Nights & weekends

Now that I have a second job in retail, it reminds me of how people are so very different from each other.  I worked in retail for close to 10 years before I put in my resume for the office job that I have now.  Believe me, it was the best move that I have ever made, but at the time the flexible hours of retail suited my single-mother lifestyle.  I have always dealt with customer service in one way, shape or form; the position that I have at my full-time job now is customer service, my customers are now mortgage companies & borrowers instead of retail shoppers, but in the title business it is all about the best service (after all, title premiums are set by law).  The retail world is back in my life and cracks me up (& not always in a good way) a little everyday.

I love people, they make my laugh.  The way we go about things as humans is very interesting to me.  The way we approach situations and deal with others attracts me.  Maybe this is why I choose Psychology as my major in college.  People love to be told how awesome they are and I am just the girl to tell you.

I often call myself a professional flirt; because I work with the public in both jobs and I go by the theory that you attract more flies with honey then vinegar.  It is easy to get what you want with a bat-of-the-eye-lashes or a sincere (or close enough to sincere as possible) compliment.  I will flirt with men, women, children, sales people (if it means I will save a couple of dollars) & most recently my new auto insurance agent who saved me hundreds-of-dollars a month when I added Bryan to my policy, not including the customers that I help on a daily basis.  (This makes me a Psych case all of my own, I'm sure.)

This weekend I noticed that some people get so pissed-off at the stupidest things.  I thought to myself while experiencing a couple of irate customers that if this is the stuff that get under these people's skins then they are lucky.  One customer, was so angry that the girls couldn't get her change of $100 dollars fast enough (she was only buying socks).  She was blessed enough to be buying socks with a hundred dollar bill.  May be she had more going on in her life.  May be she needed those socks for a sick father or mother, may be the cashiers was the icing-on-the-cake for an already very bad day.  Another customer called a one of the young men who works on our team "gay", with a negative connotation, without knowing him at all.  I almost fell over.  Really?  Could you be anymore more ignorant in this day and age?

These instances are just the couple of examples of this weekend & happens to be the minority of our customers, thank goodness, but putting myself back into population in the role of the retail sales associate is going to be more interesting then I can ever remember.  I can tell I will have to bite my tongue and just hope that all these people have bigger things going on at home  and that they are really not that mean; and may be I will be able to brighten someone's day by telling them how awesome they are.

I know my co-workers appreciate that I am their cheerleaders, just like I appreciate when they are mine; we all cheer each other on and encourage a good day.   Sometimes retail isn't SO terrible.

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path. ~Paulo Coelho