"he has a horrible attitude."


a funny story from saturday at the store. a lady comes in looking for some tubing for her aquarium. from my perch in the office, i watch her open a box (labeled 25 ft.), take the tube out and ask one of the other employees to help her stretch it out to make sure it's 25 ft. it is, but she deems it to short to reach from her aquarium to the outside of her house. she mangles the tube and the box trying to force the tube back in. she takes the ripped up box back to the shelf, sits it down, and proceeds to take the 50 ft. box off the shelf. she brings it back up front, pops the box open, and is about to pull 50 ft. of tubing out and ruin her second box of product in less than five minutes. i feel compelled to intervene.

"ma'am, can i help you?"
"i just need to see how long this is."
"it's 50 ft. long."
"i need to make sure."
"i promise, ma'am. you can take my word for it. it's 50 ft. there's no need to open another box."
"i can open the box if i want to."
"well, i suppose that's true, but if you are really just verifying the length, i can do that for you without opening the box. if you need a visual aid, we can walk it out along the floor."
"there's no need to get smart with me."
"ma'am, with all due respect, i am not getting smart. i am just trying to help you without opening the product up and handling it to the point that we will have to return it if you aren't satisfied."
"whatever. is heather here?"
"she is."
"where is she? she'll help me. we'll open every box in this store if i want to."
"i am sorry, ma'am. not today."

i grab heather from the office and ask her to finish helping the customer. i also give her implicit instruction to not open any more boxes for the lady. she was watching my conversation with the lady from the office and is tickled already by my attempt at diplomacy. the lady goes on to tell heather that i have a horrible attitude.

really? maybe i do. the customer is not always right. and sure, neither am i. it's struck me as incredibly odd, though, at the amount of customers that have come into the store in my two months at pet supplies plus with an attitude that can be described, in a sweet way, as entitled.

i get that people can have a bad day and bring that day in the store with them, but i also get that it's not our fault, nor our responsibility to take getting cussed at. to take having people shake their heads and snap at us. to take having soft dog toys thrown in our direction. to take that people are pissed that we aren't heath and won't give them free shit. i don't get free shit. why would i give you free shit?

as a christian, i understand that i should show patience even when it's not being shown to me. as a manager responsible for other employees, though, if i draw a line in the sand and you cross it, well, there's a good chance you are not going to get your way.

oh well.