The latest in customer rudeness.

"Helloooooooo!"  The woman was calling from 2 rooms away.  Now, I admit that I'm not a beck and call girl.  I didn't realize she was calling for me.  She and her friend had been very lively with talk the whole way through.  "I'm sorry ma'am, I thought you were talking to your friend."

Lesson 1:  Don't call to the store employees from rooms away out of laziness.  I've had people with small children, disabilities and other sorts of needs.  I'm not saying not to call always.  There are times that there is a need.  Laziness is not a need or a reason.

I had another woman.  She was asserting her made-of-moneyness to me.  It's fine.  I'm an artist and my husband is a park naturalist.  We are rich not by any means.  I suppose that we could be if we really wanted to be, but we agreed that we would only work jobs that we loved.  My husband watched his father stressed out with his job for years.  Not that we're Sheldon and Amy, but in the unwritten marriage contract, this was a piece.  Be happy in your job and if you aren't, fix it until you are.  We are, but we don't get paid a ton.  Fine with us.

"I want you to wrap this item and :motioning with her hands: I want you to . . . "

"Ma'am, I promise, I've got it."

She pays, compliments my wrapping and then says, "Okay, now I have a test for you."

:insert weird look:

"Now YOU have to show me exactly where YOU put that price tag."

:insert smirk and bobbling head:

I picked up the receipt, flipped the page and as I held it up to show her all of the price tags from all of her items I said, "Ma'am, I've been here for 13 years and do a good job."

"Oh!  You did get it!"

"Um, yes. We always take the price tags off.  I understand that sometimes these are the things that can keep people awake and I'd rather have you ask."

"Oh, it would!"

"We take all price tags off so that the office staff can double check our handwriting."

"Oh!"

She and her friend had been quite a treat, so this was the cherry on top.  I love customer tests!  :insert cranky and angry stare:  (Though I admit that no customer was ever snarky enough to term it a "test.") Really?  Could you just politely ask me, just like everyone else, if I got the tag or where it was?  I don't care.  That's fine. Don't treat me like I'm stupid, because I'm not.  Just because I'm standing behind a counter doesn't mean that I'm not good at what I do, have a job that is beneath me or have an education not past the third grade.  I can read, write and while my math skills aren't super, I have an adding machine for that.  I have a degree from a state college and spent 7 years getting it.  I worked 2-3 jobs and any one time while going to college so that I could obtain an education and not be up to my eyeballs in complete unmanageable debt.  I work this job because I, by and large, love this job, love the people that I work for and have flexibility that isn't common anywhere else.  I can be me and not get fired for it.  I can be creative and not necessarily follow the prescribed formula and that is okay.  I'm not asking to be treated as a prized jewel.

Lesson 2:  Just treat me as a human or at least better than you might treat your dog.