Part of my job in a retail environment is to smile and be nice to complete strangers, despite what they say to me. I have been in situations where I have had to walk away because of the sheer ignorance that comes out of people's mouths, in order to retain my employment.
But last week, I someone crossed the line.
I was speaking to an older man — two time tour Vietnam Vet, who seemed pleasant enough. He was shopping with his girlfriend and his granddaughter. He meets me at the back of the store to check out, and I begin my normal friendly banter. He begins diving into his life story, and tells me he's retired.
"That's nice. That means you get to go on a vacation whenever you want!" I say warmly.
"Oh no! It's only people like you who work who get to enjoy vacations" he retorted back.
"I don't get to go on vacations..."
"Well, then I guess you don't work hard enough, now do you?"
Wait.
Stop.
This man just told me to my face that the reason I can't take a vacation is because I don't work hard enough.
So I leaned over across my counter, looked this ignorant man in the eye, pointed my finger directly at his chest, and said "Look, I work 2-3 jobs, go to school full time AND I have a 5 year old son. Don't you DARE tell ME I don't work hard enough."
I really think there is an ignorance that the Baby Boomer generation has about younger people. We are busting our asses out here, coming into work sick, scraping together childcare payments, and hopping from one job in the morning to another job at night just to make ends meet. We sell things on EBay, and sometimes go 12-15 days without a day off. We come home from work at 11 PM and stay up until 2 AM to write term papers, only to arise at 7 AM and get our kids out the door for school. We have crappy cars, and rent our homes, all because we choose to live within our means.
We aren't looking for trophies, and as much as a vacation in a warm climate would be fantastic, we aren't even looking for a pat on the back. What we DO deserve is not to be mocked, belittled, and disrespected.
I don't know if he thought he could say this to me because I was a woman, or because he assumed my job wasn't a "real" job because I work retail, but regardless, I was furious.
After my retort, he asked me "What kind of life are you trying to have, doing all those things?"
"A really great one sir. One where I CAN go on vacation whenever I want when I retire."
