What I posted on Twitter earlier: "Dear rude customers, Where I work doesn't determine my brainpower. It's extremely likely that I'm much smarter than all of you."
Hello, I'm Kirsten, and the above statement is true.
How often do we judge people based on where they work? All of the time. Should we? Of course not, but we do. Now, how many people show it? Fortunately, most people try to hide it. I respect them for that. If customers would like to talk to me while I'm working to find out that I'm not an under-achieving individual, I will give them the time for that.
But, I get customers like two who I had tonight.
Background info: I work in a shoe store in my city's mall because I'm in college and I need a job to pay the bills and it was the first one that I was offered after applying at about 25 stores, so I took it. Boom, there's my work story. Also, it's important to note that we keep our left-mate shoes in the storage room in the back to try to prevent shoplifting; it is company policy, and it baffles people daily.
Tonight, I had these lovely (not literally) ladies. One lady had a box of shoes that had a right and a left in it (though there should have only been a right), but the shoes were different sizes, so I took both to the back to find the left in the lady's size and the right to the opposite shoe in order to fix whatever box was messed up. As I took both shoes, the two ladies were talking about me as if I could not hear them, and I overheard them basically saying that I would mess up and bring the incorrect sizes to them.
Hold up! Excuse me.
No. Heck to the no. I'm not stupid. I've worked at my job for approximately 6.5 weeks which is enough time to know what I'm doing. While I intended to fix an issue, these ladies thought that I was too stupid to do my work (which honestly requires very little intellect, a fact that causes boredom for me).
Ugh, it's frustrating. But, instead of being rude, throwing the shoes in the ladies' faces, etc., I got the shoes (correctly), returned them to the customers, and smiled when my manager checked them out at the register.
I suppose this was a way for God to remind me that I need to be a better witness for Him. While I would never actually yell at a customer or do something destructive / hurtful on purpose, I am tempted at times. I will work on resisting temptation and somehow showing people that I have true intellectual abilities despite my position as a lowly Sales Associate.
-----
PS - Not all of my customers suck. I particularly enjoy the kids who are 2-8 years old, kids in high school who I'm able to convince to buy shoes that aren't the cool name brand because the other shoes are cheaper and better, and repeating customers who are nice. Examples: Last night, I helped some customers who were previously shopping in my store right after I began working. There was an issue while checking out, and their family of 5 teenage-ish kids waited patiently and happily while the issue was resolved. Last night, the entire clan wasn't present, but the ones who were there were kind and nice to me like before. Also, last night, there was a couple who bought shoes and later exchanged a few pairs to get different ones. Tonight, the husband returned to buy a pair for his wife that had been previously purchased and returned, and he was kind about the ordeal and seemingly apologetic for the silliness that they caused, though I didn't mind it to begin with.
My job doesn't always suck. Again, not all of the customers suck. Sometimes, though, I need to rant.
No comments:
Post a Comment