Blogs are a wonderful thing for the retail soldier. As I say in my show, we are at the bottom of what I refer as "Trickle-Down Bullshit". We don't have anyway to release to bullshit piled onto us by the people who feel entitle to do so because they give us money.
This has been a interesting Holiday season. Even though we've been doing a decent amount of business, we haven't been completely overrun like we have been in seasons past. Many of the clichés that have been as much a part of the holidays as showings of It's A Wonderful Life have been absent for the most part this year. The thing I'll remember most about this year was how many people asked us for Star Wars toys without weapons, it isn't called "Star Hugs" after all.
I refer to the Holiday Season as "Retail Vietnam" but I haven't been working all that much this year due to my new job as a preschool teacher's aide. However, school isn't in session so I've been working a bit more at the toy store.
A guy I was ringing up at the register was asking if he had to pay for his gift-wrapping. I said no and he said, "So, tips then?" I said as he walked away,"Hey, you feel that strongly about it, you go right ahead." A lady being rung up at the other register gave me a dirty look, I guessed that she may have thought that I was pissed off at the guy, even though I wasn't.
"Why do you still work here?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Watyamean?" she mock-repeated. I'm mocked quite a bit at my new job, but it's still jarring for it to be done by anyone over five.
Thankfully, she continued, "You work here for Christmas year after year and you drive yourself to the point of insanity."
There she has a bit of a point, but a few years too late. This was the very reason I was working as few hours as possible. I was probably not in the best of moods at that point for sure, but pretty far from insane. When I told her I was fine, actually, she sneered, "Sure you are."
To answer the question: I'm still there because it's the best retail job I've ever had. After having other jobs off and on the past 4 years, I've appreciated what I've had at the toy store. A world class store, co-workers who I love dearly and the best customers I've ever had by a country mile.
But, yes, I've been driven to the edge of insanity at the job and it's been a memorable minority of folks that have taken me there. People who have used their position as giver of money to exempt themselves from the most basic of human customs. People who we've given amazing service to again and again and saw it as the absolute least they deserved to be given. People who I've tried to help, despite their very best efforts to stop me.
Blogs give you a little time to reflect and give yourself a presence of mind that you may not have had in the heat of the moment. If I had the chance to do it over I would have asked the lady back, "I don't know, why do you insist on driving me insane?"