Tag Archive for 'customer service'

After whining about my weekend job yesterday, I had the stark realization that I’ve never had fewer than two jobs since I started working at 16. And, throughout, I kept up with high school and college… Which, I suppose, counts as another job. So I’ve never had just one job, if you go with that idea.

It all began in 1990 when I started working at a teeny tiny bookstore. It’s two rooms tacked onto the servant’s entrance at a big mansion built back in the 20’s. The bookstore deals in specialty shit — conservation, birding, and related nonsense. No mainstream books, no bookstore stress. In fact, through thick and thin, it’s a great example of how a niche bookstore can be successful even in this “death of print” era. The mainstream shit is everywhere… But if you want the weird shit, well, you gotta go to it.

Of course, that was before the rise of the “e-sellers” like Amazon. But, even then, our shop was first to make use of Amazon’s used bookstore and a sort of guerrilla Luddite movement that catered to people’s fear of technology, sense of loyalty, and need for instant, hands-on gratification.
Continue reading ‘Resume of a Wage Slave, Part One’