Have you ever walked frantically around a large parking lot looking for your car? If so, you’ve gotta love antenna balls!
They come in all shapes, sizes and designs — from Mickey Mouse to happy faces. You just push them onto the end of your car’s antenna (if you have one on your vehicle) and your car is easy to spot in a crowded parking lot.
Here’s a recap of the good, bad and weird things that happened during August:
1) Bought a new car – after 11 years! (You’ll hear more about that – the car’s very nice but the car-buying experience was unbelievable.)
2) Took a road trip (in the new car) over Labor Day weekend to visit my parents, sister and brother-in-law.
3) Joined a local table tennis group and have had some interesting experiences. (You’ll also hear more about that!)
4) Got some great thrift store treasures.
I always name my cars; doesn’t everyone? After all, you spend a lot of time together.
When I was a kid, my parents referred to the family cars by color. For example, they’d say, “We’re taking the “white car” today (versus taking the “blue car”).”
How unimaginative!
I’ve given every one of my cars an exciting name to inject some fun and excitement into the driving/riding experience!
I find myself doing the same things over and over and over — think it’s part habit, part laziness…
For example, I’ve: Continue reading
When has the phrase “Have a good one” uttered mindlessly by a lackadaisical employee at the end of a retail transaction become the standard?
What ever happened to thanking the customer for patronizing the establishment and spending money there?
With all the choices of restaurants, retail stores and other businesses today, employees should remember that customers don’t have to do business with their company. They could just as easily choose to patronize a competitor in the future, causing their firm to ultimately slow down — resulting in a layoff, or fail — resulting in unemployment.
To all front-line employees in America: Please THANK your customer at the end of every transaction! Use good manners, act like a civilized human being, and you may be amazed at the response.
To all retail establishment managers: Please TRAIN your employees to thank every customer and DEMAND that they follow through and do it! Don’t let them get away with bad customer service! Your customers will appreciate your efforts — and reward you with continued patronage.
(It feels great to get that off my chest!)
I’ve often been annoyed and amazed at the following situation (and similar instances at other retail establishments):
You approach a fast-food restaurant drive-through (other than Chik-fil-A; their employees really are polite). The employee says, “Welcome to XX (their establishment)” or something similar, and then you place your order. Normally, they’ll simply announce the price and command you to drive to the window without saying “please.”
When you get to the window, the person on the other end of the speaker who may (or may not) have given you the initial greeting is unsmiling and fails to say thank you — or, often, doesn’t say a single word… which causes them to appear extremely rude and surly.
I was taught to be polite, and I almost instinctively thank the surly server, then drive away and say to myself, “Wait a minute! They should be thanking me!”
If I purposely try not to thank the person, I feel rude — as if I’ve stooped to their level.
Do you think there’s any way to solve the “bad customer service” epidemic in America today?
See my “Rant #2: An Open Letter to All Retail Employees and Managers” tomorrow for my ideas.
I absolutely love to read, and have also been taking a photo every day for more than four years to capture images of people, events and things in my life as part of the 365 Project. So it seemed a natural decision to photograph the cover of every book I’ve read.
It’s surprising to see how many there were!
I’ve read and enjoyed the following books during 2014. If you’ve read the same books and enjoyed them, please leave a comment!
(Did you know James Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers?) Continue reading
When I was in my early 20s and at my first real job, I wanted to buy a Christmas gift for my boss. She was a classy, conservative older woman. Continue reading
How would you like to return from vacation to an empty mailbox at work?
It sometimes takes me an entire week after my return to go through all my accumulated email messages — and by about noon the first day back, the vacation glow is definitely gone.
The August issue of GovExec magazine (www.govexec.com) reported that German employers force their employees to enjoy vacation by deleting their email and returning it to the sender (please click “continue to magazine” in the upper right corner).
It might be nice for the employees’ peace of mind (very nice), but it then it puts the burden on the sender to remember to resend the message after the person returns (or cut the person out of the info loop). To my knowledge, Outlook doesn’t have an automated feature to hold an email and send it on a particular date, so you’d have to store the email as a draft and write yourself a pop-up reminder to resend it on a date after the employee returns. (Or, you could simply delete the message and forget about the whole thing.)
What do you think of the “forced vacation”idea?
My previous blog post — Unforgettable for All the Wrong Reasons — described some of my most glaring mistakes — away from work. However, upon further reflection, I realize I’ve made some blunders in the proximity of work, too.
1) When I pulled out from the side street to the main road after work one night and got into the middle lane to turn left about 1,000 yards down, there was an extremely long line of cars ahead and traffic was at a standstill. Since the road had a middle turn lane all the way to the traffic light, and that was my ultimate destination, I decided to just breeze right down it and save myself from sitting through five or six traffic lights. (I think I realized at the time it was illegal, but … I gave in to the lure of getting home a little earlier.)
Once I changed lanes, I even saw a person standing in the traffic lane next to a car down the road (what was up with that?), but I kept driving.
Well, it turned out that person was a police officer… and he was giving someone a ticket for doing exactly what I was doing.
When he stopped me, he shook his head and said he couldn’t believe that I hadn’t pulled back into the regular traffic lane before driving by him and forcing him to give me a ticket, too. Ouch — way to make me feel dumb. It was a big ticket, too — $250.
My favorite officer parked his cruiser adjacent to the same road (a gold mine for him, as it turned out) for the rest of the week, presenting many of my coworkers with the same $250 present.
To this day, when I leave work almost everyone who’s ultimately turning left at the end of the road like I am gets in the center turn lane and zooms down the middle of the road. But not me! I learned my lesson the expensive way.
2) I used to go out on my lunch break every day to a fast-food restaurant near work and buy a Diet Coke (my addiction) to go with the lunch I’d packed. It — and my workplace — are both located in a sketchy part of town.
One day, I went to the drive-through and got my drink, then parked in front of the store to eat my lunch. It was a beautiful spring day and my window was rolled down as I enjoyed the lovely weather.
Suddenly, a man in a chef jacket appeared at my open driver’s window. He told me a convoluted story about how he didn’t have any money, was stuck away from home, was hungry, etc. And he asked me for money.
Unfortunately, nobody in the parking lot or restaurant could see me and the panhandler, because the only open parking spot had been at the end of the row next to a giant Dumpster, out of view of the store’s glass window, the other customers and the businesses next door.
I felt like I had to give him something to make him go away — and not hurt me! Visions of a knife-wielding ax murderer were racing through my head as I opened my wallet. Unfortunately, again, the smallest bill I had was a 20.
With a sinking heart, I gave the “stranded man” the $20 bill, quickly started my engine, drove off and breathed a shaky sign of relief.
When I told my coworkers the story (“Are you crazy?” and “You gave him $20!” were some of their comments), they made me promise to never park and eat there again — and I never have. I buy my drink and motor back to work.
What dumb moves have you made at or near your workplace?
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