It may sound cliché, but in my six years of being a stock guy in an appliance and electronics store has taught me more than a few valuable lessons about life. However, that's a topic I'm sure I'll cover another time.
What I really want to talk about though, is how being a stock guy - the lowest man on the totem pole (which really means that the crap which rolls downhill in my company falls together and eventually lands on me) - has transformed me quite profoundly and made me realize that I'm a man of many faces. Working in my store has taught me quite a bit about myself in ways which I never thought a simple, menial job could. And, I think my tale might be more applicable to you then you might believe.
At its most base, my job can be summed up in three words: I move things. That's it. I grab stock, throw it on a handtruck (or hoist it up to my shoulder if I'm feeling manly, which I usually am), bring it up to the front of the store, put it in the customer's car and, hopefully, get a tip for my troubles. It's not complicated. Sometimes I have to wrap things, sometimes I have to fix things, sometimes I have to put TVs on the wall, etc. I think you get the picture (see what I did there????).
But thinking about it more abstractly, my job is so much more than that. Analyzed further, and I found that I'm more than a stock guy; I'm a therapist, a comedian, a bro, a man of many cultures, a psychoanalyst; in dealing with people, I have to become a chameleon. In other words, my job has brought on the realization that depending upon the customer depends what mask I put on.
It usually starts out that I play the role of the psychoanalyst, observing the customer to see which kind of person they are. What is their disposition? Their sense of humor? Are they in a good mood? If they're not, I become the therapist, and I'll talk with them, sympathizing to put them at ease or satisfy them. If they're happy or funny people with a good sense of humor, I'll become the comedian and bring out the laughs. For the ladies, I'll bring out the charm and instantly I'm a smooth talker. If the guy's a bro, my Brooklyn accent tends to come out, and I'll make things look difficult but casual because I don't want to appear weak, for I need to be an alpha male, like him.
Essentially, I do whatever I have to do to make the customer like me or at the very least be comfortable with me handling their stuff. The purpose, of course, is to try and make the customer want to tip me. I've learned that if they don't want to tip you, then they no longer feel obliged to, and usually don't. The world kinda sucks like that.
The point though, is that I've learned from working at my job, I have the ability to mold myself to appeal to anyone; that I sport different social masks. It is something I might never have learned otherwise about myself.
And now, like James Bond or any other man of mystery, I know can blend into any situation and be a social chameleon as need be. Thing is, I'm no spy. Im just an honest stock guy, a working man with many faces.
I've also found this with working on the beach and dealing with THOSE people.
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