My Two Cents

From Wikipedia:

My two cents" and its longer version "put my two cents in" is an American idiomatic expression, taken from the original British idiom expression: to put in "my two pennies worth" or "my tuppence worth." It used to preface the tentative stating of one’s opinion. By deprecating the opinion to follow — suggesting its value is only two cents, a very small amount — the user of the phrase hopes to lessen the impact of a possibly contentious statement, showing politeness and humility. However, it is also sometimes used with irony when expressing a strongly felt opinion. The phrase is also used out of habit to preface uncontentious opinions.

I was at work yesterday and something of note happened. As many of you know, Dashiell and myself work at the supermarket Whole Foods. We are both cashiers and are pretty happy with the job we have. Customers sometimes bug us, and there's the usually grievances with working a retail job, sure, but overall good times are a-happenin'.

So an employee comes up to my register to buy food on their break. This person and I have barely ever spoke. They work in a different department and we almost never see each other. The total comes up $2.22. The employee hands me $2.20 and says, "Give me two cents James." and then starts laughing this kind of robust chortle. I don't even think and say, "Sure." They walk off, and I realize I have to put in two pennies of my own money.

Now, giving up two cents of my own money to help out a coworker is not a big deal. Not in the slightest. If I was upset over that, I'd be a jerkface tightwad. The reason I'm writing this is over the fact that this person just assumed I'd give them two pennies, either out of my own pocket or found somewhere else.

When I am with friends or family and I need some extra cash, to cover dinner, to see a movie, whatever, I ask. I never demand. And this is with people I am very close to! And how about with coworkers that I see every day? Well I've never done that. I don't feel I have that right, at least not yet. I'm just a work buddy, not a friend you can loan money to. And there's something else, what I did was not a loan. I gave the person money and I will not get it back.

So what's the deal. Do I think this coworker was fine in what they did? Not really. If the person asked me if I could spare two cents, I would have. I would've felt weird because I'm not even on a first name basis with the person (they knew my name from my nametag), but I would do it anyway. But the fact that they just told me to give them two cents kind of rubs me the wrong way.

Am I angry solely on principle? That is something I always try to stay away from. Doing things on principle alone always seems slightly shallow to me, so i hope this is not the case. I guess what upsets me is the fact that someone took money from me who I am not close to, with no intention of giving it back, without asking first. Asking someone for something, or rather, asking me for something will almost always get you it, if it's within reason. I find that demanding or assuming I will give it to you to be all sorts of rude and a reason to not help you out.

Myabe I'm being an ass. Two cents is worth nearly nil right? So why do I care so much about my two cents?

-James

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