see your boss proclaim 'Hi boss / <call by first name if appropriate>, I just finished pushing all the carts there, there, and there, <insert whatever thing you suspect they may complain about here and mention that you did it> and I checked underneath them all and everything is in good order, what would you like me to do next?". This puts you in control as they then need to reply to you. This is an awesome technique when done right, trust me. It makes you seem proactive and takes away their power as they become reactive (to you). Good luck.

I started as a cashier at a supermarket this past February. We have approx 60 front end employees. All the cashiers also bag from time to time. Some co-workers never cahsier but they bag, mop, work the bottle return area and do the parking lot carts.

I'm an intellegent woman but believe me, it took everything I've got to learn this job; which I now like, by the way.

Most of my co-workers are pleasant. A small few are insufferable. I avoid those to whatever degree possible and when I do work with them, I just greet them pleasantly, do the work and stay mostly silent. Over the months I've learned that the ones I have difficulty with; everyone has difficulty with. This is true for almost all workplaces; there a few problem co-workers everywhere.

I am taken by how much diverse work our equalant of your Courtesy Clerks do. They seem to triage their various tasks well. I assume it took them more than a couple weeks to learn to attend as seemlessly as they do. It took me about a month before I had any ease in doing my job.

At our store the cashiers don't supervise the baggers/courtesy workers. Our supervisors are their supervisors. Here, when a bagger needs to go do something else, they usually just go, without explanation and then we cashiers do our own bagging.

Your intuition about not wanting to inturrupt the cashiers to tell them you need to go do something else, is probably right. We are busy with the computer, the codes and we're expected to work very quickly & accurately; which for me is all right brain work. Tuning in to what the bagger is saying is left brain and interrupts the flow. I can see when they leave, though, it's OK; that's their job to go when needed elsewhere. If you have a supervisor or co-worker you trust, ask them if you're supposed to announce your comings and goings to the cashiers.

Maybe your problem cashier's attitude about your intelligence is a mixed blessing. Perhaps now that she's decided you're not so smart, she'll get off your case. Wouldn't that be nice? You're smart, who cares what she thinks?

You will need to start hearing the calls over the speaker system. At first I never heard what they were saying, just noise, as you said. But one day when I was putting groceries back on the shelves in the store, the front end was calling me. Ever sinse then, whenever I'm not at a cash register, I try to listen to the announcements. I hear what they say now, I just tune it out when at the register.

Hang in, this is still early on the job for you and new jobs are always stressful. The trials you withstand now will become strength you will be able to draw upon later when you persue your career.