Today at work was sort of annoying. It’s passed though, so I don’t feel like going into the nitty gritty details. I was just annoyed by the two head cashiers that were working this morning.
Also, something that has sort of annoyed me for the past couple of years is that I’m a naturally happy person. I laugh a lot and smile a lot. I’m very friendly for the most part (unless you just piss me off). In fact, my emails and online social tweets are flooded with “haha”‘s. Is that so bad? I can’t help but feel that a lot of people (and this is all from experience with work, school, etc…) feel that people who laugh a lot are naive and stupid. Often, laughs are associated with nervousness. I don’t do nervous laughs. I do open silly REAL laughs. But still, I can’t help but think that people (teachers, co-workers, customers, etc..) mistake this as a nervous laugh and think “Wow, this girl has no idea what she is doing…” There are certain people who are just too serious for me. They NEVER laugh. In fact, I wonder why they are still alive since they seem to hate life so much. I’m not saying that to, ya know, be mean or anything… It’s just that they are fucking miserable, man. They seem to hate their job, hate their position, hate having to help people out, and just generally hate life itself and everything in it. You cannot joke with these people or smile at them. They will just look at you like you are a fucking moron and refuse to even half smile. I don’t get it. And maybe they don’t understand why I’m so fucking happy all the time. “Wow, look at that dumb girl smiling… what the fuck is her problem???”
There’s another girl I work with who has this same attitude as me. She laughs a lot. We get along really well, naturally. I like her a lot. And I see her, how she is, laughing. Like she might mess something up on the cash register and be like “Oh! hahahaha! Sorry!” and laugh about it. Is the customer thinking she’s stupid and dumb? Like, she’s doing nervous laughs? I do the same thing. Is it better to laugh about it or just make a sour expression and do it being all silent?
You know, sometimes I’ll try to be more serious with things. But that just annoys me. I know what I’m doing, regardless. I just have to pick a certain attitude with it. I’ve also found out that if a customer asks you a question and you know the answer 100% (and more than likely it’s not really the answer they want to hear), if you say it all serious and matter-of-factly because you KNOW the answer, they’ll get pissed off and demand to speak to someone higher than you. But if you’re sort of flighty and say “Hmm… I’m not sure….”, they’re nicer. It’s all about tone of voice sometimes.
But another thing I’ve discovered is that customers sometimes want you to have a bad day. Or at least that is the impression I get. I remember when I worked at the department store and it was Black Friday; I was basically in a cheerful mood, all smiley behind the desk. One man said to me “You’re too happy for it to be Black Friday.” Oh, sorry… I didn’t know that would be a problem? Also, I’ve had people come up to check out with me at the cash register and say “You seem to be in a good mood.” Is that okay? Am I allowed to be in a good mood while at work??? Is that seriously fucking OKAY with you??? Would you rather I be all bitchy and rude? Also, another observation about this on how I believe some customers want cashiers and sales associates to have bad days…. It was a Saturday. I had trouble ringing some old guy up because something didn’t have the bar code or something. It took a while for us to wait on that, but when it was done he said “You’re gonna have a good day today…” to which I replied “I hope so!” I mean, wtf? It’s as if he was just wishing misery on me. Why do customers do that? Yes, retail and customer service can suck, but geez… it’s a job! It pays the bills. I’m happy to have a fucking job in this ever so sucking economy. I am blessed with a pretty easy job, the pay is good for me and my needs, I have a roof over my head and a family that loves me and supports me in my decisions in life. What else do I need? I’m sort of tired of these customers who wish evilness on cashiers. But also, customers can have really bad days. I mean, I cashier at a hardware store, so we get a lot of plumbers and contractors and shit… They smell foul and are all dirty. Obviously they have been working hard. Sometimes they screw up and I’ll ask them how they are and they’ll just say something like “I’ll be better when I get this job done!” or “Horrible!” (Yes, I’ve had some people say that. haha.) Today I asked a man how he was and he just said “I’m alive.” I told him “Well, that is good! Life is beautiful! Enjoy it!”. He just smiled. ha. But I wasn’t being a smart ass. (Even though he probably thought I was…) I’m fucking serious. Life is beautiful! Enjoy it! And don’t forget to fucking SMILE!!! And not look like you’re hating life and all pouty and serious all the time.
