One of my jobs is working for a company who dispatches us to service shelving/merchandise of retail stores, mostly grocery. And to assist the store with their shrink (unaccounted for loss in inventory due to theft or damage) or whatever else they need. In my particular company, we work in street clothes, we wear no store uniforms, no store name tag, we bear no indication whatsoever that we are store employees. Yet, we continuously get approached by customers who assume we work there...just because we are seen moving some items on/off the shelves? I used to wear my company name tag, but found it served more as a "moron magnet" than any functional purpose. Keeping my name tag in my pocket helps reduce annoyances for me a great deal, but not all the time. I still get bugged by them. There's no such thing as "idiot-proof", it's always just a matter of time before someone comes up with a better idiot lol. I still get approached by mouthbreathers, the brains stuck in neutral, the mental midgets, the...ok, I'm having too much fun with this lol, anyway.... Something happened at work today:
I got approached by another hollow-head while working, asking me which aisle (fill-in-product-name-here) is located in. I shut them down with the usual "I don't know, I don't work here." and that sent them on their way. I've been doing this for more than a couple of years, I've gotten to the point where I'm getting burned out when you consider (in addition) all the years I was stuck in retail having to be the one there to actually work FOR the store, wear the damn uniform/nametag and answer their questions. Even though I'm on the other side of the counter, I still get exposed to this crap that vexes me so...
And so I admit, over the years, I've gotten a little more smartass in my ways, my manner of speaking, and sometimes, my nerve. After the moron left, I joked to a co-worker working next to me, admitting that I in fact DID know where so-and-so product happened to be (I remember seeing it in passing on the way to do something else), but the fact that they're too stupid to recognize that I'm not an employee of the store, providing them with the answer would be to reward their stupidity. We laughed. I then started to joke with her (perhaps a little more "out loud" than I probably should have) about how much I hate dealing with stupid people and how we should not enable/reward their stupidity by answering their questions to where things are by allowing them to believe that their initial assumption (that we work there) is correct....EVEN IF we know where that item is. It turns out, there was a very LARGE customer within earshot standing behind me who eavesdropped about 75% of what I said. After she noticed that I sensed her presence, she began to walk off, giving me the death-ray stare as she passed and grunted really loud as she left the aisle "RUDE!!" I (shouldn't have, but) replied "only to the dumb ones!" As she turned the corner, apparently hearing what I said, grunted even louder "BITCH!!!" I replied "again, only to the dumb ones" and laughed.
Are you seeing what I'm seeing in what just happened there?
Do you think I'm in the wrong? Perhaps, but here's the thing that stuck out with me:
I wasn't really upset at her (even though she was clearly enraged at me), I actually felt a little empathy for her. Here's why: it shocked me to see how little she thought of herself when I was talking about stupid people, she assumed I was talking about HER?? There's no other reason for her to take such offense. Busted!!
Insults are only insulting towards you if you (on some level, consciously or unconsciously) IDENTIFY with it.
If you DON'T identify with the insult, you will interpret it as ridiculous and treat it as such, that is....IF you even PAY it any mind AT ALL.
Example: What if someone attempted to insult you by calling you a "purple-haired googly-eyed triple-boobed alien retard*"? How would you REACT towards that remark? Would you look left/right, wondering if that person is even talking about you? Would you laugh at their feeble attempt to insult you when that doesn't remotely describe you at all? Would you think that something is wrong with THEM and NOT YOU for thinking up such inapplicable nonsense?
If, in fact, you DO consider yourself an intelligent person, and someone directly calls you dumb as a means of insulting you, you should react EXACTLY as if someone had just called you a "purple-haired googly-eyed triple-boobed alien retard". Like "You're talking about ME? wtf? hahaha, clearly something is wrong with YOU for thinking like that, when that doesn't apply to me at all!" If someone in earshot happens to be making fun of purple-haired googly-eyed triple-boobed alien retards, would you turn your head to listen? Probably not, because you already know it doesn't apply to you.
So for her to take such offense to my talking about stupid people, she sort of incriminated herself in her reaction that she believed I was actually talking about her...I may have, I may not have, I don't know, since I don't know her personally...but SHE (not I) served as her OWN judge of character by her reaction alone. Had she considered herself an intelligent person, she would have immediately determined I was not talking about her, leaving her free to either move on and ignore, or even join in on making fun of them lol. Her assessment of herself was apparently already low, my remark just reminded her of that and THAT was the true origin of the offense.
Now I challenge you to ask yourself in COMPLETE honesty: if YOU had been the customer to overhear me mouthing off about the stupid, would YOU have reacted in the same manner as the aforementioned? The answer can be quite telling in YOUR OWN self-opinion.
This is one instance where the principle "the customer is always right" can be quite damning lol.
*my apologies in any possible offense towards purple-haired googly-eyed triple-boobed alien retards :.P
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