7/20/05 by scott

When did customer service representatives get so jaded?

Kim and I went to Waldenbooks the other day to pick up the copy of the new Harry Potter she reserved, and while the cashier was running Kim's card through the second time to fix a mistake she made, she actually muttered underneath her breath, "Come on, come on, I don't want to talk to people!"

She was obviously tired of dealing with customers.

Then at SoulSuckMart® the other day, there was a lady in front of me that was obviously pissing off the cashier by allowing her child to play with the credit card scanner and not helping to put the groceries in her own cart. Then, when she went to pay by writing out a check, the cashier muttered, "Come on, Friday!"

When did we become a country where it's okay to insult each other under our breath while we do our business transactions? More importantly, when did we become a country that treats its customer service people so badly the only way they feel like they have any power whatsoever is to let the customers know exactly how much they hate their jobs?

Maybe it's just Decatur. We're all jaded here.

But not me, not this week. It's VACATION time! I've been letting work drive me crazy the last few weeks, now that I have a few huge projects to implement and two newbies following me around like ducklings asking me to explain everything to them. But this week I can let all of that go and concentrate on some 'Me time'.

So what have I done so far? Well, first I had some chores to get out of the way, so I spent Monday reinstalling Windows 98 on a couple of machines I have sitting here for people outside of work. (Windows 98 was not my choice, but theirs.) Then I spent a good hour or so updating programs on my computer. Windows needs an update! Antivirus needs an update! Java needs an update! Firefox needs an update! iTunes needs an update! Update! Update!

I also washed the dishes, cleaned the house, mowed the lawn, and had a property dispute with some wasps that claim that the northeast corner of our hedges belong to them now. So after I settled that dispute calmly and applied some benadryl lotion to the area of my leg they notarized, I sat down and watched a documentary on Howard Zinn. That guy has had an amazing life, and it made me realize that I need to get my ass in gear and start changing the world. So on that note, on Tuesday I started working on a flash cartoon for this website.

The thing that kind of bothers me is that I also borrowed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from Todd last week, and I haven't played it much yet. There was a time when, if I had a week off, I would spend about 4 entire days playing it. And now I spend the first day of my vacation doing chores. I must be growing up or something. So I guess the only thing for me to do is to keep working on the cartoon while I import the rest of my CDs into iTunes, and enjoy not being at work. Which I'm pretty positive I can do.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I've got work to do.