September 24, 2007

• Excuse me, do you work here?

  Four times over the last two months or so I have had the following experience:

  I am walking through some store going about my daily business and someone comes up to me and says “excuse me, do you work here?” or something along those lines.  Of course I answer no, and that’s the end of that encounter.

  Here’s the thing. Each time I would look around note the people who do work there and compare them to myself. Often they have pretty clear uniforms or are wearing shirts of the same color and style. Always they have some sort of clearly identifiable name tag which at anyone can see indicates their employee status. They are usually located in places or are engaged in activities that would be cleary indicative of their employee status. ie they are behind the customer service counter, at the cash register, stocking shelves, or engaged in helping another customer.

  None of these were the case with me. I wasn’t even in any of the situations wearing the same color clothing as the employees. In fact I can perceive of no obvious visually identifiable characteristic in myself that would lead them to make such a misapprehension and a great many observations that should have lead them to instantly conclude otherwise if they had been paying a teensy bit of attention.

  If it had happened only once I wouldn’t have noticed or cared. But four times? The last time being just yesterday? It’s surreal. Do I radiate some sort of helpful presence or persona? Do I look like someone who is dying to offer assistance to random strangers in locating store goods? Do I seem like I am naturally inclined to take a subservient position to others? Or is it that I am just easy for people to talk to? Ironic that would be since I am not at all at ease at talking with anyone. Or perhaps I’m just naturally a very visible person such that I just end up being the first person that people see and take note of  so I’m the first person they ask? Maybe it’s something in the way I walk, so rarely do I go to a store casually just to browse that I often end up walking directly to my goal with steadfast purpose.  I really don’t know. But it seems too unlikely to be a coincidence.

  Anyway, it’s starting to tick me off a bit. If it happens a few more times I might start to get angry and I don’t want that. So please, everyone, please, if you are going to ask for assistance in a store setting take a moment to see if the person you are asking actually looks like they might work at the store. Really that’s just the polite thing to do.

  • 4:40 pm
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