Yesterday morning at work business came in waves–heavy, then light. The store would be empty, save for myself, followed by a half an hour of a jam-packed store with a dozen customers all wanting attention. In the midst of all this…. A woman came in, and she wanted some advice–should she buy a video gameContinue reading “On Doing the Nice Thing”
Category Archives: Work
On Customer Craziness
Two work anecdotes to share, both from customers who came in the store today. A woman came in early this morning. “I need that new Smackdown game,” she said with an uncertain tone in her voice. “Smackdown versus Meat.” “Smackdown versus Meat?” I repeated, not quite sure what I’d heard. “Would you possibly mean SmackdownContinue reading “On Customer Craziness”
On a New Name Badge
I am a font whore — I have CDs with hundreds upon thousands of fonts. Sometimes the hardest part of sitting down and writing is deciding which nifty-keen font I should use. For the name badges the staff wears at work I used a Doctor Who font for the names. It was large, it wasContinue reading “On a New Name Badge”
On a Pointless Conversation
The phone rang at work this morning. I was in the midst of rearranging the PlayStation 2 games, put a stack of games on the top of a gondola, and answered the phone. I rattled off the current phone spiel. “Is there anyone there that plays Star Wars games?” the guy on the other endContinue reading “On a Pointless Conversation”
On the Lack of Updates
Updates this past week have been sparse. Frankly. I’ve not been in the mood, hasn’t been a priority. Such is life. That’s not to say things haven’t happened this past week. They have. I’ve been tired. I’ve felt weary. My bones ached. I’ve been frustrated. One, on its own, might not have been much. AddContinue reading “On the Lack of Updates”
On Life at Work
Today. Today was, in a word, hectic. Oblivion, the long-awaited role-playing game for the XBox 360 and computer, went on sale. People needed Oblivion like junkies need a fix. It was that bad. I knew it would be. The phone calls yesterday, from customers wanting the game right then, right there, ranged from sullen toContinue reading “On Life at Work”
On Life in General
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Today has been something of an emotional roller-coaster. Someone whom I hired, someone whom I used to work with day-in and day-out, someone whom I consider a friend, called me today to talk about his future. And it wasn’t an optimistic conversation — I couldn’t really give him a good reason whyContinue reading “On Life in General”
On Customers and Entitlement
Sometimes, only sometimes, customers annoy me. A guy had bought, for his son for Christmas, a Nintendo DS, the special red Mario Kart edition. It was a limited edition, like the teal blue Nintendogs edition, and once it was gone it was gone. We offer a replacement warranty on the systems we sell, though weContinue reading “On Customers and Entitlement”
On Video Game Ratings
Movies have their ratings. Some music CDs carry a “parental advisory” warning. Video games have their own rating system, the ESRB rating. I deal with this every day at work–What’s the game rated? Is this appropriate for my child? It’s not just something to be reactive about, we also have to be proactive, to beContinue reading “On Video Game Ratings”
On the Day After Christmas
In no random order, some thoughts on the day. After sleeping a lot yesterday, the alarm going off this morning at five was incredibly unwelcome. I got to work before the sun came up. Somehow, I got coffee in my eye. Tepid coffee, but it still stung like a muthafucker. The gift card system wentContinue reading “On the Day After Christmas”