Too Much Chatter

There are days at work when I'm less chatty then other days.
And by less chatty, I mean, I'm not as prone to talking into the radios and interacting with my coworkers.

Sometimes it's because I have a headache. 
Othertimes it's because I'm lost in my own head working on story ideas and such to try and write when I get home from work. 

Today it was the latter.....at first.
I was being on the quiet side. Lost in my own thoughts as I was switching between two or three different story ideas.

When the vice manager -second in command kinda brought up the fact that I was being more quiet today.
Which...I hadn't yet really had a reason to interact with anyone. We hadn't yet opened, and I had nobody in my department with me and the stockers were busy in other areas of the store....so no reason to be talking.

But he was concerned that I might be suffering from a headache.
Because he's noticed that I get quiet when I have those ---which yah, it takes energy to talk and having a headache drains my energy hardcore.

And he's noticed that I usually end up with headaches on Saturdays.....
O.o Which had been a trend I hadn't noticed lol. Do I? Do I usually get them that day? 

It caught me off guard.
And I said something like "Well that's because I have to do more customer service today"

Because it's true. A ton more people come into the store and I'm usually starting my shift later which means I'm dealing with customers for longer....and it drains me.
Especially if the customers are irritating in their questions/needs, kids are being loud, dogs barking...etc. 
If it gets too grating it can cause a headache.
And if it doesn't cause a headache it definitely tires me out.

But this morning?
Nope. No headache.

Though there's this awful pattern where if people ask me if I have a headache and I say 'No' then I usually end up with one a couple of hours later. 

*exhales*
So guess what happened?
Yah.
Headache. 

It may have been triggered as early as that conversation with my Vice Manager because he then proceeded to mention the Reptile Event we had today.

And I was like "Yah, I know nothing about that."
Which *shakes head* apparently he'd been thinking I was in charge of it? 
But nope.
I had seen the signs for the event, but no one had approached me directly to be in charge of it.
Though I halfway expected this to be the case.
The managers aren't the best at communicating and if the event in the store involves the handling of live animals....it usually means I'm the one in charge of it. 

So having it confirmed that it was expected I would be in charge of it.
Not really that stressful, but definitely irritating. 

So long as I was able to get my department open before the event started -meaning no major time consuming interactions with customers then it's no big deal.

*exhales*
No what definitely triggered the headache was the chattiness of my Head Manager.

He goes through phases really.
Most work days you barely hear from him over the radio.
But then there's days....like today....where he's constantly using the radios to talk and such. 

It was much much worse today.

On the manager's more 'chatty' days. I can expect to hear his voice off and on throughout the day. Nothing too long. Like maybe a back and forth conversation that lasts thirty seconds before silence.

Which is fine.
I can deal with chatter in my ear every now and then.
I've even kinda gotten used to the varying degress of loudness my coworkers have with said radios. The ones you can barely hear and the others that are nearly yelling in your ear from how loud they are.

But today.
It was near constant chatter.
For like minutes on end from my manager.

A morning greeting. 
Followed soon by conversations
Followed by telling us what sales we had going on.
Followed by comments people had left for us in surveys.

It was a constant barrage of noise in my ear.
Useless, unhelpful noise. 
Because it's singularly difficult to talk to a customer and be coherent when there's this constant drone of noise buzzing in your ear.

I literally had to pull the ear piece out of my ear and let it hang for a couple of minutes so I could focus on talking to the customer without being distracted.
And would put the earpiece back into my ear to find him still talking!

This wasn't just once though.
No, I had to pull my earpiece out multiple times over the course of my shift because I couldn't focus on the customer.

It was also annoying because he spent at least 5 minutes talking nonstop over the radio....which meant that for 5 minutes we couldn't communicate with each other. As if another person tries to talk while someone else is talking...it just comes across as static. 

*shakes head*

Needless to say.
It made work difficult.
To have his voice constantly ringing in my ears. 
Though it wasn't only his voice. There was a lot of chatter over the radios today.
With us being more proactive in making sure all the customers were getting the help they needed.

Which meant a lot of noise.

Noise I hadn't been prepared for.
Because again, the radios aren't always that active. 
Mostly they're used for requests for register assistance and to inform my department that a customer needs help somewhere within it. 

*exhales* If I had known that the manager was going to be chatty. That we were going to be constantly talking....
I probably would have been better off.
Because I would have had time to prepare for it.

But I didn't.
So I was caught off guard with my defenses down.
And therefore the entire situation tensed me up to the point where I was half a second away from telling the manager over the radio that I needed ten minutes of silence because all the chatter was giving me a headache.

It didn't even help on break because even though I would take the earpiece out of my ear, the noise of the chatter was still loud enough I could hear it....
So it felt like I wasn't getting any peace and quiet at all.

Add into that more customer interaction.
Add into that the fact I was in charge of the event and had to be more outgoing and social.

Lead to the headache pounding away at my skull. 

*exhales* 
Yah. I don't like it when there's too much chatter over the radios.
It doesn't sit well with me. Especially when it goes on for my entire shift.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi