Memo to Guy in Coffee Shop or Why I Hate My Uniform

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

1) Look, I'm trying to sit here, enjoy my tea and bread, and do a little bit of catching up on the world before I have to go to work. Trying to strike up lame conversations about my workplace and asking me tech questions every time you come in is getting tedious. I sit in the backroom to avoid people this early in the morning. Particularly people like you who keep trying to talk to me and play with their cell phone's ring tones. Go away.

2) I know you're either married or dating someone. These repeated attempts at conversation are beginning to get creepy. Yes, I'm a female tech. Take your freaky fantasies elsewhere.

3) Politely responding to you before going back to what I was doing has moved to pretending not to hear you. I shall very quickly proceed to something far nastier, like telling my much-larger-than-you firefighter husband that you are bugging me. I really do recommend you leave me alone.


Any other techs out there who have to wear work shirts that proclaim their place of business and then get pestered with questions when they are off work? I hate that so much!

Comments

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

Try working for the cable company (doesn't matter what job description) and having that problem, or worse, forgetting to hide your badge when going to get fast food or shopping.

People will stop you no matter where you are and what you are doing, and complain about this or that problem.

When I was shopping for a car, I had to write down my place of employment. Someone who was NOT the salesman I was working with came RUNNING out of the dealership as I was leaving. He saw I worked for the cable company and had a problem.

WTF?!? How is this appropriate or even halfway fair?

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

i walked in to Fry's once, in a suit and tie, and everyone started asking me about modems...... i cursed them out that i don't work there or care about their issues, and they said they would complain to my manager.

[simplycosmic.livejournal.com]

I get this all the time, in many different stores, and in many different clothes.

I think I have "manager's face" or something, because people will actively ignore the person in Target with the red smock and nametag and instead ask me where some product is.

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

annoying as hell in a bisket

[joeshamo.livejournal.com]

i dont know why but i can see myself writing an almost identical letter/memo

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

but i'm not married or dating.

hmmm?

=P

are u cute?

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Cue firefighter husband..

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

heh.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

:D He really does exist.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I was also extremely amused by the concept of telling my husband about the guy. He's a sweet man, but he has the tendency to get a tad over-protective when anyone hits on me. It's cute.

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

This is why I carry a book around with me. I say, "excuse me, I am reading and would like some alone time ok?" And nose back in the book. It is lovely.

Yeah I am starting to get rude to people just for this fact alone.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Here's what you do, make yourself a business card as a computer consultant and keep them in your wallet/purse/wahtever. Whenever random people ask you a computer question you say, "I'd be happy to help! I am also a consultant, my rate is $60 an hour, minimum charge is one hour labor. How can I help you?"

Or better yet, $5 a question. "Do you think I have a problem?", Yes, "Can you fix it for me?, No. There, just made $10!

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I particularly like the second option. :)

[purly.livejournal.com]

I used to in high school. When I took lunch I change.

[jecook]

I had that happen to me once in a CompUSA. I had a few red polo shirts that I used to wear that looked almost like the ones the Comp issues to their employees ( minus the emriodered logo, of course).

That person got exposed to my 1500 meter stare, and the words "I don't work here", followed by the back of my shirt as I walked away from him.

[residentgeek.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was walking through Lowe's the other day, and some guy saw my huge assortment of keys and ID badge and thought I worked there. Very strange.

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

My company doesn't have a uniform, but employees get free t-shirts.

I only once made the mistake of wearing it out in public, when I decided that a Saturday afternoon on the couch with a book and a pitcher of G&T was on the cards. The manager at the bottle shop gave me a five minute tirade about how the internet was ruining his EFTPOS service before he gave me my gin. >:(

His rival across the street supplied my boozing needs from that point on.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

This is why relaxed dress codes are a must.

We're technical professionals, not frickin' walking billboards. That kind of free advertising costs extra.

On the flip side, uniforms can be useful when you're acting in a professional capacity out in public - doing onsite installs/maintenance, for example. Business shirts are good for this if the weather permits covering them up with a light jacket or sweater. Otherwise, a generic suit with an ID badge that can be concealed/removed is often good camouflage.

My own preference, somewhat distorted by local dress codes, is the lower half of a suit with a light blue button-down work shirt. No logos, no advertising, and I don't look like I'm in sales. As I never see a customer or upper-level manager, I'd prefer jeans and a polo shirt, but there's this annoying company-wide dress code that means techs and call-centre operators have the same dress code as executive managers and those manning the public-contact counters.

Screw 'everyone is equal'. People can be told the local dress code in interviews, and decide whether they want the job or not.

[fragbert.livejournal.com]

Luckily, we have no dress code to speak of, so when we take our badges off, we look like everyone else. As a matter of fact, our badges are so "non-identifying" (on purpose; this is D.C., after all) that no one would know what we do just by looking at them.

A friend of mine, who's a retired cop, often told stories of how he wouldn't discuss what he did in social situations because everyone would want to rant about cops in general or ask him to fix a ticket or whatnot. My ex-wife used to practice law, and she ran into the "gimme legal advice for free because we're acquaintances" syndrome. It's the same with doctors, too, according to two M.D.s I'm friends with.

I've stopped telling people I am a computer technician for precisely the same reason. And I *really* like sketchydave's idea of handing them a business card and quoting the hourly rate.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Thanks man, I have to admit it isn't wholey my idea. I'm a webmaster/tech at a hospital and my boss does a lot of multimedia stuff. She's an M.D. and a techie, I have no idea how she does that.

Anyway, different departments would bug her to help out with presentations and stuff. Nothing too complicated but the average admin assistant can't handle it.

She was sick of it, it was time consuming and not...her...job. So she started charging $125 an hour for her services. That cut those requests WAY down. The fun thing is they still come in, and we DO charge $125 an hour :-)