The weird things you encounter at work.

Being in Australia, I've seen some things which are a major cause of concern while you don't hear much of them back at home. For example, whether students on concession tickets (like myself) should give up seats to perfectly healthy 30 year old adults on adult tickets during peak hour is a constant debate topic over at the mX newspaper, which is like the Today newspaper back at home.

At work, you see a lot of weird things too.

You see people with less than half a mind placing cold stock on shelves, allowing things like milk to go bad. You see people who cannot read the price tags and ask for discounts when the offer is clearly for another item (Never mind that the price is rather ridiculous. The price of a 1kg pasta is cheaper than that of a 500g pasta?).

But yesterday, something topped them all.

While filling eggs, I saw a boy, roughly 5 or 6 years of age walking around, looking down every aisle calling "mommy". Clearly a lost child situation, I asked a female colleague to bring the boy to the service desk (information counter for you and me back at home). Female colleague because my experience with lost child situations are not the best.

Within seconds, the service operator announced to the stall that we have a lost child situation and to ask the parents to be reunited with their child at the service desk.

The parents came within seconds, but where a smile or a very relieved look was what I expected, they came with a frown.

"Why didn't you just leave him there? I was worried because you took him away!" was the first angry outburst from the mother.

O_o

Yes. Apparently, WE are the ones who are being blamed for her losing contact with her child. Not a single thank you, not a single "Thank god". Nothing. All we got from that parent was verbal abuse for bringing her child to safety and calming him down so he won't get scared in a crowded Thursday supermarket (Thursdays and Saturdays are the crowded days. Go figure). Never mind that the child was safely and swiftly brought to the service desk by us and not lead away into the outskirts of Northern Queensland by some pedophile.

Never mind that.

It's all our fault for bringing the kid.

Then again, many things we do is all our fault. The lack of supply. The lack of money in the cash registers. Et Cetra.

Now, even failures of parenting is our fault.

I love my job. :>