Conversations From the Professional Front Lines

[Broomstick]

I think these days the preferred term is "Little People Actors" and they have to eat, too.

[madd0ct0r]

autocorrect hit the Design For Difference livestream:

"I can give a bag of cement... I have some bamboo... I had to hold back the teats, it was a real #sparticus moment"

[Kanastrous]

Little People actors it is and hey, if I can help generate employment for anybody, so much the better.

[Raw Shark]

Polite To A Fault: Excuse me, Sir?

Your Driver: What's up, bud?

PTAF: I'm very sorry, but I need to change the destination slightly.

YD: No problem. Where to?

PTAF: Could you pull to the side of the road when it's convenient for you, please? I need to step outside for a minute.

YD: ... Do you need to throw up!?

PTAF: Yes, immediately.

[Elheru Aran]

Well, better that than throwing up *in* your car...

To stay on topic--

More times than I can count:

Customer is walking around department, approaches me while I'm shelving stock, inquires about specific item.

I look past them at the shelf, point at exact item which they've passed two-three times already.

When will people learn to be more observant...

[salm]

When will people learn to be more observant...

Probably as soon as stores stop visually overloading customers on purpose in order to make them buy more shit.

[Raw Shark]

Well, better that than throwing up *in* your car...

Yeah, I was kind of surprised that he didn't, given the long, extremely decorous build-up.

~~~~~

Your Driver [On The Phone]: I'm out front.

Crazy Bitch [On The Phone]: You are seven minutes early! It is 4:38, and I clearly told them 4:45!

YD[OTP]: ... I ... apologize for the prompt service..?

[InsaneTD]

That is an odd one. Yet it happens more often then people think.

[Kanastrous]

I like on-time pickups. I don't like early pickups either. Part of respecting my time as the customer is understanding that I have things to wrap up before walking out the door to meet you, and I don't care to be rushed because a driver has arrived early.

Not that I allow myself to be, of course: I figure that there's the radio or newspaper or internet or whatever to keep a driver entertained, while they wait.

[Borgholio]

I'd rather my taxi driver be early than late, any day.

[Raw Shark]

I like on-time pickups. I don't like early pickups either. Part of respecting my time as the customer is understanding that I have things to wrap up before walking out the door to meet you, and I don't care to be rushed because a driver has arrived early.

Not that I allow myself to be, of course: I figure that there's the radio or newspaper or internet or whatever to keep a driver entertained, while they wait.

Sure, but I didn't rush her, I just informed her that I had arrived, and she flipped the fuck out. Most people express gratitude when I'm early, especially if they know I don't get an hourly wage to sit around holding my dick.

[fgalkin]

I like on-time pickups. I don't like early pickups either. Part of respecting my time as the customer is understanding that I have things to wrap up before walking out the door to meet you, and I don't care to be rushed because a driver has arrived early.

Not that I allow myself to be, of course: I figure that there's the radio or newspaper or internet or whatever to keep a driver entertained, while they wait.

Sure, but I didn't rush her, I just informed her that I had arrived, and she flipped the fuck out. Most people express gratitude when I'm early, especially if they know I don't get an hourly wage to sit around holding my dick.

Most people feel like dicks if they know they keep someone waiting outside. Which means that they are feeling pressure to get ready and leave. Which they don't like.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Raw Shark]

Most people feel like dicks if they know they keep someone waiting outside. Which means that they are feeling pressure to get ready and leave. Which they don't like.

Sure, but a lot of people are ready when I get there, thank me for being early, etc, while aiming to get there exactly on time has no potential benefit and could in fact cause me to be late if something goes wrong, so getting there as early as possible and telling them I'm ready without any (at least overt) pressure has proven to be the best policy in my experience. Also, the yelling woman's daughter totally over-paid me for putting up with her Mom's shit.

[Broomstick]

If he was a half an hour early that would be one thing, but a few minutes early? C'mon. When that has happened to me, at most, I say "give me a second to get my coat on" or whatever because I'm going to be either ready to go or close to it. If the lady was having a bad day or stressed out by something maybe a little annoyance in the voice but getting upset over prompt service? That's a little odd.

[Zaune]

Some people are just jerks like that, I guess.

[Dalton]

Arrive early, call on time. Exactly on time, to the very second. Crazy person problem solved AND you get to be a smartass

[Kanastrous]

So we're sending documents off to France and Germany for the benefit of construction teams prepping sets and locations for our location units heading there in the next few weeks.

Crewmate: The French are gonna be bitching about every last little thing in these documents, I just know it.

Me: Well, when they call, tell them that you surrender to their judgment, you would be happy to collaborate, and perhaps we can sit down and discuss it over a nice glass of Vichy water.

[Zaune]

I hope he knew you weren't being serious; racial discrimination lawsuits have been filed over less!

[Kanastrous]

Why, I can't imagine what any French person would find objectionable, in that statement.

Maybe it's a language-barrier-type thing.

[Lagmonster]

My wife's French. She said to say either "Fuck you", or "I'll fuck you". It's hard to tell exactly because of the accent.

[Kanastrous]

Let's go with #1. I don't think I want the entanglements that seem likely to come with any permutation of #2.

[LadyTevar]

Me, on phone to Funeral Home because they left something off the Death Certificate: Yes, could you please give me (the decedent's) mother's full name? It was left off the certificate.
Funeral Home Secretary: OH, we didn't put it there because she's dead.
Me, full-on face-palm: Well, ma'am, we do need that information, it doesn't matter if she's alive or not.
FHS: Oh, well, it will take a few minutes for me to get that, let me call you back....


My Supervisor, butting in: Why didn't you look that up yourself, (the decedent) is born in WV. We'd have the mother's name on his birth!
Me, wondering why the fuck she's worried about it: Because the funeral home needs to be informed when there's a mistake?
Her: Give Me That... I'll do it.
Me, wtf: If you want, I'll do it right now, ok?
Her, taking the Death from my hand: No, I'm going to take this.

I don't know if she took the Death to the Big Boss to complain about me calling the funeral home over it, or what happened, but she didn't mention it to me the rest of the day. FHS got back to me with the mom's name within 5min.

[Oskuro]

Having a conversation over lunch, with this colleague defending, without really realizing it, creationist ideas1, and me offering fact-based rebuttals at every turn2:

Him: You're not respecting my ideas!
Me: Because your ideas are stupid and wrong, and you don't even know why!


1: "Humans are the perfect machine/unique/special because we have a soul", "nature is wiser than us", "pollution is proof that our intellect/civilization is pointless", "maybe the brain isn't the smartest part of our bodies", etc...

2: I'm ashamed to admit that I was getting quite agitated, even though I offered rebuttals based on the few facts I can recall (for example, he claimed that, unlike nature, humans are unable to create life... and I countered that there have been successful experiments on abiogenesis).
Sad thing is, I still have a very hard time with confrontation, and my inferiority complex flares up and gets me on the defensive.

[Kanastrous]

Those conversations tend to be like wrestling with a pig. You both get filthy, and the pig enjoys it.

[HMS Sophia]

I have a new job as of January 13th (yeah, I'm a little behind. I know work at one of the many, many courts in Manchester.
This is very interesting, but I also work regularly on the public counter... And my god are people idiots.
-I get a giggle every time a defendant refers to their hearing as an 'appointment'.
-The number of people I have watched work purposefully onto the up escalator. Including the lady who got halfway up before realising.
-There was one guy who insisted that the council (as in, Manchester city council) was upstairs... They aren't.
-Oh dear god the language barriers sometimes. "No sir. Sir. Sir! No, if you leave we will issue a warrant. No sir. Don't leave. Please. Sir?... He's gone." Manchester is heavily multicultural. We have multiple interpreters visiting every day.
-The law students who insist on sitting in on a court. Especially when they turn up at 4pm, which is around the time the courts close.
-The lady who said 'I love you too' out of the blue as I passed. That was... odd.

Some of these are just me being grumpy. It's not really funny, I suppose, I simply despair at some of these people.