i suppose we are born thinking games are a part of being human. we play pat-a-cake as babies to improve our eye-hand coordination, invent mechanisms of learning via games and competition throughout grammar school and beyond. we participate in sports. we invent contests at work to increase sales and productivity. games are designed to challenge us and make us strive for more.
but when do games turn sour and malicious?
i have held a career in retail my whole working life. starting at age 16 i began selling shoes. and by now i've sold just about everything except cars and insurance policies. i don't particularly enjoy it and it brings me uneasiness because i am living my 40-hour a week ritual among the games of humanity. i have worked for large corporations, father/son businesses, non-profit museum shops and mid-sized rapidly-growing (and a few rapidly-declining) companies. while there are the games among competitive coworkers in any field, it is an overwhelmingly difficult task to deal with the public at large.
shoplifting is the worst as they come. just a few weeks ago i was tied up with two demanding customers who required urgent attention. a man, about 40-50 years old, well-dressed, very 'normal' looking stood at the counter waiting for my assistance. let's call him 'Larry.' i told him i would be right with him as the first two customers continued rattling their 'needs' to me. i paged for assistance. a coworker arrived and asked the Larry if he needed help. she showed him the location he was looking for and we continued to juggle all of our customers, bouncing between them all and answering questions as they came up. i checked on Larry and he posed a challenging question which i went to the computer to research a bit. i walked back to ask some more follow-up questions because i wasn't finding the right answers and he began to get a little 'short' with me. i researched some more and he slowly stepped over to my computer and frustratingly said, 'forget it. i'll go somewhere where they know what they are doing.'
fast forward two days and one of my employees, during my day off, began to locate cut and torn security tags around the department. 9 of them total. my suspicions immediately went to Larry and after spending 2 hours viewing surveillance tapes from three different cameras, i see him sticking things in his pocket, keeping his hand there as he wriggles it around and gets the tag off, then shuffles them in between other items.
and there are a million more stories like this one, and others of outlandish customer expectations, arguments (some involving people screaming at me), people blaming me for corporate policies, trying to barter, etc. perhaps it would be different if i were running that dream shop of my own and there was the pride of ownership involved, but for the time being, i am merely a vessel for the many strange behaviors of the consumer world. until something more lucrative comes along, i have no choice but to put on my happy face and simply take it...
but what about the GAMES among all other aspects of society? the vampire feeding frenzies of the arts, the strange 'fake' relationships that people create with those holding some sort of information they want, the game of PSYCHOLOGY, and of course that ubiquitous game of LOVE.
games are a part of the natural order of all things human, but i feel the notion of good sportsmanship flew out the window once GREED constructed a new high-rise in the latest developing community.
1 comment:
i don't like games and i don't necessarily think that it's part of being human. however, if people do opt to participate in said games, they should realize that losing is implicit in the very concept of a game. no theories for your shoplifters though. could be midlife crises out for a "rush", or wackos or people that just want to stick it to the man.
i was in cvs pharmacy getting milk and bubbles the other night and there was this little ghetto broad who had like 8 cans of baby formula on the counter. she was there when i walked in and still there by the time i got in line, which was quite a while because i couldn't decide on sprite, 7up, root beer, or cans or bottles. and i was also lamenting the lack of ginger ale. so it was a few minutes to say the least. well, there seemed to be some probably with the lady's check, it might have been something related to public aid because they were scanning a bar code on it. anyway, the guy behind the counter (james, who used to work at the magazine store with the big guy actually) was doing his best, but it wasn't enough, at least not for this hood rat. so another guy comes by and asks "is there problem?". not accusatory, just a coworker (maybe an assistant manager) helping out another. but in the meantime:
she: "yeah, this guy doesn't know what he's doing! i don't understand, i never have problems like this with my check."
james: "just hold on a second."
she: "my baby's out of formula"[and she just notices this after midnight?]"i've been standing here a long time...this is ridiculous! is there a manager here?"
james: "no the managers not here. just calm down." he tries to explain to the other guy that the check won't scan blah blah blah, she gets more irate, mutters something, insulting i think because then james gets defensive, throws up his hands and tells the other guy to handle it. she asks about a manager again, says she's gonna call and complain, then he says "fine go ahead, and you can also tell him that you called me a "(i couldn't hear the rest). so the other guy explains THE EXACT SAME THING THAT JAMES EXPLAINED TO HER. so james goes over to another register, rings out the rest of the customers including me, and she's still inside, no talking on her cell phone, inquiring as to whether or not s/he is still crying.
so i imagined the phone call the next day, if it ever happened, to be an attack on poor james, who is sort of a creepy guy, and i'm sure that colored her opinion of him before the transaction even began. and the manager apologizing and kissing her ass because "the custome is always right" which is the worst mantra ever to be devised, and probably by someone who did not work with "the customer". actually he did...
http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/
anyway, we are caught up in a neverending struggle against one another in a variety of everchanging roles and parts that we play, however unwittingly. in the go go go rush rush rush world that we live in, people forget that behind the uniform and the name badge is another human being that is trying to get by.
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