Tis the Season...

Well folks, it's that time of year. Rudolph, St Nick, Yuletide, Eggnog. But this time of year means something else also. Asshole Season. For anyone who deals with the general public, you know where I am going with this. Especially the ones who are in retail. It is the time of year that people are just plain worse than usual.

Now, if you poor souls, like myself, who work in retail, just exclaimed "AMEN!", I hear ya. Working in retail is a different world altogether. For those of you who do not know me, I work at a "glorified hardware store", best way I can put it. Now, Black Friday went just fine, but as Christmas draws ever closer, the fugly side of people creep out. And OMG, is it FUGLY! I am going to tell you the last three days of my life at work.

Day #1 Wednesday: My day started out as normal enough. We (Ruhtra and myself) live in the Ohio Valley area. The temperatures dropped very cold and the wind was awful. So much so, that we lost power at the store. For two hours. No phone, no heat, no computers. Nothing. So, here we are, locking up shop and walking around with flashlights helping customers. Here is the interesting part. We had a generator working for a short while until the power blew. Hence the word "had". Some moron forgot to fuel up the generator..... Now, I know that is a "minor" detail, but still. Now, the highway gets shut down so nobody is leaving unless you go east. So, me and another co-worker venture out and find food for us and others so we do not starve. Get back, all is well. So, we get the generator fueled up. Store gets back up and running. Now, when you don't run the front end and you end up closing the store at the end of the night....bad idea lol.

Day #2 Thursday: Starts out as normal. People still complaining about the self-checkout stations. As always, it is MY fault that they are there in the first place. Now, if I actually had that kind of power, do you really think I would use it for a purpose like that?!?!? Hell no. Now, I am going to direct the next part of this day to the lumber department. I want all to witness the stupidity of people. Lumber Associate #1 ( for short I will call him LA1, who by the way, is almost 6'8") was helping a contractor with some lumber. He went to the cutting station and started cutting the board. This contractor kept trying to grab the lumber and trying to move it, with the saws moving. Now, if LA1 told this Nitwit once, he told him many times over to PLEASE STOP TOUCHING THE BOARD. Twit could not understand that, so LA1 got so pissed off at Numskull that he reached up top and shut off the cutting machine. He looked at Cumquat and told him he was not going to continue cutting until he learned to not reach in and mess with the board. One of them could have gotten seriously hurt, and you all know damn well that Dumbass would have sued my workplace and made out rich, all because of his own actions.

Oh, I'm not done yet....

So, after this happens, Shitforbrains calls up one of the managers (because some of the contractors have manager's cellphone numbers) and actually complains about LA1?!?!?!?!? The manager just laughed at the guy and told him that he wouldn't even be that stupid enough to mess with LA1, and hung up on him.


Day #3 Friday: Oh, thank god it's Friday!!! Unless you are working, again, at the self checkout station. I hate that station. Another day of people yelling at you, because they are too stupid to read prompts. Now, I am not hating on those who do not want to use them or for their reasons not to use them. What I am yelling about is those same people who then, yell at you for the machines being there.....that they want to go to a "human" to check them out at a register.....that machines are taking over my job......that I have nothing to do (oh, my "personal" fave).....and so on and so forth. And, if you do plan on using these machines, do not stand there and curse them out, especially with small children standing nearby. I hate that. I had this lady in particular on this night. Older woman, around 60 with her husband. Husband is quiet, not her so much.... She started cursing the machine out, and started getting louder about it. Because she is too damn stupid to work it. Instead of asking for help, she acted like an ass. So, me being me, I went over to see what her damn problem was. So I boldly asked her, "Is there a problem here?" And wow, what a change in disposition. She got her act together real quick, and I received smiles from the other customers as well in the process.

Now, let me tell you about my background so I can get to the point of this story. I was in the hospitality business for 11 years. Nine of those last years were with a very well known worldwide company. I worked third shift. Now, I have seen many crazy ass things in my time. Met many different people and famous ones to boot. I chose to leave because I wanted to be able to have a more normal life and not so much stress, and job was stressful for what I did. I chose this "glorified hardware store" because it is five minutes from home, I can work more normal hours and be able to spend time with Ruhtra and lil Ruh. Now, I am glad for taking the job I did, and I am not complaining about retail. But, for the love that is all just in this world: People, just respect the cashier who is trying to take care of you. Don't curse them out. If you just act with some decency, it does go a long way. I promise. I like meeting people and talking to people, but those kind of people just turn me off. So, please just be a little bit more respectful to others. Whether you are shopping, be nice to the cashier and those who help you. Whether you are calling in to a call center, be nice and don't yell at the person on the other end. Whether you are going through a fast food joint, don't yell at the counter person. If you are having a bad day, don't take it out on us. Now, maybe we have been yelled at all day long, but we still try to shine through it and smile and keep trudging along, but we can only take so much for so long. So, just be good, for goodness sake!