One thing that surprises me from time to time is that some people simply don't know their trade.  You may be a programmer, a manager or a retail cashier.  IMHO people should always strive towards perfection in anything they do, everybody has their limits.  I'm not going to knock somebody for their skill at a given trade as long as they are striving to be the best they can.  But when you lack the fundamental skills of a trade, then you just don't know your trade.

Now I hate to pick on somebody with a less than glamorous job but I've noticed that some grocery cashiers just don't know how to bag groceries.  I mean it seems pretty obvious that household chemicals don't belong in the same bag as food.  Or something heavy & hard doesn't belong in the same bag as bread but two separate times this year I've seen a cashier do it.  I mean they get training on this subject, so what gives?

Of course this brings us to a wider understanding, instead of being a jerk and complaining about the issue, I took the higher road and now when I put my groceries on the conveyor belt I order them as they should be bagged.  And there are 2 good reasons for this, the most obvious one should be because why make the cashier do extra work your YOUR groceries.  And the 2nd is simply because in case I do run across a cashier that doesn't know how to bag there's a good chance she (or he to be PC) will do it correctly because that's how I've given them.

Of course this whole post didn't come about because of my contempt for cashiers but actually after an interview I had today.  While the person in question didn't have stellar skills, and his people skills were a little sub-par (not important on my radar) but the thing was, when I asked him specific questions on his program or database design, he seemed to be doing everything correctly even if he was still "just learning".  What's important here is that the guy realizes when performing your trade, it's best to know it before you do it, anybody can just "give it a shot" and make something that works, but it takes a special few who take the time to make it right the first time.

And of course finally a self-motivating attitude is a huge bonus, because without that you'll never want to learn anything or take pride in your work.

The more I think about the issue, the more I realize that I guess I deserved to have my groceries improperly bagged, it goes to the old IT phrase... "garbage in, garbage out".  You shouldn't expect or demand perfection when you don't strive yourself for it.