Holidays in retail

This is not going to go the way you think it's going to go.....

I am enjoying my job as a seasonal worker at Penney's. Yes....enjoying it. I have only come across one really miserable bitch and from my previous million years in retail I have learned that some people live to try to bring others down to their level of miserableness. It has taken me a long time but I have finally learned not to play along. Kill them with kindness. I take great pleasure in knowing she left with her goal unfulfilled and I still had a pleasant day. Fuck her and all those like her.

Granted not every person has been happy but she was the only one who actually wanted to be mean. And she didn't win.

I have received numerous compliments on how happy, helpful and just plain nice I am. It really is amazing what a smile and genuine (or maybe just great acting in my case) warmth can do. I watched my mother with envy and amazement do her job with a smile on her face ALL the time. Most of her working career was at jobs that not a lot of us would find much to smile about. She worked as a nurse's aide in a nursing home, doing the grunt work. She treated all of those old people with respect and kindness, and we all know that is not how most patients in nursing homes are treated. She worked many years as a waitress at Denny's. A pretty blonde with a pleasant personality...you can imagine the shit she put up with from dirty old male customers and just the general Denny's crowd ( I can say that because I am part of that crowd!). She even made custom wood furniture and at one point held her ungloved hands in the stumps of a man's fingers, while getting her coworkers to put his fingers on ice after an accident. All with a smile. It all seemed so phony to me. How could she be so happy dealing with people making annoying demands all day. I always knew I didn't get my personality from her....I was my father's daughter all the way....grumpy, grouchy and unapproachable.

I made a conscious decision that I would reinvent myself once I moved here. I was free from the shackles of a career I detested, obvious to everyone, even my customers. They even suggested I find a new line of work.

I go to work with not a worry in the world. If a towel gets folded wrong, no one will die. If I give someone wrong info about a Keurig...they will live. I could not have guessed that not being a pharmacist would mean I could still work retail, not just do it, but not dread it. I ENJOY talking to the customers. I like when I make them smile because I am being patient with their odd requests. I have had a customer thank me for being patient with two little old ladies who were slooooow to do everything. This caused her to have to wait longer but she thanked me for not rushing them and for continuing to be nice to them. Kindness spreads. So does anger...look at the crazies at the Black Friday sales. They all start to go nuts with mob mentality. But I have witnessed what my mom knew all along...people find it really hard to be mean to a nice person.

Sure as Christmas approaches things may change, people may become more impatient, but so far working at the mall during Christmas has been nothing like I imagined it would be. So I will continue to smile because at the end of the day.....there is no chance that I was responsible for killing someone....except for that one lady that I hoped would get hit by a bus....hey I am still me after all!!