Occupational Hazards

Just a quick author's note... I've noticed something peculiar over the last few days. More than a month after I signed up here, my earnings had reached a whopping 88 cents...then, yesterday, I noticed that the number had dropped to 80 cents. It's bad enough to sign up for this in hopes of making a... Sign in to see full entry.

A conversation I had this morning reminded me of this story. Before I started working in the photo lab, I worked in a call center...for all of a week and a half (not counting a month of training, which didn't prepare me for everything I ended up facing). It was a horrible, miserable, soul-killing... Sign in to see full entry.

Every now and then, you run into some...odd names on this job. That's true anywhere, I guess, but when you work in retail, you have to find amusement wherever you can just to get through the day. So...a few names I've found while searching through the envelopes in the file cabinet... Buzzard,... Sign in to see full entry.

Had this one yesterday, just as I was heading off to clock out for lunch. A customer ambushed me as I was walking past the Kodak instant picture maker. She'd somehow thought that she was using the regular-service kiosk, which generally takes two to three days. When I pointed out to her that she was... Sign in to see full entry.

Here's one that happened over a year ago, which popped back into my head randomly, as some things are wont to do. I was working in the lab when a coworker came in and said that a customer had lost a slide in one of the digital kiosks. Yes...a slide. I had to ask her to run that by me again, and she... Sign in to see full entry.

Here's another type that drives me nuts: people who throw their money or credit cards onto the counter instead of handing them to me. It's a gesture that's so arrogant and filled with contempt, I always want to pimp-slap the person doing it. Too many customers think they're so much better than I am,... Sign in to see full entry.

Had another Speller this afternoon. Me, filling out envelope: "Last name?" Instead of just saying it and giving me a chance to spell it myself, she said, "R-O-L-L-I-N-S," and without the slightest pause continued, "I-O-N-E." The lack of a pause threw me a bit, and I wrote it all on the same line,... Sign in to see full entry.

Just remembered one that happened not long after I started working at the photo lab. I was on one side of the lab, prepping film (pulling the ends out of the canisters, attaching them to leader cards so they could be fed into the processor, etc.), and I heard a guy ask one of us how to put "this"... Sign in to see full entry.

Here's one from yesterday. Got a phone call from someone asking how to print pictures from her camera phone. Common enough question, since no one bothers to read the instruction manuals. Me, if I run into something I don't know how to do, I look it up in the manual. But all too often, customer logic... Sign in to see full entry.

Here's one from a couple days ago... I'm filling out a one-hour envelope for a customer. She tells me her last name, "Drew." I write it down, I'm on the "R" when she says, "D-R-E-W." Oh, really? Did you think I was gonna spell it "D-R-O-O?" Did you honestly think I couldn't figure out how to spell... Sign in to see full entry.