I have somehow been working in customer service for a little over a year now, and I'm extremely confused. I am clearly awful at my job, and I can't help it if I am socially retarded, but I am required to TALK to people using words and my mouth. EEK.
It shouldn't be so bad, but for me it is; let me explain...
Growing up, I was the youngest, so I was basically I was alone. I did have childhood friends, but they did this thing called "have more than one friend" which was unheard of in my world at the time. I was always teased at school for whatever reasons, so I kind of isolated myself from people even more. Nowandays, I'm trying to break myself away from my antisocial personality, but things that bring other people joy don't make me happy, and I'm not a cheery person.
So being on a job where you have to TALK to people using words and your mouth is kind of difficult to someone who has purposely been avoiding strangers for majority of their lives, especially when you are working in one of the most people-oriented fields out there: customer service.
Here's what we're supposed to do:
Greet people nicely, explain the promotion, suggest additional items to add to their selection, talk to them a bit to coax persuade them to buy more (however that helps).
Here's what I do:
Greet people in what I consider a nice tone, but my voice is naturally kind of monotoned (another result of prolonged isolation), explain the promo to the people who can't read the signs, suggest items to people when they ask for it, leave them alone because I have other things to do. Check on them when they need to be checked on.
I try to be more open and more people oriented, but when all you really want to do is be left alone, it's kind of difficult. It's really stupid of me to say for people to leave me alone on a customer service job, where your main job revolves around customers, but I'm just so damn awkward that I can never persuade people to do anything or brighten anyone's day, I've never
been THAT person; the one who is always smiling front and center, I'm the kid in the back of the class that draws pictures of invader zim, and it's who I'm meant to be.
I was like that once or I thought I was but apparently I was very social (who knew).
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't force yourself but it's good to get social.
PS I thought antisocial people were OK with social situations BUT actually didn't like it. They just did it cause they had to but have no feelings whatsoever. There's so many defitions, I don't even know anymore.
When I was in high school, I used to try to force myself to be social so bad that it would actually stress me out.
ReplyDeleteIt is really good to get social; being a hermit and not having human communication can actually make a person go crazy. Ever seen castaway? Yeah..
But now, I am ok around lots of people, I'm just used to being alone, so it comes off as awkward.
- thanks for commenting BTW!