A Weird Day At Work

Our general manager was fired while I was on vacation.  He is a friend, and he is the one that gave me a job without question when I needed to change jobs in order to go back to school.  Today was my first day back after vacation, and there was a bit of a void there today. 

Still, things have to continue on.  We wonder who will be our new general manager.  The company closed a few stores in the area, so we most likely will end up with a manager from one of them.

So, here is fingers crossed for a good outcome from all of this upheaval.

Apparently I Live In A Dream World

Today I got to deal with another problem-customer.  This one found a sign a few days ago that listed a wine $5 less than its actual price.  So, we gave her that price that day.  Supposedly the manager that modified the price told the customer the $5 less price was the real price.  It is not.

So, when the customer came back today to buy the wine again, she was expecting to get the wine at the cheaper price.  However, the sign was not up this time, so we would not give her the cheaper price.

When I told her that the manager probably checked the price after she left and found out the price it rings up as is the real price and got rid of the sign, the customer’s response was, “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”  So, apparently I live in this fantasy world where the prices in the computer are the real prices, not the prices that managers tell customers, like in the real world.  Oh, and apparently in this fantasy world I live in, prices do not stay the same forever, like they do in the real world.  Also, in my fantasy world, if someone tries to get something $5 cheaper than they should, they are ripping me off for $5, unlike in the real world it is not.

Inappropriate Questions In The Workplace

I have been known to ask the odd question at work.  For instance, I once asked a co-worker if she had a rough night last night, because she looked tired.  It was not completely kosher, but it also was not overly terrible.

Now for a doozy that was unleashed yesterday.  A little background:  we have a girl working for us who is home for the summer from college.  One of the stock crew has had a bit of a crush on her.  Yesterday he asked her if she was going to be pregnant next year.

Yeah, you got me.  I think he was trying to flirt with her, but I really do not understand how that was supposed to entice her to go on a date with him.

When Work Intrudes On My TV Watching

Last night was another great episode of Weeds.  However, the ending made me cringe.  Not because of what happened on-screen, but because of the closing song:  Celia.  I hear it almost every day at work.  I am tired of it; so, so tired of it.  I cracked my wife up, though, when I started to sing along with it.  I even started up right on beat!

How To Flame Out At Work

A month or so ago, the Amirah saga wrapped up.  If you remember my last post about her, I had to explain to her that white people don’t use hair oil.  A little after that, Amirah’s attendence got worse, and we had to write her up.  Even though I was not involved with that at all, she still chose to blame me.  Apparently Hell hath no fury like Amirah scorned.  She called me a devil person and told me that one day, God would make me pay.  So, now I’ve been cursed by an Ethiopian.

Things went on for awhile longer, and she was eventually fired for her attitude.

I just wonder what she would have called me if I had written her up for insulting me…

Someome Out There Thinks I’m Gay

I had today off, so I’ll dip into my backlog of work stories.

The charity I used to work for was almost all women.  Every time one would get engaged, they would throw a surprise work shower for the lucky lady.  So, when I got engaged, I expected a surprise shower.

It would have been a surprise if my friend Kristy hadn’t accidentally spilled the beans to me by trying to hide her work calendar.

Although it wasn’t a surprise, I still enjoyed the groomal shower.  The funniest part was the cake.  My wife’s name is Gregoria.  So, when they ordered the cake, they ordered it to say, “Congratulations to Troy & Gregoria!”  However, the cake place put “Congratulations to Troy & Gregory!” on it.

I wonder if the people at the cake place were thinking the cake was for a gay couple…

Healing Crystals. Crazy?

Despite the fact that I love science fiction and fantasy, I am a very skeptical person.  I don’t believe in magic.  I don’t believe in psychic powers.  So, when one of the girls at work had to take a day off of work to go to a class about healing crystals, I managed to keep a straight face, but just barely.

I find the idea that crystals can be used to heal someone patently ridiculous.  Modern medicine has provable results that can be empirically studied.  Healing crystals, not so much.

Then something controversial occurred to me:  Why is believing that crystals and psychic powers can affect the world any crazier than believing thinking at (or talking out loud to) an invisible being can actually affect the world?  Neither one can actually be proven in anyway.  One is a generally accepted as a matter of faith, and the other is believed to be completely silly.

These are the things I think about on the drive back from work.

“White people don’t use hair oil.”

I work at one of the import chains that has not gone out of business.  We have an eclectic mix of employees:  Bolivian, Peruvian, Iowan, Ethiopian, etc.  Sometimes cultural differences jump out.

Por ejemplo, the Ethiopian girl (let’s call her Amira) I work with brought me an oil infuser asking if a customer can open it and smell it.  I said no, since it would be unsaleable if the customer did not like the smell.  So, I told Amira, “Tell her it looks like…”  I look at the box, “bergamot, whatever that is.”

Amira replies, “Bergamot, like the hair oil.”

Trying to be diplomatic, I told her, “Katie and I don’t use hair oil, Amira.”

Looking confused, Amira asked, “Why not?”

So, I finally just blurted out, “Amira, white people don’t use hair oil.”

The two other black people in the room, both of them born and raised in the US, both started cracking up.  Amira accepted it all silently, but she sat all through her lunch break looking very bemused.  To this day, I still don’t think she completely believes that I don’t put oil in my hair.