I was surprised to close up shoppe today to find that my ipod, which is used to play ambient sounds for which customers to browse through our various films, was stolen from behind the counter by some customer it would seem.
Let me be frank, I love my job. I really do but at the end of the day it's a customer service gig. One that i hope i can stay with for a long time. However, on the day to day it's easy for one to become annoyed with the general public. I feel that annoyance from one human to another especially when one of those humans is working for the other is a natural occurrence.
What makes a good day out of the grind is those really great interactions with a customer, where you may help them with picking out a film and they come back and thank you. Or when you just end up gabbing about the intricacies of Lynch for too long with someone. These interactions can make your work week and the East End has more than enough friendly enough customers to see these happen as a natural reoccurring phenomenon.
But now i feel alot has changed.
Instead of entering a situation with a customer with annoyance it will come coupled with distrust. It only takes one person to ruin it for everybody and tonight a customer ruined it.
It makes me want to draw a line from my side of the counter to the patrons. To not cross it easily and to not smile when not needed. To not go out of my way to help someone out. It makes me angry, it makes me upset, it makes me feel like an idiot.
I swallowed those feelings on the subway home and thought it better to not let it come over me. That tomorrow, although it will be quieter in the store than usual, i will smile and ask if there's anything else i can help with. That way if this customer, who found it in them self to take from me and a store that was open for them on Good Friday, is to return they'll see me smiling. My breath still smelling from when they made me eat crow. They'll know that i'm here for them, and of course a regular paycheck. They'll know if there's anything else i could get for them i will, gladly.
I love the East End. It's started to feel like home lately, one that was broken into unjustly tonight.
But it isn't a home, it isn't "my store". it's just a place i like to work at.
and if there's anything else i could get anyone while i'm working... just let me know
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9 comments:
Ahhh rats..... that's bummer, Kris. I hear you on the trials and tribulations of dealing with the humans day in and day out. It's a thankless job. I'd disagree that it's not your store however. When you are there, it is and you've made it that way. It a better place as a result.
An iPod is just a thing. Go get a new one and I'll cover your out of pocket. It's the least we can do.
(Can I get away with a Nano or do we have to jump up to the Classic?.... the Touch is out of the question, btw).
oh no no,
don't worry one bit Scott.
thank you so much for the offer, but i'm going to roll with this one.
this way i can get a lot more reading done while in transit to and from work.
Also the idea of having one less screen to interface with in the life of Kris Kadas doesn't seem all that much as a bad thing.
Although, if i did let you purchase me something i would hope there would be some sort of Touching going on
dude, snag an iphone and charge it sporgey, it'll be hilarious! seriously though, i've had a fair share of shit stolen from me and i know exactly how it feels - first like you've been kicked in the gut, then you fill with undirected rage, then a sad, resigned indifference settles in, along with a slightly lesser view of humanity. it fades over time, and you become wiser, but that little twinge of distrust is always there, sadly.
seriously sucks bro - i'll buy you a burrito today.
If you were smarter, you'd claim your iPod was stolen too Joe. But you're not.
Just a thought Kris but why don't I just steal Joe's iPod and give it to you?
Then we all win.
Sporgey
just try it. i have sharp teeth.
Kris that really sucks. assey humans, taking away your music... TWICE now.
When I was a kid I had something like 4 bikes stolen while living on Roncesvalles (the problem with living in an apartment which can't fit a bike, and that backs onto an alleyway with no gateway or anything).
Tony Soprano just phrased it perfectly (S4E9), called it the "toilet of humanity". I agree Tony, I agree.
I looked up "assey", assuming it was some odd medieval historical Brit usage of the term K had picked up in her efforts to obtain her perputual minimum wage degree overseas but realized half way through this exercise it was probably pronounced ASS(EE), not AS-SAY as I had originally surmised.
Now who's laughing?
yes. I've also picked up a habit of calling people cunts.
Touche.
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