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In the grocery store, the cashier asked, "Paper or plastic, ma'am," and then looked up and then said "sorry". Said she only looked at the hair. I talked to her as she scanned my items and told her it is a milestone and I just had to tell my longhaired friends.
Welcome to the club :) You have passed one of the more odd milestones as you said lol. It takes a guy sure of himself to laugh when he hears this and not take offense. Can you imagine the reaction of some guys to that? LOL
LOL! I would have come back with a quip such as , "I'll take plastic, SIR!" Hahaha!
Carol
I work in a grocery store. The job makes me depressed and fills me with a great rage, and every day I come home in a violent mood and don't talk to anybody for several hours while I think about ways I could end my worthless excuse of an existence of constantly taking orders from everybody around me, but I don't have a lot of choices. God, I hate work so much, even more than life, and almost as much as people...
Anyway, the point is, when you're up there bagging groceries you have to work much faster than you can think and move (I naturally move at a very slow pace and have a slow reaction time to anything that isn't an emergency), so I either get yelled at for going to slow or I end up going faster than I can and get yelled at for doing things incorrectly. I wish I'd get fired, because I'm in no position to quit. When you're working, you don't want to pay any mind to the customers.
You hate them, they hate you, and you have to pretend to be somebody else until your shift is over. If somebody makes a mistake like that, it doesn't really matter since you can't expect them to be paying attention to everything. I can't really tell who is who, I'm just in a terrible state while I'm working. My friends have told me they've greeted me while I'm at work and that I just ignored them. The fact is, it effects me so much I don't care about anybody or anything, myself included. I don't notice people at that point, and having any sort of meaningful chat with me would be an exercise in futility. I'm forced to just ask what they tell me to and pretend I'm not full of anger and depression, and I just do what I'm told and nothing more. It's pretty much just being forced to do a robot's job, it's clockwork, that's what having a job means. I just try to forget the day even happened.
Never yell at a cashier. Hell, never yell at anybody at their jobs. I never do, but many people have nobody else to complain to. I get yelled at constantly. When somebody gets your order wrong, never complain. Their lives suck at least as much as yours, and getting your order right shouldn't have to be the first thing on their mind. We're all slaves.
Seriously, Grant. The people who work at the grocery stores I frequent almost always seem to be in a decent--if not downright GOOD--mood. At the risk of sounding terribly cliche, the quality of your life is determined about 10 percent by your circumstances, and 90 percent by your attitude (the way you CHOOSE to react to or feel about your circumstances). Taking it a step further, if you truly abhor your circumstances to such a tremendous degree, CHANGE THEM. Or waste your life feeling miserable. Your choice, friend.
--Val
I don't think there is anyway I can change them. I was taken in when I was kicked out, even though I was full and ready to die homeless. I was recently injured by the actions of a member of the household (namely, tipping a bookshelf on me while I was asleep), and now I apparently owe for the medical fees because that family member is only 15 and not old enough to have a job.
I've been forced to work several more hours than I can handle doing a job I despise, and all of my pay is going towards this damn medical bill that I shouldn't have to pay. I feel like shit and I wish I was dead, but I owe money and I couldn't leave if I wanted to, and I do.
I know how it feels matey. I just recently quit a job at a meat packaging factory. Did the same motions all day in a cold and very noise invironment. More or less everybody in that place were completely screwed up in their head.
Life can be the worst pain, and also the best thing ever.
Oh and btw, in sweden we pack our own bags when we shop. It´s crazy that you americans don´t. :)
I'd really rather pack my own bags and sometimes do. But often times, the bags are by the cashier and I really cannot ask her to let me back there to pack my own.
But I do sometimes use the computerized help-yourself checkouts. But this time I did not because I had some Fraziskaner (beer) in my cart and it is just easier to buy alcohol with a real cashier right there.
Stores here have tried it. Most go back to having employees do it because employees do it all day and therefore become much faster.
Bill
Grant,
too bad you find yourself stuck in such a crappy position. No doubt that the feeling of entrapment in your workplace adds to the frustration. Perhaps if you felt free to leave the job, it would make it easier for you to tolerate...but with undeserved medical bills and your requisite gratitude at being taken in (even when their 15yr old injures you). It must feel like hell. I'm sorry you feel so bad (but don't take it as pity).
As much as the job may feel like it sucks, I would guess that it is the life situation you find yourself in that is actually more frustrating than the job. I've worked all kinds of high-pressure, time sensitive, customer service jobs and I loved and hated them...the only substantial difference between the jobs I loved and teh jobs I hated was the fact the I loved or hated them: the jobs were essentially the same.
Try to re-frame what you are doing into a different perspective.
Instead of think that you are at the end of an assembly line of resentment and fury, think of it as an inconsequential challenge. Really, who CARES if a customer yells or thinks you are to slow? (I, personally, hate whwn customers are rude, but remember that they are just using to vent something that likely began long before they ever saw you.) Also, while you see a stream of customers all shift long -and so the feeling is that it is all one, connected experience- each customer is a stand-alone entity; you need to hit the emotional 'reset button' after each one passes through the turnstile because, for them, whatever happened with the customers before them and what will happen to the customers after them DOES NOT EXIST in their experience.
Another way to get your mind off the monotony of the task is to set challenges to your self, or give yourself silly, self-imposed rules.
Here are some examples:
I know it feel awful right now. It won't forever. Just try to take pleasure in the small silly things now and look forward to the day when, through your hard work and exceptional customer service, you find a better job or are promoted and/or respected at your current job, to the day when you are no longer reliant upon oppressive people for your survival, but mostly to the day when you can shake off the inner demons that haunt your past and end their rule over your present and future.
All the best!
Shawn (Mr.Crow)
I get that myself, and it bothers me not at all. I've heard that all over the place, and only once at the store. Glad to hear that it's considered a milestone.
I remember one of the first times that happened to me...I always had wondered how I would react, being very sensitive about my hair, but it was fun to see that the awkwardness fell upon them instead of me. Kinda cool.
Great story...and hair!
Take care and keep it growin', y'all
Brett