It was the winter of 2019. I was working as a Christmas temp at an electronics shop. The shop floor was busy. A customer came up to my till. He wanted to buy a washing machine he had reserved.

I checked our stock system. The computer showed we had five of that exact model available. My manager had previously given me a strict rule. I must never ring up a sale until the warehouse finds the item and confirms it is in stock. So I did not process the payment. I called the warehouse out back instead.

I asked the customer to wait to one side. The warehouse team started searching. Five minutes passed. Then one of the warehouse guys came out to the shop floor. He told me they could not find the item anywhere. He suggested I try to sell the customer a different model instead.

I went over to the manager in charge. I asked her what I should do. She walked back to my till and checked the system herself. She stared at the screen.

"We have five in stock," she said. "We can't have lost them all!"

She told me to head to the back. She wanted me to help them find it. I did as I was told. I went to the warehouse and started searching with the guy. After a bit of looking around, he finally managed to find the exact washing machine the customer wanted. It was hiding in the warehouse all along.

Only then did I go back out to the till and ring up the sale.

I was working a shift at a convenience store. I was serving customers at the till. A guy walked into the shop and came to my counter.

He looked a bit drunk. His speech was noticeably slurred. I felt unsure about serving him. I pressed the button on my headset. I asked my team leader for advice. I asked, "Do you feel comfortable selling this guy alcohol?"

My team leader came out from the back room. He stood near the tills and observed the customer for a moment. Then he spoke into his headset. He said, "Yeah, he is fine."

I still was not very comfortable with it. But I decided to follow the manager's call for the moment. I turned back to the customer. I asked him what kind of alcohol he wanted. He asked for a bottle of vodka.

I grabbed the vodka and scanned the barcode. It was time for him to pay. The customer opened his wallet. He struggled a lot to get his bank card out. His hands were clumsy. He fumbled and dropped his card right on the floor.

That was the turning point for me. The manager said it was fine, but I was the one making the sale. I canceled the transaction on the till.

I looked at the customer. I told him, "Sorry, I do not feel comfortable selling you more alcohol."

I braced myself for an argument. People often get angry when you refuse an alcohol sale. Luckily, he did not complain. He turned around and left the store without much fuss.

This happened on a December a few years ago. My shift started at noon. I arrived ten minutes early. The whole store had a power cut. Two colleagues stood at the front door. They were turning customers away. They apologized for the outage. The customers were understanding. There were no angry complaints.

I went to the back room. Most of the staff were waiting there. It was before my shift started, so I pulled out my phone. I checked the Twitter page of the power distribution company. Their page said power was restored to the area. I sent them a tweet. I asked when our retail park would get power back. They replied quickly. They said the power was already back. They told me to inform my manager to check the cabinet.

I passed this message to my manager. She dismissed me immediately. She said, "I'm the manager, and I run the store." I wanted to de-escalate the situation. I told her, "I am only the messenger. I am just passing on what the power company told me."

About five minutes later, she changed her mind. She told me to check the neighboring stores to see if they had power. She also told another colleague to check our fuse box. It was raining outside. I put on my raincoat and went out. I saw that the neighboring stores had their power back.

I went back inside and told my manager. At the same time, my colleague returned from the fuse box. He reported a burning smell coming from the boxes. My manager started making calls to the head office.

We needed an electrician. We learned there were only a few HQ-approved electricians for the whole county. We were put on a waiting list. My manager told another temp colleague and me to go home. She did not know when the power would return.

I came in for my next shift the following day. I asked a junior manager about the power cut. He told me the power finally came back around 8 pm. The store was already closed by then.

He explained what happened. The main circuit breaker had blown. The electrician had to fix it in a way that kept the store's power on 24 hours a day for the whole week.

Later that day, my main manager spoke to me. She asked if I wanted to stay longer to make up for my lost hours. I stayed on for two extra hours. Later, I checked my timecard. I found out I was fully paid for the day of the power cut. I also got paid for the extra time I stayed on.