Do schools just hand out diplomas now?

Stopped in at McDonald's a few hours ago for a sausage biscuit (cause yuk McDs burgers) on my way home: $1.35

I pulled two $1 bills from my wallet and laid it on the counter and said "I think I have change" as I reached into my pockets. The cashier took the two ones and rang it up, and then I threw 35 cents on the counter.

She was dumbfounded.

I pushed the 35 cents toward her and said "I get a dollar back".

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone and started doing some maths. Then she reached in her drawer and gave me 30 cents.

It only took me a second to realize what she had done, and I real life facepalmed right there. It took a manager to get some very simple math done.

How are these people passing school?

Oh look. A judgey brokenrabbit post. Haven't seen that before.

How do you know she has a diploma at all? You don't need a diploma to work at McDonalds.

I judge because some shit is just inexcusable. I'm not known for apathy.

I know this girl graduated because I know the girl. Somewhat. I know her dad.

People have their moments, some more than others.

She doesn't sound too bright but give her a break, she works at mcdonalds. Can you imagine what a soul crushing, mind numbing experience that must be? I have nothing but sympathy for them. In a perfect world that job would pay $50 an hour and I still wouldn't want it.

I do love this example that always pops up. I mean, maybe she's a college grad who managed to graduate as an imbecile who can't do basic math. Maybe she never went to college at all. Or maybe she just has had her brain fried from a long shift and made a mistake (I admit, I've been there myself).

As for college, I can only say my experience was challenging. A handful of classes had sub 10 percent passing rates, and half of my honors classes graded on a curve (yep, half of my classes filled entirely with advanced students graded on a curve).

There may be some puff universities out there, but even so I find it hard to imagine many graduates who are incapable of basic addition/subtraction.

No, you judge because you're immature and you enjoy looking down on others.

Who cares tho? Yes, some people are not very bright. That has always been the case and will always be the case.

I pulled a fast-food stint for 6 months between high school and college, and yeah it's not fun. But you know what? I was still responsible for making the drawer match the receipts. Yes, even fast food requires a few skills, like elementary math.

I don't think most people naturally lack intelligence, I think many people just deliberately eschew intelligent thought for routine.

I do look down on some people. I look up to some people. You may find it strange the people I look up to though, because they aren't the rich and famous type, they're the hard working, make-no-excuses-get-it-done crowd. The people who half-ass things, **** yes I look down on them. You should, too.

And yeah, half of all people are below average intelligence. But we're not talking about quantum physics here, this was basic addition and subtraction.

Yeah, that's perfectly possible. I have a Masters degree and I have made some extremely stupid mistakes/said some things that make no sense at all when mentally preoccupied or tired.

Next time just give them the $1.35. Why would you give her the other $1 if you had the change.

Wasn't sure how much change I had. If I was short I would have just passed the two bucks.

No thanks. There's nothing to be gained from constantly looking down on other people. i mean, yes, there are situations in which one should look down on others, but some cashier messing up change is not one of them in my book. But I guess other people's mileage will vary.

Stupid people can still be good people. I don't think intelligence alone is enough to judge the character of a person.

I don't think you're understanding my train of thought on this subject. It isn't her per se, I'm just using her as a recent example because it just happened and I'm dwelling on it the way I tend to do. It's most of these kids coming out of these schools. They're dumb, and there's no other way to say it. You get some damn smart ones, too, so it's not something in the water.

And yes, I'm around these kids often because I do a lot of IT volunteer work for the schools around here. In fact, the reason I haven't been around here too much the past few weeks is because I've been busy with exactly that.

Yeah I'm not sure how you went from "a young girl who sucks at math working at McDonalds" to "These young people suck! Schools these days suck! Gahh I deserve everything I have and these people don't!!", which is, let's face it, is what this looks like.

As I hinted above, I don't think it's a problem with the persons actual intelligence, but rather their will to apply said intelligence. That's a character trait, not a genetic trait.

@br0kenrabbit: I'm good at my job and it even requires A lot of math. If I had her job I'm willing to bet I would be lousy at it too due to my crippling depression.

If you're wondering about her stupidity then you need to have a word with this guy:

Some guy at my work who graduated high school, is like 30 something, had to ask me what half of a 1/3rd was the other day. Keep in mind, this guy is going to school to be a chef.

Some people are just mentally handicapped when it comes to numbers.

EDIT: Also, the TC's story doesn't make much sense to me. Cashier machines are essentially big calculators. I'm not sure what result messing around on her phone does any different than adding the 35 cents to the machine in the transaction. And considering she has to put it into the machine anyways, that would just be pointless extra work doing the calculation on her phone. Maybe something else was happening and you misconceived the situation? I think the root of the problem is that you tried to give her change after the transaction was already completed, complicating matters, when all you had to do was count your money on hand first.

I have so many questions, but I'll keep this simple. Did you give her $2, let her type it in and open her till, OR did you give her two bucks and before she typed anything in announced you may have change? Why would you give her two bucks before checking how much change you had? It would of been just as easy to lay a dollar out and check your change first.

I've worked on a cash register for several years when I was younger. When you are super busy and dealing with customer after customer your brain can have a momentary relapse. I've became confused before after being overwhelmed. Secondly, if she already typed the amount and opened her till you did nothing but stress her out after bringing out change. She already typed $2, which means her till will come up short and she'll have to answer for that. What I'm taking from this is that you believe she is dumb, but that doesn't make you less of a selfish jerk.

So your talking crap about people you know, might be friends now ? What ? How old are you man ? Maybe she was trying to hook you up ? Just take it and go away. Don't worry about what they doing main ? Maybe she just went on her break and smoked a big fat one. Let her be man, let her B.

@and1salttape - Dude ! This dude is on ! Can someone please explain why this man has not had a number one single yet ? Come on society, recognize talent. The freakin jam man. Eye to Eye ! Wooah !

Seems like a bit of a leap here jumping to the conclusion about her being dumb and schools just handing out diplomas and all that. It's perfectly natural for people to just have moments like these where your brain just kind of checks out on things that they may not normally do. Could have been any number of reasons really.

I laid the bills on the counter in front of me, not toward her, so I could check my pockets for change. I used both hands to check my pockets because I have two pockets in the front of my pants, one on either side. As stated in the OP, I did NOT hand her the money. I laid it on the counter. She grabbed it and rang it up, and as her till was opening I laid the change down.

Even though she had already rang up $2, if I gave her the change (so total $2.35) and she gave me a dollar back her drawer would have worked out perfectly.

So the situation was a bit confused. She got on her cell phone to text her boyfriend about how much she hates this job and she is going to loose it. Her brain is not in the game and she just wants you out of there. That's the way I'm imagining it.

thats why she works at McDonald's

Even beyond that, when you're focused on something else and someone asks you to switch gears that takes a moment to do so. Your brain has to recalculate the new conditions of the situation and then respond.

Hell, I had a developer with a Bachelor's degree and 7 years of experience delete all of the date from a table in our transactional database a couple years ago. She was being asked to do something in a hurry to fix some erroneous data, executed a delete statement without the Where clause (whoops!), and had to restore that data from backup. Even highly educated people with significant experience make mistakes.

This "cashier can't do basic math," complaint has become a running joke where everyone who encounters the situation recounts their experience in a, "They're so stupid!" manner. It reeks of elitism and a lack of empathy.

@br0kenrabbit, I know you're better than this. Don't fall into that trap and perpetuate this thing.

She works at McDonalds because there are so few good jobs these days. She is working a hellish job for almost no money, she should be commended for it. She is really trying. I couldn't do it.

I call shit shit. It's not so much it pisses me off because it inconveniences me, but rather that I share a world with these people. If it happened every once and again okay, but this is all the damn time.

Hell, just a couple of hours ago I had to use the shoulder because some fucker decided he didn't need to check his blind spot before changing lanes. After that I went to Arby's for a gyro and I actually had to pronounce it "GY-ro" for the guy to know what I was wanting...I kept saying "Year-o" and he was just like "a what?" You sell it buddy, learn to pronounce it.

Back on the road and at the main intersection, my line of cars missed the green light because a transfer truck in the GO STRAIGHT lane across the intersection from us decided to turn and cut us all off. Then I couldn't make another turn a few minutes later because people were sitting in the intersection under the DO NOT BLOCK INTERSECTION sign.

It's shit. Shit shit shit. Everywhere.

Forgive me for not buying into the apathy game, but holy ****.

@br0kenrabbit: First step: Quit going to fast food restaurants. It's really unhealthy and you are killing yourself with it.

Second step: Learn to love all of humanity. We are all flawed and you yourself are no doubt causing people grief as well. We are in this together. We are greater than the sum of our parts. Make helping others and giving them joy without regard to yourself a priority and you will in turn reap happiness and a feeling of great satisfaction. See their suffering. See the vanity of human existence. Transcend this mundane reality.

The tastiest thing man has ever made:

Umm yeah...as I said above, I've been really busy lately VOLUNTEERING to do IT work at schools (installing some education branded Linux lately because they are moving off Windows since Windows 10 is a 'service'). I don't make a penny from it. I've probably put in 50 hours in the last few weeks. For free.

That's how I help people...I actively DO THINGS. Kid gloves don't help people, it gives them an excuse.

All this new age psychology where you have to scratch people behind the ears till their leg thumps all the damn time is bullshit. Being critical of incompetence is necessary. Not everyone deserves a ribbon.

@br0kenrabbit: And above all, lighten up.

I thought US schools handed out student debts rather then diplomas.

Let me explain to you why that is a bad idea.

I once had 5 employees. Well, 5 positions. I went through 14 people in 6 months. I was hard on my workers...face to the task, assholes and elbows. I fired 3, 6 quit.

But you know what? After all that and I had the 5 people I wanted, we were a supernatural force of getting shit done. By cutting off the fat, accepting no excuses and demanding the quality I sold my clients, the rotten apples got separated from the juicy red ones.

Progress has never come from apathy. You've got to have your boot up the asshole of life, especially if you want to move in your own direction.

Don't accept...demand.

But this isn't an example of repeated incompetence where you are their boss. This is an example of a low level clerk making a mistake and a customer jumping all over her for it.

@br0kenrabbit: There are two schools of thought on that example you give but lets put that aside. That was your employees, why treat poor anonymous bastards serving you at a fast food restaurant this way? If you cant leave that mentality at work and carry it around with you all day you are always going to be disappointed and miserable. I stand by my lighten up comment.

How can I help you my friend?

Oh I didn't jump all over her. I didn't have a chance to, she grabbed a manager to do some basic math for her. I'm just calling into question her competence...if she can't do basic math, she shouldn't be at the register. Used to they'd even put math question on the application, because yes you have to quality for that position.

It isn't even so much that she couldn't mentally do the math, but even when she went to the calculator she didn't understand when to add or subtract (since the only way she could give me 30 cents in change from a 1.35 purchase paid with 2.35 is by using the formula 2.00 - 1.35 -0.35). That's like...3rd grade stuff. Knowing when to add or take away isn't something you should even have to think about.

All I ask is that people engage their fucking brain just a little bit. You don't need to pull out in front of me when I'm the only car on the road and you can see in both directions for a mile, just to make me slow down from 55 to 20 for 200 fucking yards before you make your turn. Why don't you just wait two seconds and get behind me? Because DUUUUUUUR.

Why do people wait till their grocers are all ringed up before going through their purse, looking for their pen, and then filling out the check? Why not do that shit as they are ringing your groceries up? Because DUUUUUUUR.

People turn their fucking brains off, that's the only explanation I can come up with.

Because I had to deal with it. It shouldn't have been a problem, and even then it should have been dealt with in like, 2 seconds. To have to go fetch a manager to do elementary math for you? Yeah...she's not qualified for that position, fire her or put her on the grill.

When you are performing a job, all that matters is that you can do your job. I don't give a shit what kind of sob story you have or how many kids you are trying to feed, if you can't do the job find one you can do.

@br0kenrabbit: You may find this hard to believe but I myself have gone to fast food restaurants and have met cashiers challenged in math. Instead of getting pissed and it ruining my day, invariably we end up smiling at each other and exchanging pleasantries when the transaction is done and everything is figured out in a calm manner. I leave unstressed and hopefully I leave the unfortunate cashier with the shit job in the same state. Patience may be a virtue you might consider culminating.

Waiting is wasting.

You are causing me great sadness Br0kenrabbit !

1st grade teacher: "It's not my problem, here you go 2nd grade teacher"

2nd grade teacher: "It's not my problem, here you go 3rd grade teacher"

And so on...

It's a shame stupidity isn't painful.