When you have a job it can be one of the most rewarding things you can do in life. Working a lot of hours can be stressful, especially if you’re juggling school on top of it, but as soon as your bank account goes from zero to hero on pay day, that’s when having a job isn’t so bad after all.
However, the only thing that I can complain about having a job is when you’re working in a customer service setting and you’re probably not the most outgoing individual out of the bunch. It doesn’t mean you’re rude or you don’t want to talk to people and be nice, it’s just that your personality isn’t set up that way.
Since I'm an introvert working in customer service, I'm going to tell you what it means:
1. Being an introvert means instead of genuinely wanting to have a conversation with the customer you feel like you have to talk to the customer.
2. Being an introvert means when you greet a customer and they ignore you, you kind of take it personal because it took all of the extrovert strength you had just to say hello.
3. Being an introvert means when you want to be happy with every customer but some of them just happen to have “resting bitch face” and you’re slick afraid that if you talked to them they might go off on you.
4. Being an introvert means when the phone rings and you have to answer, you wait for a few rings because you don’t want to mess up your greeting.
And when you do, you just want to hang up the phone.
5. Being an introvert means when you're alone in the store and as soon as you see someone walking toward your store, your stress level goes up.
6. Being an introvert means when a customer gets angry with you, your anxiety goes up 250 percent.
You probably start making stupid mistakes and start fumbling over your words which just makes the situation even worst.
7. Being an introvert means when you try to give the best customer service to a person and they give you a smart ass remark, you either awkwardly laugh or you say nothing which makes the situation even weirder than it already is.
8. Being an introvert means when your vocal dyslexia kicks in as soon as you feel a little outgoing, you wish you were an ostrich because your head being in the ground sounds like a better idea at this point.
9. Being an introvert means when your manager makes you ask customers if they want something that most people don’t want, you get annoyed because you already know what the answer is going to be.
10. Being an introvert means when the customer asks you a question and you know the answer isn't the one they want to hear, you're afraid to tell them the answer just to avoid a possible bad situation.
At the end of the day, being an introvert working in retail can be a real pain in the ass. Honestly, though, I think it’s good if people who are like that work in a customer service environment. It gives you more thick skin, you handle social situations way better than you did before. It teaches you to deal with rejections or just crappy situations period. You learn to think quick with your words and also it makes you more outgoing.
So, if you’re reading this before going into your shift, just remember that you’re pretty damn strong if you went into something that is a huge challenge for you. At the end of the day you made the choice to work where you’re working, and at the end of the end of every shift, you become a stronger employee and an even stronger person.
