Harum scarum in Hello.

Before I start, I know we have some mutual friends, but those of you who don’t know my sister probably won’t know that she got engaged on Valentine’s day, then got offered a new job on the Monday after! The girls and I have been asked to be bridesmaids, it’s exciting!

I’m going down to the Midlands to visit this weekend. It was a bit of a spontaneous thing…I happen to have the first Saturday off work since I started in my new job and my parents were going to visit her anyway, so I asked on Thursday if I could tag along. My parents are gong away on holiday on Monday, but there is a coach direct from Birmingham back Home, which is a stroke of luck! As much as I love my kids, I’m looking forward to having a kid free weekend. Even coming back on the bus will be fine, 5 hours of uninterrupted me time. :)

In more good news, my dad got his 4th dan in karate last night! Watch this video of him being beaten up by his karate instructor, Iain. (That’s dad on the still with the hair, and he appears in the video at 4.45)

Work continues to be good. This week the management couple, Marcus and Dawn, are away on holiday, so Dawn’s parents, John and Sandra, have been popping in to make sure everything is running smoothly. They make a good team, he is a great “old school” type of manager, Sandra is good at displays and window dressing. I know I’m doing my job ok, I’m a good sales person, even if I say so myself, but I’m not quite to John’s standards. Today I had a customer come in and walk straight to the Skagen watches. I did what I always do, give them a minute or so of looking before approaching them, but John came over to me and told me I should immediately approach any customers who are looking at our expensive things. (I disagree, to me it’s irrelevant whether they’re spending £1 or £500, they get the same treatment from me! But of course I didn’t say that to him!) So I did go over, not even aware that John was watching, and did the whole “can I get you one to look at? These only came in today, they’re the new season style (I really don’t know if they are, I’m bullshitting…) Yes, that one is beautiful, the small face would look great on your slender wrist, I see you like gold jewellery, have you seen this one…ok, I’ll leave you to keep looking, give me a shout if you want me to get one out for you.” John approached me and said “do you speak to all your customers like that?” Immediately I thought “shit....what have I done?” But I just said “yes, why did I do something wrong?” And he went on to tell me that what he heard was fantastic, he’s worked with people for years and they don’t talk to customers like that, I should carry on what I’m doing, thank you for doing such a great job! So of course I was chuffed. Then he kept popping up from behind fittings while I was talking to customers, so I think he was checking up on me, making sure I wasn’t just doing it for his benefit! As I was getting ready to go home, Sandra came over and said “John told me how youu speak to the customers, he was very happy, well done!” So I have been on cloud nine all afternoon. I know he’ll tell Dawn and it will probably come back to me again!

On the other hand though, I’ve had a couple of members of staff approach me cautiously and say things like “I’m really sorry, I know I’m not your boss and I don’t want to tread on toes, but the way you’re doing that isn’t the way it’s normally done....I didn’t mean any offence…” and I find myself saying over and over again “I’m not offended at all, please carry on! I’d rather you told me to my face than standing there silently thinking “gr, Sonja is doing that wrong thing AGAIN!” ”
The only exception to this rule is Allison. Allison is lovely, I really get on with her, but she will often be really blunt when it’s not completely appropriate! She blames this on her MS, but I’m not entirely convinced, lol! Like the other day, some of the women at work were going to watch 50 Shades of Shite, and someone had picked up one of the puppet display stands and whispered that it looked like a butt plug. Allison said, at the top of her voice, “I THINK IT LOOKS LIKE A DILDO”, then looked around to see if there were any customers in, lol! I think the reason we get along is that she’s blunt and speaks her mind, which I admire in people. I don’t know why people in this country are so uptight about this. I’d been making Allison’s coffee since I started and the other day, for the first time, I asked her if it was ok. She replied “Sorry, I didn’t like it. It’s not strong enough and it had too much milk in…” Judith told her off for being rude, but I said “if I didn’t want her to tell me, I wouldn’t have asked! I’d rather she told me than put up with my substandard coffee making!” If she’d told me it was fucking horrible and I was fat, THAT would be offensive!

Last updated February 20, 2015