I destroyed a printer at work yesterday.
Not on purpose.
It was one of those little printers, the ones that verify checks and print out receipts. It had hung up earlier in the day, shortly after I returned from lunch, but after a little while it decided to reset itself and start printing again, which was convenient because I was running the express-lane checkout.
Immediately after my final break, however, it stopped printing again. And this time it refused to re-set. I had to send the customers to other lanes, because I couldn't express them without a printer (no, using hand-signals wasn't going to work).
John, the floor manager on duty, had to move me over to another register. And sure enough, on my third customer the computer hung up on running a debit card! I had to call John over again to get her card to run correctly (it involved rebooting the station, which required his input). As he finished his part of the reboot, John snarled and winked at me, "That's your last call to me for the day." (This is a guy der Brucer insists never smiles. He really does, but he does it with his eyes, not his mouth.)
Finally, my shift was over. There was John, standing atop another register's conveyer belt, replacing the "need assistance" signal light at Debbie's station. He looked at me, and then at Debbie, and repeated to her "You don't get any more assistance calls for the rest of the day." Then he looked at me and growled "And YOU, You don't get any more calls for the rest of the MONTH!"
We really do have fun at work. Honest!
