Friday, June 29, 2012

Stress Less

It is just so easy to be calm for someone else...well, it usually is as compared to being calm for ourselves and our own life situations.  I can speak for myself in saying that I find it easier to stay calm when others are stressed than it is when I am in a stressful situation of my own.  


The other day I was in a grocery store and while I was at the checkout counter (I always go to a human cashier, never the automated ones), I wasn't sure how to swipe my interac card on the machine.  Here in Montreal we have different machines depending on which store you go to and which system that store has.  So here I am wondering how I should swipe my card.  Sometimes you need to swipe it sideways with the strip on a certain side, other times you need to insert it in the bottom of the machine, and still other times you need to insert it at the top of the machine!  I honestly find it confusing, as I am never sure which way to swipe my card anymore.  At any rate, I tried it in the sideway method.  This was not the way this machine worked.  I tried a few times, feeling embarrassed and a little nervous, as the cashier just stood there saying nothing.  After about a minute, which seemed like much longer, the female cashier finally told me that I was to insert my card from the top.  For crying out loud, had I been the cashier, I would have kindly told the customer straight away which method in which to swipe their card!  This would have saved time and embarrassment for the customer!  Oh well, I finally got that purchase done, but I didn't feel very good leaving that store.  


After having shared all this, I feel that customer service, for the most part, is not like it was in the past.  Many a time in this day and age, customers are treated as a number, not as a human being.  It's so rare these days to get pleasant and helpful customer service.  


Now that I have shared my frustration, (LOL), I found some photos on the internet that will hopefully help you all to stress...less.  :)





Claude Monet and Alice Hoschede Monet with some birds.  :)


The 1930's...

As I become more comfortable and adept at HTML, which will take some time, I will periodically post videos and more interesting posts.  Right now I am learning, slowly but surely, how to do things on my blog.  I have noticed that I can't just copy and paste something here, that I must find another way to do this (such as quotes that I may wish to share), etc.  I have posted one video since I have had my blog and I couldn't figure out how to add text to it.  It's O.K., I am learning at my own pace and am enjoying it as I learn.  Thank you all for continuing to visit me here and for reading my blog.

I hope that today's post helps you to relax and stress less.  I really enjoy reading your thoughts.  Please click on the "comments" link at the end of my post to share.

10 comments:

  1. I would choose that shower and the owls on my lap - thanks for the post. I don't know why they cant make those machines all the same. On the other hand our local grocery store must have told the cashiers to be more talkative, and the one I got after a hard day at work would not stop chatting and asking questions....

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  2. I always like the old pictures.

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  3. The good old days, Linda. Helping another, does it still exist ? I pay with money..., the easiest way...
    Beautiful weekend !
    Lie(f)s.

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  4. If you want to copy and paste, try putting it into your Word program first, that always works for me and I do it all the time. Our credit card machines are all different, too. And I never get it right! Always backwards the first time. And I think you are right about customer service!!! People do not take pride in their jobs anymore. Here is a sentence I hate to hear: "If you don't see it on the shelves, then we don't have it." HEY, how about a little help in looking, or checking in the back, or seeing if it is an item they even carry?

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    1. Hi Ginny,

      Thanks so much for the tip. Someone told me about that a while back and I had forgotten...using the Word program. And your mention about "If you don't see it on the shelves, then we don't have it." is all too familiar to me. It's a shame.

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  5. Its nice to go back in time for a while.

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  6. Right on Linda. With pictures, they are very neat, and a stressful moment, why?

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  7. Sometimes when I get one of those stony cold people waiting on me, I feel like asking them, "Is your mother MAKING you work here?" I guess they are to be pitied that their job is so hateful to them. It costs nothing to smile or be helpful but they act like they are emotionally destitute. However, you certainly should NOT feel embarrassed in front of someone who is so wrapped up in their own misery that you barely exist!

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    1. Excellent point, Ms Sparrow...thank you. And well taken and appreciated.

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  8. in our place we do not have the automated checkout counter

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