ANGRY BUT MOSTLY HURT

I am sure that most of you are tired of hearing me complain about my job.  Well this time it is about my job, but moreso it is about people in general.

I have always been an office manager or data entry clerk throughout my life.  There was a short stint as a 911 operator, a few front desk clerk positions, and a couple of strange, but paying temporary jobs.  For the last three years I have worked in retail sales for a major craft store chain.  As I have stated before, this chain doesn't truly back their employees.  We are given no incentives to do better.  I personally feel this is due to the type of job, where for every person who quits there are 10 waiting in line for the position.  There is very little praise (if any) for a job well done, but a stern lecture if anything goes amiss. But this entry isn't about that.  It is about people who have certain agendas.

I am old and mature enough to know that not everyone is going to act and think as each of us do.  That would be too much like cloning.  And I am also fully aware that Satan has a firm grip on millions of people worldwide.  But it still never ceases to amaze me that there are some people out there whose agenda is to ruin someone's day, or possibly someone's life.  I am not talking murder, rape or robbery...........well, not exactly.  When a person is working in the retail industry, they come in contact with hundreds of thousands of people every year.  If one looked at the situation from a statistical standpoint, it might be observed that out of those hundreds of thousands of people, even one evil person a day isn't all that bad.

But try being on the receiving end of that one person's evil..........and afterwards you feel raped, robbed and murdered.  They can rape you by taking away your dignity.  They rob you of your happiness.  and they murder your spirit.

I am not tooting my horn here, but making a point.  I have several co-workers who tell me that on the days I am off, I have a multitude of people who come in and ask for me by name, asking if I am ok, and when will I be back at work, etc.  I jokingly call them my "fan club".  This is because I try very hard to be a personable type person.  Basically I love people.  And, of course, I love to talk.  I attempt to carry on a conversation with every customer that seems open to the idea.  You can usually tell when someone isn't in the mood for conversation, so you let it go and just offer them the niceties......."hello, how are you" and "thank you for coming, and have a great evening".

But there is always that one customer that seems to be out looking for someone to crush.  Possibly someone at another retail outlet has given them some grief, so they come in and they take it out on you.  Or maybe they are fighting with a spouse and take it out on you.  Or their children are getting on their last nerve and you become the recipient of their ire.

Or maybe they are just evil messengers of Satan.  I am inclined to believe that this one customer I have is the latter. 

Now I am probably going to ruffle a few J-land feathers here, but it is not intentional.  What I am about to state is directed only to this customer and the situation.  This particular woman is a 40-ish African-American.  The reason I make this statement is that I personally believe that she doesn't like Caucasians.  I couldn't care less what color or religion any of my customers are, as long as they pay for their items.  But for some reason this woman has an agenda against white people.  She always has her young son with her (I am assuming he is her son, for he is about 2-3) and a teenaged daughter who looks between 13-14.  The daughter never expresses herself in one way or another.  But after the events of yesterday, I was discussing the incident with another sales associate, and she asked me to describe the woman.  This associate is also white, and as myself, does not have any agenda against any other race or creed or religion.  But she said that it was the same woman that made her cry about a month ago.  When I was in the break room and was telling another white associate, as well as another black associate, about what happened, both knew who I was speaking of.  The white associate had had problems with her as well.  The black associate mentioned that she had waited on her several times as well, and she was always very nice, but if there was ever a problem with her purchase, she would always ask who the manager was on duty, and if it was a white manager (she obviously knew all the managers) she would say don't bother calling them up, I will come back and make this purchase later. 

This woman almost lost me my job yesterday.  She told a blatant lie against me to our general manager, and due to the fact that she had done so once before several months ago, my manager, when talking to me in private, stated he couldn't have any more complaints or he might have to terminate me.  I DID NOTHING BUT HELP THIS WOMAN!!!!!!!!!  I called for assistance to get something down for her, since she couldn't reach it.  I told her by pointing where something was, due to the fact that I can't leave my register..........and she told my manager I was mean, rude and hateful to her.  I didn't open my mouth to defend myself, for I knew it wouldn't do any good.  She was out on a mission to ruin someone's day, and I was the lucky lotto number holder. 

Now please, no hate mail about racial differences.  I have the utmost respect for people who deserve my respect.  If you are Asian, Latino, African-American, Caucasian, or any of the hundreds of other nationalities, and you respect me and deserve my respect, you will get it.  If not, you won't, but when on the job I will hold my tongue and still treat you like a human being. 

I have to leave the library now, so have to go.  But remember when you are upset with either someone or a situation, don't take it out of someone else.  It could ruin their day, or possibly even their life.