It's far too easy to focus on the negative that happens in a day and totally forget the happy/good/positive moments that also occur.
Probably because the negative stories tend to be a bit more...sensational in the telling and tend to get more of a reaction than the feel good things.
And today....today was one of those negative days at work.
Like overall the shift was fine. Not too crazy busy. But there were three difficult customers we had to deal with today that just...set the tone for the entire day and has left me silently fuming at them for like...the entire day. And the best way to work through my...irritation about the situations is to vent about it. Whether it's regalling my coworkers/family/friends with the story or venting about it on Facebook or this blog....it helps to just...settle my feelings about the whole thing.
Situation 1: Was that we have a couple of groomers out sick this week and we had to call all their appointments and either reschedule them, cancel them, or transfer them to a different groomer. We had a customer come in today bright and early to find no groomers there --as this customer had been called but apparently hadn't gotten the message that they needed to come in a couple of hours later than originally scheduled-- and didn't like the manager's explanation about the situation at all. She disliked it so much that she called the Home Office TWICE while standing in the store -once with the manager standing right there in front of her- demanding that they do something to get her dog groomed despite the manager trying to explain that there was nothing we could do at that point because no groomers were currently in the store.
This happened all before we opened. XP
Situation 2: Was that we have this concrete barrier -the kinds that are used to mark parking spots for cars-that's been slowly deteriorating over the past year. Crumbling. To the point where the rusted rebar within the concrete has become visible and such.
It's an issue we're aware of. We have a work order out to get it fixed. And while it is crumbling...it wasn't really in the way of anything or causing problems to customers.
Until today. XP when one of our regular customers. An older couple who comes in constantly to buy dog crates and food from us. Came in to complain to the manager that they had nearly been injured on said concrete barrier. I think they said tripping over it? And like...I have no idea how they managed to trip over the thing as it's not in a spot where it's easy to trip over and surely SURELY the customers should have EYES that can SEE the danger and not go blindly charging across the parking lot. (apparently not) but in any case they came into the store to complain about the danger and when we went to investigate it turns out the the concrete barrier had been twisted and moved. Whether from these customers or someone else who knows. But it definitely hadn't been like that earlier in the day when we came in. So something had happened to move it.
But it's just irritating. Like these people are regulars. They know how busy we are. They know everything goes on. So WHY did they feel the need to come and complain about it?
Like I get that it's a hazard and they were probably looking out for other people who could potentially be blind enough to not notice the crumbling barrier.....
Just irritating.
and then Situation 3 is that I had to deal with a lady at the fishwall who was setting up a tank for the first time and was completely ignoring every suggestion and recommendation I gave her when it came to setting up her tank. No she was totally confident in her ability to have her fish do well. So confident that she ignored my advice to only buy like 7 fish as she lives TWO HOURS away from the store and only wanted to come get fish ONCE and didn't want to make multiple trips to get fish. So chose instead to sentence her tank into a death spiral by having me catch her TWENTY-SEVEN fish to put in a 36 gallon tank all at once. Didn't matter what I said. She wouldn't let herself be told no. Wouldn't consider waiting to be a good thing. And like a 36 gallon tank should really only have between 12-18 fish in it (depending on the size of the fish) and she's doubled that amount.
So I'm overly irritated at her and I surely hope that her fish all die tonight or within the next three days so she can realize how stupidly foolish she was in ignoring my advice. She literally spent $100 on fish today. And I'm pretty sure a good $80 of that is going to die. *shakes head* It's just....so frustrating.
In any case.
Those were the negative things of the day.
But there were positive moments as well.
1. Some really cool looking fish came in on our fish shipment today!
2. I got to hear some fun stories from the truck driver who delivered our fish about the 'horrible' docks he's had to dock at at various stores and random situations he's found himself in because of that.
3. An old friend dropped by work randomly on a whim to give me a soda as she felt that I needed one and boy did I need one as I'd just finished dealing with all 3 situations mentioned above.
4. A breakfast bakery randomly dropped by leftover baked goods that they had by our store after they had closed for the day so we got to try their food and it was delicious!
5. Got to see a second old friend later in the day and catch up.
6. The 'check engine light' in my car that randomly turns on when there's an issue with how tightly my gas cap is screwed on finally turned off this morning after being on since Tuesday.
So yah.
Good things can more than balance out the bad if you just pay attention to them.
And while the bad things can be seen as these....big events.
It's important to note that the good things can often come in little doses. Easily missed if you're not looking for them.
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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