Contagious Customers

Common Cold or Communal Cold?

Now is the season I wish I could wear a Hazmat suit to work. I caught a cold about two weeks ago and I still suffer from a slight congestion. I know I caught the cold at work.
For some reason my store has the weirdest climate. Some days the AC is at the highest fan setting and I swear I saw some spilled water turn into an ice puddle. The next day the air is so dry and hot there are female customers complaining that they thought they were finished with their menopausal hot flashes.

Now throw in a couple of contagious customers and you've got a world of misery for a poor sales associate. The majority of the people I work with are sick and I honestly think I might have started it. All it takes is one person to get sick before the chain reaction begins.

One instance stands clear in my mind. I was just walking onto the floor when I heard a cough and a sneeze. I did what most sensible people would do, I tried to walk as far away from the sounds as possible. Well I did not do a very good job because the source of the frightful sounds came to stand right before my counter.

Her nose was rudolph red, eyes watering, and the tell-tale fluttering of a used tissue in her hand. I edged my way a little closer to the register and away from the counter slightly. She began coughing and I saw some spittle make its way to my counter. A now contaminated article of clothing that she wanted to purchase  slide across the counter, spreading her germs.

The whole time I am processing her transaction, I'm praying that she will use a card. I was unfortunate again because she pulled out some now infected cash. To further add damage to her cash, she coughs into the tissue with the same hand holding the cash. I'm thinking she would drop the cash first, but she holds tight to it as she coughs. My hands began shaking in fear of what type of micro-bacteria were now crawling all over the cash.

In one fell swoop she infected my counter, the air around me, and now any money that happened to be in my register. The customer's common cold became a "communal cold" now to be shared with all customers and associates who touched my cash register.