smear sneer

I don't usually have specific tihngs to say about work, but some days...

Today I had to deliver a package to a fancy hotel up north, with something else I had to pick up quick nearby, and the smarmy concierge took five minutes to look up the guest's name, and then wouldn't accept it because his computer said "Jeremy" and the envelope in my hand said "Jerry". It seems straightforward enough to me...but I had to call in and have my company call in to the sender and when we finally got confirmation of the name and came back inside to tell this fella, he just flirted and giggled with some guests while I fidgeted in front of him forever. Finally I talked him into taking it, and set my clipboard on his desk. He filled out some parking slips, looked at something in the desk drawer, kept saying, "I'll just take care of this first..." until I just asked him, pleading, "Could you please just sign it? My other deliveries are going to be late now." and he kind of batted his eyes and scrawled something illegible. Oh geez.

These things only happen when I'm in a hurry...something of the power people know they have over my time gives them some satisfaction, and I've worked enough service industry jobs to know that there are days when it just feels good not to jump and rush (and bow and scrape) for everyone who wants me to. And maybe after kissing up to hoity toity hotel guests all day, it helps him to be able to make me do what he wants, but twenty minutes of wasted time when I have my own job to do...is just a bummer.

What a weird stupid world where we're all trying to get back at each other even when we're strangers, and the only form of empowerment is inconveniencing someone else just to show you can. You know?