Customer Service and Somewhat Silly Tourists

 Good afternoon everyone. It has been a little while since my last post, but not too much has happened. Work has been pretty boring and underpaid, as usual, especially last Sunday, which was one of the hottest days of the year. Combine this with the fact that I was working in a popular tourist destination selling "cold" drinks to the public, on a day where the majority of the population is off work or on holiday, it was a very busy day. There was never a moment where the cue for ice cream was not practically down the road, and when bemused tourists expected me to read their mind about what they wanted when they approached me and said, "Can I have an ice cream?". This happened three times. Another somewhat simple tourist even pointed at a sign which was on the exterior of the building and said, "Can I have... that!?". It didn't help that I was, of course, inside the building and couldn't see a thing.

Random Garden Shizzle

Other than that, a large group of Asian men came to the café, when I was, unfortunately, on food duty. After changing their order approximately six times they came to a conclusion; they had ordered in excess of £80 on food and drink... I know the café is expensive, but that much?! On top of this they asked me to put all of their drinks in a bag. So I happily placed all nine of them in an Asda low density polyethylene bag, only to see it collapse and send drinks bouncing - quite literally - all over the shop. My manager was not best pleased.

Although I wasn't particularly bothered that she wasn't pleased, as she doesn't strike me as one of the nicest people I've met, but I'm not going to fall into the trap of turning this blog into a bitching post about my place of employment.

Actually, just one before I leave. I like so be sincere with customers, which is more than some of the completely dead shop workers, and less than some of the stupidly over the top smiley workers too. However, I know that if I was a customer, I wouldn't want to be patronised by a forced smile that both the worker and I know isn't real. However, apparently this is the crux of their business, so when I was serving a customer with a serious demeanour of concentration I was immediately shouted at by the manager: "SMIIIILE!!!!". I don't know about you, but that is not something that fills me with joy when it is screamed at me from behind.

Either way, I guess it's better than no job at all... maybe.

- Colm

Tah Sun