During my college years, I didn’t really have the opportunities to join a lot of organizations or partake in Greek life. I college-hopped, which made it a little tough to settle roots anywhere in order to be part of a group for very long. Instead, I made the choice my freshman year to join the work force. In the past three or so years, I’ve worked in a good handful of places doing various things -- from scooping gelato to selling clothes -- and have met a lot of characters along the way. I should add a little disclaimer since I’ve never worked in an office or formal setting, so these types might be unique to customer service. Or maybe they aren’t at all. Here are some of them:

The one who takes their job a little too seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone should take their job seriously and with the utmost professionalism. And nobody likes a suck-up. But working in the customer service world sometimes lends itself to people taking that as the opportunity to be so uptight and by-the-book that no one on staff wants to interact with them. You’re not my boss; you’re my equal. Also my boss says that how I work is great, so please lay off.

The one who’s always late.

It’s 1:30 in the afternoon and time to turn over your shift. Pretty soon it’s 1:45 and you have a lobby full of customers. Dude… have you never heard of an alarm clock? My lunch was ten minutes ago. Also, get it together.

The one who sasses customers.

It’s safe to say that those of us who work face-to-face customer service can agree that The customer is always right is wrong. Still, it’s totally critical to hold your tongue even in the worst of situations… especially because that one coworker will be there to give the rude customer a piece of their mind. Now holding your tongue turns into holding your laughter, even though you have to pull them in the back to give them a write-up.

The one that’s a freeloader.

I learned about social loafing in my strategic management class and it’s like a lightbulb went off in my brain. There are some who want to do the bare minimum of work by looking really busy while simultaneously accomplishing very little, if anything. Then there are the others who straight up DGAF and will stand on the sales floor doing nothing. Watch out for both of them!

The one who is a constant ray of sunshine.

The one that’s too cool to even be there.

“Yeah, I’m just doing this until my book/band/theater troupe/clothing line/modeling takes off.” I’ve heard it all, done it all and yet we’re all here doing the exact same thing. Yawn.

The one that goes ghost.

You’ll get some new hires on board who seem really cool, albeit super bright-eyed and clueless, and then they’ll just disappear. Wait, what? That sounds crazy, right? Yeah, it totally happens. Helpful tip: if you feel like you’re not a good fit for the job, just pick up the phone. It’s a little more tactful than never showing up again.

Along the way, I've met some truly incredible customers and amazing coworkers. This definitely isn't a knock against them, but sometimes you have to look back at challenges you've faced to appreciate those guys a little more.