Thursday, April 17, 2008 Delen: Employee from hell By Annie Delen Jaded Mind
SARTRE once said: "Hell is other people". If he were alive today, I would immediately assume he was referring to an employee at Photo Line, a photo shop located at the top floor of Shoemart (SM) Baguio (to be specific). If one is taking the escalator, it's located in the left wing (to be more specific).
But before I continue with my tirade about people who do not belong to the "service industry" I apologize for the pending third part of the "Long Weekends" series.
I was hoping I'd forget the incident last Friday concerning the abovementioned shop but I've been having nightmares about it. Thus, in order to exorcise the ghost of the employee from hell, I must write about it.
It was eight o'clock in the evening when my two friends, Lani and Sharon and I reached the photo shop.
I was excited to have it printed for it contained my "scenes" from that long weekend I've been prattling about for the last two columns. So, in we entered the hollowed grounds (judging from the treatment from one female employee) of Photo Line, which by the way was recommended by my two friends. (They now completely swore off going there as long as they both live!).
Hmmmm, the last part suspiciously sounds like something a minister or a priest would say. I must still have a hangover from the wedding the other weekend.
But were straying; back to the shop. If my (512 M.B) memory serves me right, there were three people. Two males and one female. The two guys were busy at a computer and since I was closer to the woman who was cutting something (Of course; with a pair of scissors! Did you think with her set of deadly incisors?)
I asked her in a very timid voice (which by the way does not fool my friends) how long it takes to have a film developed. It all went downhill from there. Looking up from her world saving task of cutting pieces of cardboard, she said in a sulky (sana lang sultry anoh) voice, "Kung film, isang oras lang."
I was delighted but then she called one of the guys and told him to call someone higher in the food chain to check if it is still possible. We got the nod. Since I was standing right in front of her, I was expecting the woman to talk to me. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Turning her face away from me, she started talking to one of the guys referring to us in the third person. She talked in that fashion for two minutes the gist of which was that we (moi and my two friends) should return to the shop before 9 p.m.
Keeping my irritation in check, I told her that she could address us directly after all we were literally right in front her nose. It turned out, the rude behavior was not lost on my friend Sharon so soon as I went to give the roll of film to the technician she gave the girl a piece of her mind.
Knowing how blunt Sharon can be, I almost pitied the girl but I was too irritated to care. To cut a long story short, we were allowed to leave the film for printing with the understanding that we should go back for it before 9 p.m. (Synchronize watches!)
But we didn't so by the time we went back to the shop, it was before 9 according to our watches but not according to the wall clock inside the shop.
So, there we were outside the closed doors. The lady was still where we left her an hour before. She looked up, saw us and then went back to her calculator. It was one of the technicians who showed compassion and let us in.
This is where the cliché "if looks could kill" comes in because if it were true, the next day's headline would have been "Customer, killed by venomous glance." Do I have to tell you who did it?
I am not perfect and neither are my friends. We don't expect to be fawned on especially at a late hour. We certainly understand that a person can have bad days but is civility that hard to come by these days?
