I caught an elderly customer who fell down at my register. The line behind him was huffing and puffing with impatience while his wife, another customer, and I got him situated on the wife’s walker seat.
People were complaining that I was taking too long helping him. It was really a sad thing to witness, and it made me so angry that people would be so callous to an old man.
Nearly every time I go into [Store] in my work clothes — black work pants, a company-branded (not [Store]!) T-shirt and usually a company-branded hi-viz vest — I get stopped by some lady asking me where something is.
One day, I’m in the store and I’m minding my own business walking around with a shopping trolley buying some bits. I hear this lady shouting, “Excuse me!” at me from behind, but I ignore her because I have a feeling that she is under the impression I work there, and I don’t want to deal with that.
After a couple of times of her calling for me, I turn around to find a furious-looking woman.
Woman: “You don’t have any frozen peas.”
I give her a confused look.
Me: “Yes, I know.”
This seemed to enrage her further.
Woman: “WELL, WHY NOT?!”
Me: “Ehh, because I don’t work here?”
Instead of apologizing, she muttered what I believe was, “For f***’s sake,” and walked over to her husband.
Woman: *Angrily, to her husband* “He doesn’t have any frozen peas and he doesn’t even work.”
I feel for anyone who has to deal with the general public on a day-to-day basis, but I’m so glad I don’t have to anymore.
I work as a tech for an optometrist. Since we’re medical, we require masks in the stores and our doctor won’t see anyone without them.
A lady comes in and we offer her a mask.
Patient: “Oh, but masks don’t do anything! Plus, I don’t believe God will let me get [illness], anyway.”
I am a raised and still professing Protestant.
Me: “You’re more than welcome to bring that up with the doctor, but we do ask that you wear it anyway because the worst-case scenario is that it does nothing but I did my best to protect and love my neighbor.”
She wore her mask.
Then, when she got back to the doctor, he told her she had cataracts forming (and a family history of cataracts, no less).
Patient: “I don’t believe God will allow me to get cataracts.”
The doctor was raised Mormon.
Doctor: “Well, God wrote cataracts into your DNA just like he wrote nearsightedness into your DNA. You’re developing cataracts.”
I was introduced to Not Always Right after witnessing this exchange and asking for clarification.
Customer: “The customer is always right!”
Coworker: “There is an entire website dedicated to proving you wrong.”
[Coworker #1] has managed to lose eight stone (112 pounds) over a year with no fad diets and no expensive equipment. Honestly, I am so happy for him; he seems so much more confident and outgoing lately.
I’m hoping to lose some weight, so I ask him for some tips. He is going through the various tricks that worked for him.
Out of nowhere, [Coworker #2] appears.
Coworker #2: “Oh, deary, you don’t need to listen to him.”
Me: “Sorry, what?”
Coworker #2: *Tuts* “Society forces young women like us to try to fit some stupid ideal.”
I’m a little shocked she paired us both as “young women” as I’m twenty years her junior, but I don’t react.
Me: “No, actually, I do want to lose weight.”
Coworker #2: “That’s just social brainwashing. You should be happy.”
Me: “[Coworker #2], I am happier when I am thinner. I feel better, I look better, and my health is better. For me, I am more myself thinner.”
Coworker #2: “Oh, my dear, they have gotten to you good. Haven’t they?! Do yourself a favour: go out tonight and get a big chocolate cake, eat it, and tell me tomorrow if being thin is being happy.”
She clearly isn’t going to listen to me, insisting that I shouldn’t be told what to do by society and instead be told what to do by her. Instead of buying that cake, I go for a run. I’m hot and it’s painful, but I feel amazing when I achieve it for the first time.
The next day:
Coworker #2: “Good morning, sunshine. How did that cake taste?”
Me: “[Coworker #2], listen. I’m happy that you are happy with yourself. But please don’t spread your agenda. We buried my uncle last year after a stroke; I won’t go the same way.”
Coworker #2: “Well, he could have died from any number of things. You can’t live your life in fear.”
Me: “He was forty-five and obese. Please, [Coworker #2]. Just drop it.”
As I stuck to it and slowly lost weight, I saw [Coworker #2] avoid me more and more, not that that’s a bad thing. Eventually, she turned her attention to a new starter — another woman who was slightly overweight. She would buy cakes and make disparaging remarks about the skinny b****es around the office.
I never figured out what hurt [Coworker #2] so much that she needed to hate on others so much, but I hope she learns to love herself not just by putting others down.
