Enthusiasm and Employment

Little known fact: I’m really, really friendly.

Actually, it’s a personality trait that’s present in just about everything I do. I talk to people fairly naturally regardless of if I’m comfortable and happy to see them or if I’m feeling completely awkward¹. Even if I’m feeling socially-discomfited I let chatty discussion override the fact that I want to stop small-chatting to whomever I’m talking.

For example, last week in my acting class I was doing a quasi-improvisational scene with a classmate where she was getting evicted/thrown out of the country and I was her cousin who got tricked into helping her move out. There were other constituents, like I had a secret preoccupation and she had to talk obsessively about her preoccupation, but my awkward-based chattiness easily overran the scene, to the point that my professor told me that I couldn’t talk unless I was asked a question. I knew why I was talking so much;  I was nervous. It’s what I do. I talk. I’m proactive. I’m that annoying person that will finish your sentences for you. I have a terrible habit of never ending questions. And in that moment, even when I wasn’t allowed to use my vocal chords, everyone in the class told me I “talked with my face.”

I don’t mind the friendliness most of the time. Sometimes I worry that it comes off as fake when I genuinely care about what other people have to say about the weather or their cats². This smooth, small-chatting talent talks me into getting things I want, like jobs. Twice now I’ve gotten jobs by walking up to managers and selling myself with an enthusiastic disposition. Last March I landed a retail job at the Columbus Zoo. More recently, I smiled my way into a job at a shop in Bronxville.

Re: I got a job!  

I’m a part-time seasonal employee who sells gift cards, stationary, humor books, journals, seasonal items, holiday cards, wedding invitations, wedding/baby announcements, wrapping paper/services, and other random (in my opinion) gifts. Today was my second day. Not only that, but there’s the business side that I’m familiar with thanks to the zoo. It’s not quite as in your face here, but the cooperate cloud invisibly hangs around the store.

Obvious differences between the two jobs: the zoo had 17 retail locations on several acres of land, while in this store I could be in one of three rooms. 55 retail employees at the zoo; less than 10 at the store. I have to be able to wrap gifts here. There’s more glitter involved. Lots of candles here; live/dead mice at the zoo. Disney music at the zoo: jazz and popular music here³. The “product” here is more interesting to look at and read; I already have a few Christmas/birthday gifts picked out.

There’s something that comes with this nicer merchandise and wider range of retail expertise: professionalism. I was corrected today for saying “See ya!” to a customer after I helped her pick out a gift for her 18 year old niece. In fact, I was told that in general I was being too chatty and too interested in the customers. Enthusiasm for the product is good and encouraged, but talking about the client’s daughter’s boyfriend’s father, to whom the birthday card will be sent, is not “professional.”

This is all to say that I’m too friendly. And I get it. I can tone it back, regrettably.

The truth is, despite the fact that I’m working on my second retail position, I was not made for retail. Merchandise does not interest me. Details are my downfall, though I’m adjusting. I’m visually inept. I make mistakes when giving people change⁴. I feel sleazy when I manipulate products so that people will buy them. The best part about retail for me is customer interaction. Small-talk is my favorite aspect. Greeting people and checking people out with their items remains to be my forte. At the zoo we were required to check the I.D for clients if their credit/debit card wasn’t signed; I loved seeing where people were from based on their driver’s license (see One Week ’Til SLC). I thought it was cool, like how some people think that barcodes are cool. I like people more than sales goals.  

But I get it. I don’t need to know their life story.

It’s probably time to grow up and let the chattiness subside. I like my job so far; I wanna keep it. So I’ll count my change correctly and watch what I say. Maybe I’ll buy some eyeliner while I’m at it; makeup’s professional, right?

Work is about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, one that I enjoy when sidewalk’s available (that’s about 75% of the path). Coming home this evening, I was about 50 feet from my dormitory building when a girl about my age and a woman, presumably her mother, stopped and asked me where the Campbell Sports center was. I told them it was on the other side of campus, just up the road. Then it hit me that she was probably a prospective student…

Having assumed correctly, we got to talking about the college…the college admissions process…the curriculum, dons, roommates, orientation, the dance program, before financial aid…before I knew it I was walking her back to their car, giving the truth about Hipster College. The sun had set by the time we stood around the parking lot exchanging email addresses. I walked myself back on Kimball to my nook, my feet and stomach warning me that if I met another prospective student or friend tonight we were sitting down and eating dinner.

What I’ve learned from being…me: copious amounts of friendliness have a time and place. For helping a customer checkout, “Will that be all today?” and “Thank you! Have a nice day.” would perfectly suffice as bookends to a 100 word maximum conversation. For helping a lost perspective student, an enthusiastic first-year might earn the admissions office another applicant. Maybe I’ll work for them one day.

Then again, if there’s one business that I dislike with more than retail, it’s the college admissions market. More on that later.

1.      I completely disagree with that word’s rise to popularity. Or maybe I disagree with the fact that teenagers can’t find a different word to use. “Awkward” is to my generation as “swell” was to the 50’s.

2.      I wouldn’t mind listening to your cat stories. The number of beers you had last night that resulted in today’s hangover? Less interesting small-talk. I think I’d rather talk about the weather.

3.      I’m looking forward to Christmas season…except that we already have a few three Christmas displays set up in the store. Christmas season has started in retail land.

4.      There were some horror stories from last summer at the zoo, like when I forgot to give a customer $13 in change. That wasn’t a good day…I’ve learned my lesson.