Carri, http://sixteensisters.blogspot.com/, has an entry about strange people she has worked with over the years.
I have to expand the field, as I have spent much less time working in offices, and more in...well...other places.
For a while, back in the antedeluvian days, I worked in Collections for a bank in Toronto. My supervisor, Madge, was from somewhere in Northern England, and had one of those accents similar to Martin's mom and dad. Voice, however, was where the similarity ended. Madge must have trained a lot of clerks. Record-keeping, at that time, consisted of entries in huge, leather-bound books. Madge would say, "Now these numbers live in this book, and these numbers live in this one. Have you got that, dear?" I had had teachers in high school who didn't talk down to me that much!
At one job, one of my co-workers was an Indian woman called Pushpa. She was beautiful, and always looked gorgeous in her sari. She had one habit that I couldn't abide, and that was an addiction to Avon Cream Sachet. I don't even know if Avon still makes Cream Sachet, but it was cream perfume that came in little jars. It was strongly scented, and a little went a very long way. She would scoop it out as if it were cold cream, and slather it all over herself. As she usually chose to do this in the elevator on our way back from lunch, it became obnoxious quite soon. Also, as I was pregnant while at that job, I spent some elevator rides trying very hard not to spew chunks.
And then there was the guy, at a place where most of the employees were Chicanos, who chose to rant on to me about immigrants. I let him go on for a while before I told him he was barking up the wrong tree. He wasn't going to get this immigrant to badmouth others!
I had a partner in my cleaning service who used to nip a sip or two from the clients' liquor, until I made her stop. Ya gotta be able to trust your cleaning service, ya know? LOL!
I'll add to this as I think about it. I've worked with a lot of eccentric people over the years.
Oh, the overpowering smell thing is awful!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working in customer services in a Department store in London. We had perfume testers on the counters to encourage people to visit our Perfumery!
Two of the girls who worked with me kept spraying themselves with "Tommy" the Hilfiger stuff.
I thought I would lose my mind, with the headaches I got. Can they not smell how awful that stuff is??
Apologies to those who love the stuff.
Hey...I love patchouli oil, but don't wear it much because so many people don't like it.
ReplyDeleteVanessa was very enamoured of "Rain" when it first came out. I liked it for a while, but when every kid in town went around smelling the same, it got old quickly.
If I ever wore "Youth Dew" I could smell it all day long. Not a good thing...being able to smell your own perfume.
ReplyDeleteNow, I only wear one by Lancome.
Desert Flower! Remember Desert Flower? I had one bottle of it when I was in high school, and I dated several boys who could only be called "geeks" today. I think there must be a "Geek's Handbook of Romance" out there somewhere, because they would always ask me what perfume I was wearing. Of course, on my next birthday or Christmas, whichever came first, I'd get a gift box, including soap, powder and cologne, all...yup, you guessed it...Desert Flower.
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder I took a liking to patchouli oil!
I should have told them it was Chanel #5. I bet they never opened the cap to smell it.