Hello everyone!
As some of you may or may not know, I work at Walmart as a part time job while I work towards my end game career. While it is sometimes funny to laugh at situations that arise and the ridiculous looking people that come in the store in the middle of the night, we still need to be aware of what our actions and our words are and how people around you might take what you are saying.
I will admit, when I was younger and my parents always told me, "Think before you say something because you never know who hears you," I never understood how it was possible. I would always ask myself how someone could possibly be thinking about what to respond in a conversation because thinking about what you say before you say it would make conversations last FOREVER.
I was wrong. As I got older, I started to see how words effect other people. There have been a few situations that arose these past couple of weeks that made me want to write this article.
On a Tuesday or Wednesday night this past week, I am not sure which day, I punched out at 10:30 pm and went to the registers to get the couple groceries I had. On this unusual night, there were only 2 or 3 registers open and easily 15-20 customers in each line. The lines stretched all the way into the apparel section and snaked throughout it. I was a tad irritated that there were not more registers open but I just told myself "whatever, shit happens. Thete isn't anything I can do about it." In the line next to me there was a woman who was screaming that she could get the lines done way faster, and how she was never coming back to Walmart and how she had kids that had to go to bed and she had to get up in the morning to go to work while us Walmart employees got to sleep in in the morning. I had already taken my vest off because it was covered in frosting (I work in the bakery), so I stood observing her. The entire 25 minutes I stood in line, she yelled and yelled and yelled with no avail. When she got to the register the cashier apologized for the wait and told the customer that the system was running slow and that it was never as busy as it was that night. The customer continued to yell about how she could run the entire store herself better than the people there. She left and all was well. What that customer didn't realize was that the cashier I had had already been there 14 hours that day because they were understaffed. It was 11 by the time I checked out and I wouldn't get home until 11:30, just to be in bed by maybe 12 am if I was lucky and to get up again at 4:30 am to go to my other job. I don't get to sleep in any day of the week, and just because the cashiers or the other employees might be able to sleep in until 2 or 3 pm, chances are they were working 10 pm - 7 am shifts. It might not be a 9-5 job but it is the same hours only at a different time of the day, so they should be allowed to sleep that late because they just spent that night busting their asses filling shelves and racks and coolers so that you at some ridiculous hour can still come in and grab what you need.
Another incident just happened where there was a comment made by a manager that was racist to an associate. The manager claims to have meant it as a joke but the associate didn't see it that way and was deeply offended by it. It made him feel awful and you could see the pain he was feeling just by looking at him. The comment was completely innapropriate and uncalled for yet the manager meant it as a joke, hopefully not realizing how it would make the associate feel rather than not caring.
Things you say stick with people. You might not realize what you are saying hurts someone, it might. The one time someone I love more than life called me a c*** out of anger, I cried. Then I convinced myself that they were just angry and that they didn't mean it and I told them I forgave them, and convinced myself I forgave them because I can't hold a grudge for shit, but I didn't want to be angry anymore. Now when we fight, I wonder if that is what they are thinking, if that is what they are calling me to their significant other, but I CANNOT HELP IT. It happened and I have moved on but it sticks with me. Insults and hateful comments people have said to me and things that other people say to other people stick and sting. It doesn't go away because in the back of your mind, you have it and you recognize it.
Please be careful what you say to people and about people. It hurts whether it is a joke or not and quite frankly, I am tired of hurting and tired of watching people I love being hurt by stupid things that shouldn't have been said in the first place.
Like my parents always said, "If you cannot say something nice, don't say anything at all".
