I work going door to door for a utility company with a team of five. We all dress the same — in black with our company logos — and in bad weather, we have very warm matching raincoats, also with the logo. We also have badges with our names on them and the company’s information so people know we aren’t random grifters.
On this particular day, there is a downpour so bad that it is one of only two times in four years that our leadership decides to pull us out of the field. As this is rare, we don’t really have a protocol in place, and we are told to hunker down nearby with the company van to see if it gets better before they send us home for the day or back out.
We decide to check out a small sandwich shop one of the guys swears is the best in the area. Wet and hungry, we all think this sounds great and head right on over to get some food while still on the clock and getting paid until we hear back.
The place is small but looks decent, and it’s also part convenience store. They don’t have a counter you order at but an employee that walks around and takes orders. With someone already talking to him, I know it’s going be a minute until all five of us get our orders in, so I elect to go last and check around the store as I’m in no hurry. After looking around, I see that my coworkers have all had their orders in, so I go up to do mine. Due to this, my order is made last and has a bit of a delay.
My four coworkers all sit down and start to eat while I wait for my sandwich. An older lady walks up to me and starts giving me a sandwich order without so much as a hello. I cut her off.
Me: “Oh, I don’t work here.”
To which I get the confusing reply:
Lady: “So, you’re working, you just don’t work here? Uh-huh, sure.”
Then, she rolls her eyes and starts giving me her order again. I put my hand up to cut her off, point to the logo on my jacket — which is still soaked, by the way — and ask:
Me: “Does this look like the store’s name to you?”
My order was announced at this point, so I stepped away, grabbed my sandwich, and smiled at her as I walked by her again to sit with the four people dressed identically to me who were already eating.
You’d think this would be the end of it, with me just eating my sandwich while basking in that lady’s indignation, but no. She stomped off and found the proper person to speak with, dragged him back into view, and started complaining about me while he desperately tried to explain that I didn’t work there.
By the time we finished eating and left, I still don’t think she had placed an order.
