Thursday, March 31, 2011

Don't you people have jobs?

Just to give anyone reading this fair warning: This is going to be just about the most hypocritical thing I have ever said/thought/written. I came into Starbucks today because I wanted to sit down and get some writing done. First off--I felt very stereotypical--the underemployed person recently graduated from higher education with millions of dollars in student loan debt--walking into a coffee shop with their laptop in the middle of the afternoon struggling to write something really good but really just hoping it turns out halfway decent. All I wanted was to order a drink, sit in one of the big cushioned armchairs by the outlet so I could plug in my laptop and start writing (what will undoubtedly become a very important literary work). But the place was PACKED and imagine my disbelief when some middle-aged, slightly overweight, gray haired business man in a suit is sitting in my cushy armchair. He has his laptop and some files in front of him like Starbucks is his own personal office (And yes, I am fully aware of the irony of complaining about this man as I am walking in with my laptop and my bag overflowing with three spiral notebooks, a binder, a datebook and folders like I fucking own the place) But this man has a suit and a job and presumably an office--shouldn't he be there? Eventually the man got up and I got my seat and plugged my laptop. I stayed there throughout the afternoon writing and watching people come and go. As I was watching the customers come and go, I just thinking to myself, "Don't these people have jobs?" Why aren't they at work? Presumably these people were wondering the same thing about the girl in the corner with her laptop--who refused to give up the good armchair by the electrical socket. But I have a reason for being here--I'm a writer...right? Maybe...but not really. It was that experience that emphasized for me how much I really miss having a definite place to go from 9:00-5:00 during the work week. I think given the choice people want to work. They like to work. It's nice to be part of a working team and to feel like you're doing good work and contributing to something. I imagine not having can be a real hit your self confidence--actually, I don't have to image it...I know it is.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Just give it right back

After I finished my shift the other day I went shopping for a few things before I left and as I was shopping I realized that I almost never leave work without buying something. I decided I would force my self to do the math and see exactly what the damage was. I figure every time I work I spend an average of $8.00. That basically means for every shift I work I am working one hour for free. And I'm honestly not saying this is bad. I actually did the same thing when I used to work at the bookstore but it was much, much worse because I got paid about the same amount I get paid now but I would spend more on the books. I generally don't do large grocery shopping trips--I tend to do smaller shopping trips once or twice and week-and many of things I buy are on sale, so $8.00 bucks a trip doesn't seem that bad to me. But there are definitely times when I make impulse purchases or buy something just because I'm already at the store and it's so convenient to just grab it. And once in a while I buy food to eat on break which is money I wouldn't otherwise be spending. Although lately I have been bringing snack packs from home so I have something to eat on my break. That seems to be working out well. So I am going to make a conscience effort to try to limit the amount I spend when I go shopping at work but mostly they pay me money for working there and I just turn around and give it right back. I image this happens to a lot of people working customer service(or maybe I just have no willpower). I think that if I worked at Old Navy or Macy's or Target I would just spend half my paycheck right there.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Just say what you mean

A woman and her daughter came through my line over the weekend and right from the start she was mean and nasty. But it was the beginning of my shift and since I had just gotten there I was pretty patient with her. As I was scanning her order there were two items at the end that she pulled aside and said, "These are separate." So I said, "Ok.", and continued scanning her order. I rang her up and gave her the total. She slide her credit card through and paid. Then as I was putting some of her groceries in a bag she huffed and said impatiently, "Well you didn't ring up these other two items with the rest of my order." Now normally, I don't outright contradict customers and I would have just let it go and apologized for not ringing up the whole order together but now this woman was really starting to piss me off so I decided to speak up. I told her (as calmly as I could and trying to be polite) "I didn't ring them up yet because I thought you said you wanted that to be a separate order." "I wanted it to be bagged separately, not a separate order!" she snapped at me. She then huffed and said, "Well now I have to find my card again." and she made a big show of digging through her entire purse before finally pulling out her wallet out and getting her card. I would also like to point out that she had just had her card out literally 5 seconds earlier so it could not have been that hard to find.

Now I have tried to be empathetic to the customer's point of view here--it might have been mildly annoying to have to get her card out again but in the grand scheme of things it is not that big of a deal. It was only an extra 2 items. It took less then a minute to scan and bag them. But the point that I would really like to make is that the whole situation was really easily avoided if she had just clearly stated what she wanted in the first place. All she had to do was say what she meant. All she had to say was, "I would like these bagged separately, please." These 7 little words would have solved the whole problem! Or just say, "Please bag these separately." I guess that was too difficult for her to do so she just expected me to psychically know what she meant when she said, "These are separate." Which is as ambiguous as Ryan Seacrest's sexuality. And if she hadn't been so nasty I might have asked her ahead of time what she meant but I just didn't feel like dealing with her. And she seemed to be in a rush but she was wasting her own time--not mine--I had to be there either way.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Don't spend it all it one place

I was at work the other night when Carrie came up and handed me a letter in a sealed envelope. At first I just took it and said, 'Thank you.' Not really paying attention to what she had given me, I just assumed it was my paycheck. I finished checking out my customer and looked at what Carrie had just handed me. When I looked at it again I realized it wasn't my paycheck, it was actually a letter with letterhead from the corporate office. My mind ran through all the possibilities. Was I in trouble? What had I done? Was I being named employee of the decade?--ha ha. I tore open the envelope and read the letter. As it turned out it was none of those things. The letter said, 'We are pleased to inform you that based on your performance and length of employment you have been approved for a pay increase. Your current hourly wage is $8.15 an hour.' I thought to myself, "Oh my god! Now I know what it must feel like to win the lottery! What will I do with all the extra money? I can buy myself that brand new car and finally take that trip to the Caribbean! Or...maybe not. Now, of course, a pay raise is always good news and I don't want to sound ungrateful but I think most people would agree that a .25 cent raise doesn't really amount to much. So as I said any raise is nice but it is sort of disheartening to see in black and white that your monetary value is $8.15 an hour. I just hope I don't go spending that extra 15 cents all in one place.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Don't have a cow, man!

I have been working at the grocery store for over a year now and I have to say in all that time no one coming through my line has ever bought veal--until the other night. And I have to say I was really disgusted. I have never in my life (knowingly) eaten veal and the idea of eating it is morally reprehensible to me. I don't think anyone I know eats veal. I hated to be selling these people packaged baby cows--I know they're actually called calves- (especially with some of the horror stories I have heard about what they do to the baby cows) and the idea that these people would be cooking it for dinner turned my stomach. I am morally opposed to fois gras (which is goose or duck liver)for a similar reason. The basic idea is that the liver is prepared to be served by a nasty process of force-feeding the poor animal until their liver becomes enlarged. Now I have to admit this is hypocritical on my part because I am not a vegan or even a vegetarian. There's a lot of meat I don't or won't eat but I love chicken and turkey and cheese. My sister is a vegan and has a sort of all or nothing view about eating meat and animal products but I disagree. I love animals and that's one of the reasons I don't eat lamb (they're too cute) or seafood or most pork or deer. I also don't wear fur or (knowingly) buy things made out of leather. I guess we all draw our own lines about what is morally right and wrong so I'll try not to judge these people--even if I disagree with them! And I think every little thing you do to promote animal rights makes a difference. If everyone does just a little you start to see the impact. I think is applicable to enviornmental issues as well. Baby steps aren't any less significant just because they're small.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Coffee cup half empty

It was a busy Sunday afternoon when a woman came through my line with about 20 items, including a cup of coffee. I rang up most of her order when she said, "I'll pay for this coffee if I have to but it was cold when I got it so I don't think you should charge me for it." Well, we're a small, local grocery store which happens to have cups of coffee for sale at the back of the store--so if she was expecting gourmet coffee or Starbucks she was just setting herself up for disappointment. But anyway, I was about to apologize that the coffee was cold when I happened to glance down at the cup and saw that it was well over half empty (well, maybe she was an optimist and saw the coffee cup as half full). Anyway, I thought to myself, 'Well the coffee couldn't have been that bad considering you drank almost all of it.' There was a line of customers behind her and I really didn't feel like arguing with this woman over an .89 cent cup of coffee. As I thought about it, it was more the principle of the thing then her not wanting to pay for the coffee that bothered me. Of course, a customer shouldn't have to pay for something if there is something wrong with it or if does not meet basic quality standards but it was fairly obvious that there wasn't really anything wrong with the coffee--she just didn't want to pay for it. And because it was the middle of my shift, and because it was busy and because I just didn't feel like arguing with her she got it for free. Even though it was just an .89 cent cup of coffee it just doesn't seem fair to everyone else who works hard, earns money and actually pay for the things that they consume.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Mind the (generation) gap

I am 32-years old. I am not young anymore (damn it). I am not old (but time does seem to be going a lot faster then it used to). I am just an adult. So logically I know I am not old but there is nothing like working with high school kids and college students to remind you, "Wow, I am really not young anymore!" Hopefully, I'm like a fine wine--just getting better with age. Anyway, here are a few of the things that have made me feel really old! Any of these sound familiar?

1. cell phones-It seems to me that if you are in college the cell phone is really just an exension of your body. It's like another limb.  Everyone under the age of 24 must have their cell phone with them at all times (Although to be fair I know a few people in their 30s like this too). I admit that I don't leave the house without my cell but I also don't have to carry it with me at all times and when I go to work I leave it upstairs in the breakroom. It seems to me that you could some how manage to be separated from your cell while you're at work (especially if you're only working a 4 hour shift). I know work is boring but all these kids sit there and text nonstop. Back when I was in high school (wow--did I really just start a sentence like that?) I probably could have counted on one hand the number of high school kids who had cell phones (well maybe that's a slight exaggeration) but no one I know brought them to work and if they did no one actually used them while they were at work. And we didn't have smart phones, iphones with apps to download and text messages to send.  I had a huge black flip phone that I was aloud to use in case my car broke down on the side of the road.

2. The drivers license-Now, as you know if you saw my blog from a few days ago I recently had my own "traffic incident" with the police but Charlie got pulled over for being a minor driving after 11:00 p.m. He has a junior drivers license, issued to anyone under 18, and a curfew that is legally imposed by the state. That's how young he is--the state has given him a bed time and if he stays out too late the police pull him over, give him a ticket and send him home. It got me to thinking, "holy shit I have not been a minor in 15 years! Also, there is a girl I work with named Allison and she just turned 16 and just got her driver's license. She was talking about how nervous she was when she took her test, her new car and how she got to drive to school. Talk about an age difference! Just to put things in perspective here-when I got my license Allsion was just about 1 year old.  As an interesting side note to this--Allison drove her car for about a week and got into a car accident.

3. Pop culture references-It makes me feel old talking to Allison because she just turned 16 and she has no idea who Harrison Ford is. Seriously?!? There were a few of us standing around talking about movies or actors or something and I said something about Harrison Ford. She got this blank look on her face and said, "Who?" For a minute I really thought she was messing with me! Ummm--Harrison Ford!?! Who has been in some of the biggest movies (and trilogies)of the past 30 years! Indian Jones? Hans Solo in Star Wars? Nope--she had never heard of him! I couldn't believe it. And she was missing out because he used to be hot! (Do kids still say hot to describe someone?) It would be sort of like me saying I had never heard of Elvis or Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor. These people may have been a bit "before my time" but I am certainly aware of who they are and some of their work.

4.  That these kids can't legally by alcohol or cigarettes.  Do I need to say much more about this one?  Some of them can not legally can't even walk into a liquor store without being accompanied by an adult.  If I wanted to hang out with any of them I couldn't just say hey do you want to grab a drink after work. 

5. Watching some of the kids I work with who are seniors in high school graduate and get ready to go to college always makes me feel a little old and nostalgic.  I think graduating from high school is a really exciting time.  You start to feel like you're not a kid anymore and many high school seniors are getting ready to leave home and go out on their own for the first time.  It's also always to cool to see them when they come back for winter break and to hear how much fun they're having in college.  I don't mean this in a condescending way at all but I sort of feel like patting them on the head and saying, "Aww I remember when you were just a kid in high school and now you're all grown up."  But that would probably make them hate me just a little bit and it's not something they would fully understand until they were in their 30s anyway. 

Monday, March 21, 2011

(Un)happy Anniversary!

The word anniversary generally has a positive connotation. A couple will say, "Oh, we're celebrating our three year anniversary." Or, "My grandparents are celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary." And the person they are talking to will smile and say congratulations! But this is an anniversary I would rather forget! Had I really been working at the grocery store for a year already? How is that possible? This was supposed to be a temporary thing to help me get caught up on some bills and to help hold me over while I looked for a "real" job--the job I really wanted. This reminds me of Shirley and her three year plan. Shirley is another cashier who works another job full time during the day and also works a few nights a week at the grocery store. Shirley is really sweet and really funny and I really like working with her. Her three year plan is basically that when she got hired at the grocery store she wouldn't be there for any more then three years. At the time she started working at there she was going through a divorce and wanted to pay off some bills and needed the extra income. She saw the cashier gig as a temporary thing. She is now on year two and I hope she sticks to her plan! So on my (un)happy anniversary as a disgruntled grocery store cashier I promised myself that I will do everything I can to make sure that I don't have a second anniversary at the grocery store. I'm going to make sure that at this time next year I will have a career not just a job.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Does slow and steady win the race?

I have to say that out of all the people I work I actually really, really dislike ( I don't like to use the word hate but it's pretty close) only 2 of them. One of them is Valerie. She is an older woman (likely in her early 60s) and I have to be honest I know very little about her personally. I have no idea what she is like outside of work. I'm sure she has friends and family who love and care about her. And I know she has a son and grandchildren so I try to remind myself that she is someone's mother and grandmother when I am on the verge of totally losing my patience with her. Maybe she hates being there as much as I do and she's miserable while she's at work but when she leaves work she is a sweet person. (Although I have to say I doubt it). My first experience actually working with her was months ago when I started working in the morning on weekends. I found her to be nasty and extremely condescending (which I really can't stand). Like honey, we work at a grocery store, we're not performing brain surgery here so there is absolutely no need to talk to me like I'm a stupid child who is incapable of understading how to hang price tags on a shelf. But one of my other problems with her came up when I was working with her a few weeks ago. It was still early in the morning so we were the only 2 cashiers there. But she kept wandering off and leaving me there by myself. Which I was fine with because as far as I was concerned the farther away she was from me the better off I was-until there was a little rush of people (a line of about 4 or 5 people) and she was up front stocking the candy shelves--seeing these people waiting in line--but seemingly unwilling to open her lane. She finally opened and took one of the customers over to her line. I noticed that in the amount of time it had taken me to check out 3 customers she was still on the same customer she had when she first opened. Now I will admit her customer had a slightly larger order then the customers who had come through my line but her customer had been in her line for about 10 minutes. There she was chatting away and placing each grocery item in the bag as slowly as if it was a grenade she thought would go off if she didn't handle it very carfeully. I swear to god it was like a deliberate work slow-down. Her own mini protest. Again in the interest of fairness and full disclosure I will reiterate that she is much older than I am and I also learned that she has had some recent medical problems so I try to be patient and cut her some slack. It's just frustrating to be the only other working with her in the morning, especially when you're working to keep the flow of people moving and she's spending 10 minutes per customer. Maybe some customers appreciate the extra time she spends with them. Maybe slow and steady wins the race. But I sort of don't think so--I think it is entirely possible to be friendly and polite but be efficient at the same time. And I also think while most people don't mind making small talk with the cashier at the grocery store very few people want to be held up for longer then necessary, unless they personally know the cashier.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I'm not drunk, I'm just a bad driver

I had just finished working 8:00 'til midnight--it was only a four hour shift but trust me that was long enough! At midnight I was ready to get the hell out of there! I have driven back home from work at midnight so many times I could practically do it in my sleep (and trust me sometimes I almost have--but safetey first people!) So I was sort of on autopilot driving home and maybe what happened next was inevitable.

I was coming up to a red light (that was red even though there were no other cars coming in that direction!) so I slowed down, stopped, sat there and waited for it to turn green. It turned green and I started driving. As I was crossing through the intersection I noticed two things--and I'm honestly not sure in what order I noticed these things. 1)I had my high beams on and 2)a cop car coming the other way had stopped, done a (very sudden) U-turn in a parking lot and was now following me (very closely). At first when he didn't turn on the flashing lights right away I thought, 'Maybe I'm o.k.' I kept going straight, he kept going straight. I turned right, he turned right (very closely) behind me. I came up to another traffic light and right as I approached it it changed from green to yellow (Damn it!) But not wanting to give the cop any reason to pull me over I sat there as the light changed from yellow to red. The light turned green. I went straight through the light with the cop car still right on my ass. I looked around frantically for a speed limit sign (funny, I drive on this road practically every day and I wasn't even sure what the speed limit was). It was one of those parts of the road that went from 25 mph in one spot to 40 mph. I thought I was safe...but nooooo! As I was driving straight all of a sudden I saw the flashing lights of the police car behind me. Shit! Shit! Shit! My mind was racing (as fast as it could at midnight). What had I done? Well as it turns out, according to the police officer, the question should have been what hadn't I done. So the officer approaches the car waving a flashlight around as I rolled down the window. He flashed the flashlight around the back seat of the car and into my face. After introducing himself he asked to see my license and registration. "It's in the backseat in my purse. Is it ok if I get out to get it?" "Sure." he said. As he took it I asked if everything was ok. He said, "I was just about to ask you the same thing. First, you blinded me with your headlights back there (which was ironic because he had just blinded me with his flashlight-so I figured that made us even), then when you made your right hand turn you crossed over the median and you were going 37 in a 25 mph zone." Fuck! With all of these alleged (even though I admit nothing) traffic violations this guy was going to throw the book at me! And in my defense I am normally a pretty good driver (but I guess everyone thinks they are a pretty good driver, don't they)--so if I did any of these things it was just because having a cop tailing me at midnight on my way home from work tends to make me nervous. It's very distracting and disconcerting!

As I handed over my license and registration he must have noticed my work clothes and he asked, "Are you coming from work?" "Yeah." I said as I nodded and tried to smile. I was trying to be as friendly and cooperative as possible. I didn't want to be sarcastic or antagonistic but I was thinking, 'Well, what the fuck else would I be doing in my work uniform at midnight?' I mean it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that I was probably either coming from or going to work. He said I could get back in the car and wait while he ran my license. I managed to hold it together until I got back in the car. Then I lost it--and this was not girl-trying-to get-out-of-a-traffic-ticket-fake-crying. This was legitimate, real crying because (like many of you out there) my budget is a very delicate ecosystem--like the Amazonian rainforest or the Alaskan tundra--the slightest little thing throws it all out of wack. I could not afford to pay some ridiculous traffic ticket! If I got a traffic ticket it would have been like I had just worked for free because any money I had just made would have gone toward paying the ticket. I hate that my budget is so tight there's no room for emergencies or unexpected expenses.

But I digress. So the cop came back to my car a few few minutes later and I said, "Everything checks out." Again, I sat there wondering,'Like what the fuck wouldn't have checked out?' Then the most amazing thing happened. He told me to have a good night and drive safe. No ticket! No traffic citation! Not even a warning--unless you count him telling me to drive safely! As he walked away I managed to say thank you (in a tone I imagine was a mixture of relief, tiredness and maybe a little disbelief). And I can't help but think in this case it might have been the hideous, ugly work uniform that saved me! I suspect that he might have originally pulled me over because he thought I was intoxicated (drunk, high, whatever) but when he saw I was coming from work he figured I was not drunk, just tired and he let me go. So it should releive all of you to know I wasn't drunk, I'm just a bad driver.

Anyway, alls well that ends well.

Take care, happy shopping and drive safe!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Where there's smoke, there's fire

It didn't start out with a lot of drama but things escalated pretty quickly and ended up with a firetruck with flashing lights pulling up in front of the store. At first, a customer came up to the front and told Rose, "There seems to be a lot of smoke in the back corner of the store." Then a few minutes later one of the people who works back in the deli rushed up and said, "You better call the store manager because there's a fire in the back of the store!" So Rose called Scott, the store manager, over the intercom. He came downstairs and went to the meat department to see what was going on. The front of the store was getting pretty smoky so Rose started looking around for a fire extinguisher. She was actually looking all over for it when someone pointed out that it was right in front of her. From there, as you might imagine, things turned into a circus pretty quickly. It was sort of a free-for-all for the cashiers up front--like kids in a high school class when there is a substitute teacher or like kids who had just been set loose at Disneyland.

Then fire trucks pulled up--that's right trucks, plural. Actually, first the fire police came then a fire truck came. As the fire truck pulled up in front of the store with flashing red lights turned on, we were talking really loud and laughing and joking around about how we might have to evacuate the store and how we might get out of work early (even though we knew the chances of that happening were slim to none). The volunteer firefighters (who all looked about 12 years old) came marching into the store fully decked out with all their firefighting equipment. Scott came up to the front and was like, "Did any of you guys call the fire department?" We all shook our heads and said none of us had called them. Scott was greatful they came and knew they were just doing their job but he didn't want to waste their time by having them come out to the scene where the fire had already been put out. The bottom line was that none of us were overly concerned that the store could burn to the ground at any minute.

Customers' reactions ranged from panic to indifference. One customer came through my line and she said, "Ummm, you do know there's a fire in the store, right?" Then she looked at each of us and said in a very serious (and slightly sarcastic) tone, "Isn't someone going to do something about that because my eyes are really starting to burn from all the smoke." I calmly told her that the manager was back there and he putting out the fire right now. She looked at me (very) skeptically, paid for her groceries, and ran out of the store awfully fast. Another customer asked if there was really a fire in the store. We said yes, there was and she got a freaked out look on her face and told her kids to run out to the car fast. Scott pointed out later that he thought it was funny that she was so concerned about the fire but that didn't stop her from staying in the store, shopping for her groceries, and going through the checkout line. Most customers were just mildly curious about where the fire was and what had started it. And just to address the obvious concern, of course fires are very dangerous and can spread very quickly so I don't want it to seem like it was something we all took too lightly. I think we just weren't too concerned because it was such a small fire that was contained pretty quickly.

Well, it turned out to be a small electrical fire in one of the meat cases. Rose brought the fire extinguisher and Scott remained totally calm and put the fire out quickly. Ah, just another day at the office...

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Time is on my side...

I have started showing up about an hour early for work on a pretty regular basis--I know this probably (definitely) makes me sound like a loser who doesn't have anything else to do. I have had a few of the cashiers ask why I always show up for work so early and I normally just laugh and shrug. But this actually started for a few reasons. The first time it happened by accident.  I actually started work at 8:00 but I accidentally wrote down that I started work at 7:00 so I ended up getting to work about an hour early. Luckily, I brought a book with me so I sat up in the break room and read until it was time for me to start work. Then it happened again when a while ago I was scheduled to work on a Monday night and I had some errands to run before work. I ended up getting to work about an hour early because the errands were all pretty close to work and didn't take nearly as long as I thought. I could have gone back home but I figured by the time I got home I would have just enough time to stick a frozen dinner in the microwave, stuff my face, and leave again--so I just went straight to work instead. I went up to the break room and I paid the bills I had stuffed in the bottom of my purse that I hadn't gotten around to paying yet. So after it happened a few times I began to realize I was actually getting stuff done when I was sitting up there in the break room waiting for work to start. Since then I have sort of made a habit of showing up about an hour early for work about once a week. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I pay bills that are just staring at me every time I open my purse. Sometimes I balance my checkbook (which reminds me why I have to be there in the first place). Sometimes I make to do lists for the upcoming week or make notes about e-mails I want to type and send. Whatever it is I do with that extra hour it has sort of turned into an hour of down time with no real distractions. I don't have to worry that I'm going to get caught up doing something and end up being late for work because I'm already there. I'm not saying the answer for everyone is to show up an hour early for work and sit in the break room on a crappy, uncomfortable folding chair but I do really think if you can clear some time in your schedule for you to just focus on the odds and ends you need to get done it may help you to be better organized. For me that extra hour--those 60 little minutes--have made a nice little difference.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wearing your heart on your (t-shirt) sleeve

Being a cashier is (obviously) not a hot button issue so I certainly didn't start writing this blog for the sake of highly intellectual, heated political or religious debate. I try to be respectful of all religious and political beliefs but the other night a guy came through my line wearing a T-shirt that said, "Jesus died for you." This made me disproportionately angry. One (small) part of me said, "Calm down, it's just a T-shirt. But mostly I was just really angry--furious, actually! Let me be perfectly clear here--Jesus did not die for me or my sins! I wasn't even around at the time and if I had been there I'm sure I would have said, "Hey, you don't need to do anything drastic on my account!" I mean I feel guilty when I go out of town and have to ask someone to feed my fish for me, so you can imagine the guilt I would feel if I had to walk around thinking someone had died for me. I couldn't take it! No wonder there's so much "catholic guilt" Oy vey! And of course I couldn't say anything to this guy about his obnoxious T-shirt because he was a customer so I had to (literally) bit my tongue.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Say what?

There is a lady who comes into the grocery store pretty often--I'll call her Trisha. She is always so sweet and so polite and she has actually become one of my favorite customers. The other night she came though my line. The machine that prints out the in-store coupons had printed out a coupon for Weight Watchers fat free ice cream for the lady before Trish but the lady before her had just left and had also left the coupon behind on the ledge by the register. Trisha came up, unloaded her few groceries from the basket and picked up the coupon to read it. She said, "Oh, a coupon for fat free ice cream--that sounds good!" I said, "If you need it, you should take it." Meaning, of course, that the lady ahead of her had left the coupon there and if it was for something Trisha could use she should take it. But for some reason, the word 'if' got stuck in my throat (I think I inhaled at the same time I started talking or something) and instead it came out as, "You need it, you should take it." Well I was so embarassed because I certaintly didn't want this sweet lady to think that I was in any way implying she needed to buy fat free, diet ice cream. I also didn't want to make the situation worse by trying to explain myself so I just smiled, told her to have a good night and hoped she understood what I meant by what I had said.

This just got me thinking that many of the misunderstandings we may have in our day-to-day interactions with other people are often the result of a very simple miscommunication.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Tired and Cranky

A customer--I'll call her Regina--came through my line the other night around 11:30. The countdown had started and I only had a 1/2 hour left! It had a been a pretty normal night all the way around. It had been a Goldilocks night--not too busy, not too slow, just steady. The customers hadn't been rude, they hadn't been too friendly (is there such a thing? Yeah, probably) And I hadn't been in a great mood but I wasn't in a bad mood either. So yeah, everything was alright--but around 11:00 it hit me that I was pretty tired. During that time I definitely don't think I was rude to anyone. I might have been "quick" with people--a fast smile, trying to hurry them through the line just because I was tired. Then Regina came though my line. She's a regular (and I admit, not one of my favorites because she never, ever helps bag her groceries) She always buys pretty heavy stuff (cases of soda, bags of dog food) and watches it get loaded it her cart without ever lifting a hand to help. Tonight she had a bag of dog food (as usual) and a case of water. Trying to avoid having to lift them I told her she could leave them in the cart and I could come around and scan them with the hand scanner. She said o.k. I rang her groceries and went over to scan the stuff in her cart. I might have sighed as a walked over and shifted the bag of dog food to find the bar code. Again, I wasn't in a good mood. I wasn't in a bad mood. I was just tired. I finished bagging her groceries and she paid. As she was walking away she said, "I don't know if your anger was directed at me or not but you have the worst attitude of any checker in this store." I have to say this really caught me off guard. I sort of widened my eyes in surprise and opened my mouth to say something. But what was I going to say? Did I explain to her that my attitude wasn't directed at her personally and that I was really just tired? No, I decided I didn't owe her an explanation. And I know I have never been overly friendly to Regina but I really don't think I have ever done anything to her that would lead her to say something like that to me. She almost said it like it had been something she was thinking for a while and tonight I had done something that had somehow pushed her over the edge. In the "real world" I think I am a friendly, patient and rational person. I think. At least I try to be. I try to be friendly when I go into work too. Most of other people I work with are really nice and friendly, too. Actually, I think generally most people who work in customer service are there because (well, besides the fact that they get paid to be there) they enjoy working with people. But we are all human. Sometimes you catch someone on an off day or they are going through something difficult or stressful in their personal life. Or they have been at work for hours already and are just waiting to get out of there are tired and cranky. So generally, if I'm not friendly to a customer it's almost never anything personal against the customer I'm just BORED OUT OF MY MIND! Although, I admit, sometimes it is personal and you have done something that bothers or offends me and I am deliberately being a bitch to you and yes, I know it. I think what bothers me most is that Regina has made a judgment about my character without knowing anything about me. She sees me in 5 minute windows of time once or twice a week and based on a few interactions with me she has decided I am a mean, nasty person. Thankfully, I haven't seen Regina back in the store since she said that to me because I don't know what I would do if/when I have to face her again.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Think about it...

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

~Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, March 3, 2011

My name's not Missy

This is just a quick follow up to what I wrote yesterday. The other night one of the guys I work with was getting ready to leave after his shift was over. As he was walking past the registers and headed for the doors he waved at me and said, "Have a good night, Missy." Well, my name's not Missy. I smiled and (trying not too laugh) I said, "You too." I thought it was funny that I had been feeling bad about not knowing people's names at work and here was a guy I work with who didn't know my name. It made me feel a little less guilty and I'm glad it's not just me!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Hello. My name is...

I want to start off by saying that I know that what I am about to say will make me sound like a terrible, horrible person but I need to 'fess up. I have been working at this grocery store for a year now and I don't know the names of many of the people I work with. So I walk in and everyone smiles and says, "Hi!" and I smile back and say, "Hey...you!" These people are nice and friendly and there is really no excuse for me not knowing their names. I should know their names. I guess there are a few reasons why I haven't learned some of the names of the people I work with. First--simply put--I'm just really, really bad with names (I mean, obviously). But maybe that's just a cop out--I mean the people I really like--I learned their names pretty quickly. Secondly, I work the night shift so by the time I get there most of the cashiers are already gone and I tend to work with just a few people all the time. Third, (and this by no means make it any better) I know about what every ones name is. If that doesn't make any sense let me give you a few examples. Like there are two girls I work with. They look a lot alike (everyone says that it's not just me) and they always hang out together. Their names even sound similar. I know one of them is named Wendy and one of them is named Wanda but most of the time I'm still not sure who is who.

Oh, and the other day I was standing there saying, 'Hey, Jack.' When he didn't turn around I called, 'Hey Jack.' again. I'm standing there thinking well, that's pretty rude, why isn't he answering me? Then it occurred to me that his name isn't Jack it's Jake. Damn it--and I was sooo close to having his name right. And once when I was working early in the morning Susan asked if I could give Gary his paycheck so he didn't forget to pick it up when he left. "He's over in produce." She told me. Well, not wanting to admit that I had no idea who Gary was I said, "Sure." and dutifully walked over to the produce department. There were two guys working there and neither had a name tag that I could see. Well, I thought to myself I have a 50/50 shot here. (Oh, I should have know better--games of chance have never been my friend)So I said, "Hey Gary." and started walking toward the guy who was standing closest to me--and the guy looked up (so for a minute I thought--Yay! I have the right guy). So I handed him the paycheck and the guy said, "This isn't mine." and the guy standing a few steps away (the actual Gary) walked over and took the check. How embarassing!

Anyway, writing this and seeing it all in black and white has made me realize that I have been pretty dismissive to a lot of the people I work with so I will make more of an effort to learn all the names of the people I work with because they have learned my name. Until I do learn every one's name I guess all I can say is thank god we all have name tags.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Oompa Loompa

Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic after a long, cold winter but I think there are a few sure signs that spring is right around the corner. The days are getting longer. There are a few patches of grass that are starting to turn green. People walking around wearing shorts (I personally think it's a little premature for that...but whatever). And everyone who has been pale all winter is now looking to get a little tan. A few of the girls I work with have recently started to go tanning. Rose started tanning and she looks nice because she didn't overdo it. She got a nice base tan and it just gave her a little bit of color. But one of the other girls I work with, Rachel, has spent way too much time with the spray tan machine. Rachel is normally really pretty. She has dark, wavy hair and pretty blue eyes so I was surprised when I came into work the other day and she was so orange that she looked like an oompa loompa. So here is an oompa loompa inspired song about tanning.

Oompa Loompa, do-ba-dee-doo
I've got a little story for you.
Oompa Loompa do-ba-dee-dee,
If you are wise you'll listen to me.
What do you do when you're white as a ghost?
And you don't want the sun to burn you like toast?
You spend all your time in a tanning bed,
when you think that you're pale, but it's all in you head!
A problem with tanning beds, as many of you know
If you tan in one too much
You'll have a bright orange glow!
And no one likes the look of it.
Oompa Loompa do-ba-dee-da