I work retail, and one of the questions I ask my customers is, "Hey, how are you doing today?"
Most people smile, and ignore me.
A smaller number of people say, "Good, how are you?"
An even smaller amount of people answer that question truthfully.
The day after my ex and I broke up, I had to go to work and I lost count of how many times I had to ask that irritating question. And what pissed me off even more was when people asked me how I was doing. My automatic answer is (of course) "Good thanks, and yourself?"
Whenever someone asked me that, I couldn't help but rage silently at them. Scream, "I'm hurting really badly inside and my life is falling apart! That's how I'm doing today! But what the hell do you care? As long as I smile, nod and tell you that everything is great thanks, you can be on your way, guilt free!"
It pisses me off, how much I have to play act. We are all human, and we all have crappy days, so why can't we show it sometimes? Now, I don't want to tell my boring life story to a random customer, but one day I want to say, "Actually I'm not having such a great day, but that's ok - how is yours?"
Customers, society, people in general, all tend to forget that although people in retail are smiling on the outside, they might not be on the inside.
Today, for the third day straight, I had a killer headache that 8 painkillers couldn't cure. So my temper was pretty much fried and my patience with stupid questions was out the door before I even walked through the door. I've been averaging 4 hours of sleep a night for a short while now, and it sucks. But I suck it up, go to work, and pretend everything's great! Now, I'm not a big believer in bringing your drama to work but I am a big believe in empathy.
Why don't I want to walk to our shipping and receiving department to look for a shoe the computer says we have one size of, for you? Because I'm feeling terrible, it hurts to move and you're acting like a spoilt brat, that's why. It's not that I don't want to do it for you, it's that it causes extreme pain whenever I make a movement. Which is every fracking second.
You might think everything is about you, but it's really not. I hate to be the one to break it to you.
The next time you walk into a retail store and start bitching and complaining about the people who work there, think before you speak. In fact, don't speak at all. Just smile, nod, and say thanks.
And never, EVER tell us we look tired.
