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It’s time for The Lounge again. This week is being hosted by the crazy lounge lizard Kimbo over at Falling Face First. The theme for the week is Work Stories.
When I was at Uni I worked at a small supermarket. It was a family run business and the interview process involved an informal chat with the mother of the family and her adult son. The mother, lets call her Mrs M, was an Italian woman in her 60’s and was ticked every box for the stereotype. She was harsh and loving all at the same time. She could make you tremble with fear and smile at her stories in the same sentence.
Mrs M and her son, one of many, lived in a house behind the shop and so Mrs M was often in the store getting groceries. On my first day I was warned to be wary of her if she came into the store because she might be getting on in years but her hearing was 100% and her piercing gaze was enough to strike fear into even the most hardened person.
I had been working at the supermarket a week when I had my first encounter with Mrs M. I was the checkout chick and despite my best attempts to suddenly need a toilet break, I was stuck. With shaking hands I started to ring up the items Mrs M had purchased. I felt her beady eyes boring into the side of my head as I tried to avoid eye contact. Then she spoke. ‘You’re doing good girly,’ she said in her matter of fact voice. I think I felt all of the air leave me in pure relief.
I still tried to dodge her at all costs, with sudden bladder outbursts whenever she stepped inside the store.
Have you got a work story to tell? Maybe a story about your dream job? Link up with us at The Lounge. If you don’t have a blog then feel free to pop on over to the Facebook Page.
HIgh praise indeed, Tegan. I bet your bladder knows you’ve GOT THIS now. You must rock it in the ‘self service checkout’ aisle at Woolies. I know I do. 😉
Oh yeah I rock the shit out of the self serve because I hate talking to people and doing it via machine helps with that lol.
Isn’t it bizarre how someone can be so bloody scary that you end up having physical reactions like a bladder outburst? I wonder what Mrs M would think if she knew she had that kind of effect on people? Probably say, “My job here is done!”
She had 8 children so my guess is yep she would definitely be saying that!
The idea of being a checkout chick is daunting enough to me, let alone being one with some scary lady giving you the Evil eye. I definitely would have really wet my pants.
I hated it most of the time. I am not a fan of working while someone is looking at me.
I can’t stand people staring me down! Pet hate!! Makes me noi-vous!
Yep me too!
These days, I rock-it in the on-line department, we don’t have to talk to any of the customers, we just pack it and deliver it 🙂
That would be my kind of job!
I can just picture Mrs. M and I would have been scared too! Lets hope she didn’t think you had a bladder problem with all the trips to the toilet! Lol!
Haha I hope not!
Love this!
Thanks 🙂
It’s always lovely when we receive kindness from an unexpected source.
And just by the way I don’t do NO service aisles. If I wanted to work for the supermarket fuckers who are already ripping me off, I would 😉
Haha I like your thinking. Although most of the time after dealing with a toddler while doing my shopping, I don’t want to have to deal with a surly teenager grunting at me as well. I had one woman tell me that working in a supermarket had made her realise she wasn’t cut out for kids lol!
Yep! Know how you feel. I’ve been in situations like that too and that’s why l like working for myself so much I guess!
Nothing worse than a freaky boss – my sunglass shop owner was a tyrant and I used to mimic her when she wasn’t looking – oh so mature!
I love your description of Mrs M – I can just picture her! I was a checkout chick for awhile too and I found the customers very intimidating. I guess people can easily get narky when money is involved.
She sounds like a diamond in the rough xxxxx