I was NOT paid for this post!
Canada, we won't say that we're better, its just that we're less worse.
Why is it that when you are out shopping and a sales person answers a question or helps you out and you say "thank you for your assistance" the person sometimes responds with "That is what I am paid for". It doesn't even have to be someone in the retail industry. Anywhere that you say thank you for something and they respond with that. Is it just me (and my grandmother) or does anyone else find this slightly insulting and horrible to say to a customer? I know that the person gets paid to be there, and in most of the service industry not a single one of them has a life long dream of selling shoes, skirts or other items to the public. I mean, how many kids in school answer "I want to be a sales assistant when I grow up" to the question of future career. Service industry is more a fall back career than a target career. I just don't want to hear that they are just serving me because they are getting paid to do it.
It is like eating a steak or chicken burger. Deep down somewhere in your mind you know that the steak was a cow that was happily grazing in a field without a care in the world and then WHAM along comes Mr. Sledgehammer right between the eyes, then Mr Buzzsaw cuts up Ms Cow into smaller little bits and then you have a steak on your table. Or, Ms Chicken quite happily living on a free range farm (or packed like living hunks of meat into small storage cages, depending on where you get your chicken), running around playing with all the other free range chickens when suddenly she is grabbed by the neck and is killed by either breaking her neck or a swift axe blow cutting off her head with blood flying everywhere. Then Ms. Chicken, like Ms Cow, is hacked to bits by Mr Buzzsaw (evil person that Mr Buzzsaw don't you think?) and fed into Mr Grinder that smashed and mashed Ms Chicken into preprocessed bite sized chicken burgers that end up on your table. We all know that deep down this happens, we just dont want to be there and see the whole process or acknowledge it happening before we bite into the steak or burger. I want to hold onto this illusion that the burger and steak wanted to be there and was always there without anything else, just like I want to believe that this sales assistant really really wanted to help serve me without thinking bad and evil thoughts or thinking "just get me through this day til margarita time and all will be well with the world".
I mean, if it doesn't just stop at the sales associates, but goes right up to doctors, lawyers or politicians then the world is a horrible place.
"Thanks for saving my life doc"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that if I didn't have the money to pay the doc would he leave me to die on the gurney til I got the bank loan approved?
"thanks for defending me in court, Mr Lawyer. I would have gotten 25 years in jail had you not proved that the police officer was framing me to cover up his mistake"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that if I didn't have the money the lawyer would have gladly sat in his office knowing that I was going to be sent up the river for 25 years for a crime I didnt commit.
"thanks for helping us get that law into effect Mr MP. It will save hundreds of lives"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that whoever has the most money can hire a politician to do what the payor wants done?
Can a person life, liberty and laws be 'bought' because 'that is what they are paid for'?
If that is true, then isn't the world merely a bunch of mercenaries in their jobs getting paid to do something?
Why is it that when you are out shopping and a sales person answers a question or helps you out and you say "thank you for your assistance" the person sometimes responds with "That is what I am paid for". It doesn't even have to be someone in the retail industry. Anywhere that you say thank you for something and they respond with that. Is it just me (and my grandmother) or does anyone else find this slightly insulting and horrible to say to a customer? I know that the person gets paid to be there, and in most of the service industry not a single one of them has a life long dream of selling shoes, skirts or other items to the public. I mean, how many kids in school answer "I want to be a sales assistant when I grow up" to the question of future career. Service industry is more a fall back career than a target career. I just don't want to hear that they are just serving me because they are getting paid to do it.
It is like eating a steak or chicken burger. Deep down somewhere in your mind you know that the steak was a cow that was happily grazing in a field without a care in the world and then WHAM along comes Mr. Sledgehammer right between the eyes, then Mr Buzzsaw cuts up Ms Cow into smaller little bits and then you have a steak on your table. Or, Ms Chicken quite happily living on a free range farm (or packed like living hunks of meat into small storage cages, depending on where you get your chicken), running around playing with all the other free range chickens when suddenly she is grabbed by the neck and is killed by either breaking her neck or a swift axe blow cutting off her head with blood flying everywhere. Then Ms. Chicken, like Ms Cow, is hacked to bits by Mr Buzzsaw (evil person that Mr Buzzsaw don't you think?) and fed into Mr Grinder that smashed and mashed Ms Chicken into preprocessed bite sized chicken burgers that end up on your table. We all know that deep down this happens, we just dont want to be there and see the whole process or acknowledge it happening before we bite into the steak or burger. I want to hold onto this illusion that the burger and steak wanted to be there and was always there without anything else, just like I want to believe that this sales assistant really really wanted to help serve me without thinking bad and evil thoughts or thinking "just get me through this day til margarita time and all will be well with the world".
I mean, if it doesn't just stop at the sales associates, but goes right up to doctors, lawyers or politicians then the world is a horrible place.
"Thanks for saving my life doc"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that if I didn't have the money to pay the doc would he leave me to die on the gurney til I got the bank loan approved?
"thanks for defending me in court, Mr Lawyer. I would have gotten 25 years in jail had you not proved that the police officer was framing me to cover up his mistake"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that if I didn't have the money the lawyer would have gladly sat in his office knowing that I was going to be sent up the river for 25 years for a crime I didnt commit.
"thanks for helping us get that law into effect Mr MP. It will save hundreds of lives"
"that is what I am paid for" implying that whoever has the most money can hire a politician to do what the payor wants done?
Can a person life, liberty and laws be 'bought' because 'that is what they are paid for'?
If that is true, then isn't the world merely a bunch of mercenaries in their jobs getting paid to do something?
posted by Capt_Canuck at 2:18 PM
1 Comments:
There's no 'gag order' - sorry bad choice of words. But I do remember that the Canada press was upset with Harper for his handling of the press-coverage of the return of dead canadian soldiers from Irag or Afgahnistan. Comparatively, Chretien seems to be much more liberal than Harper, no?
Comparatively speakling, M'sia seems to be a 'freeier' place under Badawi then Dr M...
And yes, the mother of all gag orders exists in S'pore...
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