Do You Work Here?
May 18, 2018 Uncategorized 4 comments nleclair18
Is there such a thing as a stupid question? Well that was a stupid question… Of course there is! I find myself asking stupid questions all the time, and then I realize what I just said and end up feeling like a complete nimrod. Sometimes you’re just off in your own world or you’re not paying attention and stupid questions just seem to slip out.
Working in a grocery store deli, I have asked and have been asked some pretty stupid questions. On my first day at Gowell’s Shop ‘N Save, I was trained on all of the equipment, including the wrapper, which is pretty hard to miss, really. It’s a big chunk of metal roughly 2’x2’ with a big roll of plastic wrap on it. After working there for about a month, one of my coworkers asked me to wrap something. I don’t know where my mind was, but I ask “Do we even have plastic wrap?”. Even if there hadn’t been any plastic wrap in the kitchen, I work in a grocery store where I could easily take a stroll down aisle 11 and get some. My coworkers all looked at me kind of confused and started laughing. I took a second to realize my mistake and then the embarrassment started to kick in. I felt like a total idiot, but I was laughing at myself. Over the years, I’ve taught myself to laugh at my mistakes instead of feeling bad and taking it out on myself. Because I’m able to laugh at my mistakes, I’m a much happier person than I would be if I were to be embarrassed and upset.
Sometimes, customers ask the stupidest questions. People often approach me and ask “Excuse me, do you work here?”. No ma’am, I do not work here, I wear this employee shirt with the company logo on it because I’m just a big fan of Gowell’s Shop ‘N Save. It seems like it should be obvious, if I’m walking through the store, talking to other people with the employee shirt, doing work-like things, and also wearing that red shirt with the store logo on it, then yes, I do in fact, work here. I once had a lady who came up to the deli counter and very seriously asked, “So, the menu says you guys sell hot sandwiches. What makes the sandwich hot?” to which I replied “…the oven?”. Again, it seems like it should be really obvious. Hot ham & cheese, hot pastrami, steak and cheese, hot roast beef, etc. What do they all have in common? That’s right, they all need to be heated in an oven. How else would we do it? Is there any other way to make a hot sandwich? Other times people will come up and ask if we have turkey, salami, etc. when ordering their italians. I always thought it was pretty obvious that the answer is yes, we have a deli case full of various meats and cheeses. You can have any meat or any cheese that you want on your sandwich as long as we have it in stock. Every night at 7:30, we shut off the oven and stop taking orders for hot food. A few nights ago, we got a call at 7:35 and the customer wanted a pizza. I apologized and explained that we can’t take any hot food orders after 7:30, but We could still make cold sandwiches. The customer then asks for a hot pastrami sandwich, and I had to re-explain that we are no longer taking hot food orders. The customer finally makes up their mind and asks for… a steak and cheese sub. After a few minutes, the customer got upset and hung up.
Growing up, most people are told by their parents, teachers, or other authority figures that “there is no such thing as a stupid question”, but they are extremely wrong. There are loads of stupid questions just waiting to be asked. Lack of attention or common sense tends to be a major cause of stupid questions, and sometimes people seem to get embarrassed, upset, or even angry when they ask stupid questions, especially when called out on them. This is a normal reaction and it is okay to feel bad about making a mistake. I find, however, that if you can learn to laugh at yourself, the embarrassment isn’t nearly as bad because you’re having fun laughing at your own stupid question. Whenever I make a stupid mistake, I find a way to laugh at myself and find humor in the situation. The way I see it is that other people are going to laugh at me anyway, so if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
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4 Comments
I completely agree with the fact that there are such things as stupid questions. Working on a farm, we got some real kickers. I remember a customer once asking why we didn’t have any “real broccoli”., to which I made a confused gesture towards our real, not fake broccoli. They said, “But that is way to big to be broccoli, broccoli is small.”. I had to explain that when broccoli grows it comes in a big sprout, and what she was referring to were little pieces of a bigger sprout. It reminds me of the customer asking what makes a hot sandwich hot, with the sarcastic, and 100% truthful answer of, “…The oven?”.
I really like your use of humor throughout this post. It made me “Lol” many times. I agree with your statement that there are stupid questions. They happen everywhere, at pretty much anytime. Some of us truly have to ask that question, and some others either aren’t thinking, or just had a brain-fart. The most stupid question I’ve asked was when I saw my cousin, who I hadn’t seen in years, and asked her if she was pregnant. Well… turns out she wasn’t.
Your entire post had me laughing and eager to continue reading the whole way through. Stupid questions are a dime a dozen in the food industry. I can’t begin to express the number of times I have asked and received questions all because of a lack of common sense. I’m glad you mentioned your response to the customer’s question about “the oven” which cracked me right up. Great job expressing how you felt about stupid questions.
On your post I like how you used humor throughout it, It made me laugh a couple times because I laugh too when I hear stupid questions being asked, not only do I laugh at people who make them but I laugh at myself to when I ask even stupider questions. A stupid question I’ve asked before was asking my cousin if he was coming over when he was sitting in my driveway about to come into my house.