An anecdote: Today at work, a woman went through Megan's register and the goddamn thing froze because a register is nothing more than a computer, and a pretty shitty one at that. There was a short two-minute period of confusion after which our manager Debbie and I took the woman and all her crap up to the service desk to ring her up again and get her going on her way. All in all, it was, at most, a five minute deterrment. But this evil fucking woman was being such a bitch and kept going on about how ridiculous the whole situation was and we're all incompetent and on and on and on. And the dumb bitch got so worked up about the whole thing that she was holding back tears. Computers freezing up is typical and unaviodable; crying in Kmart because of it is what's fucking ridiculous. And then the whole time we were ringing her up at the desk she was dictating how she wanted everything bagged and all I wanted to do was kick her ass because she needed it. And then when it was all done, I accordingly pushed her shit at her and said "There you go," and as I turned around to keep my looks of disgust to myself, Debbie called out to Satan-incarnate "Have a very nice Thanksgiving." And then she turned to me and said, "I hope she chokes on her turkey and dies."

The turkey comment was honest, and I'm not saying that Debbie should have have told the woman that she wished her death, but she didn't have to kiss ass either. By saying that, Debbie might as well have laid down on the ground and let the bitch kick her in the ribs a couple of times. But the good retail employee doesn't bestow good wishes only where good wishes are deserved. Because as soon as someone walks through the doors, they're not a person anymore, they're money and they're treated like they're money. And the customers who know that they're nothing more than money are the ones that are going to get what they want. Because they know that the 'good' employee will bend over backwards and suspend their dignity to get that money. And the customer may be getting what they think they want but it's all really to their detriment because none of it's sincere and they're just being used as a means of increasing profits; they're not being respected for being people. And these assholes probably don't even care that they're being dehumanized (if they've even realized it) but they should. You're not going to respect others if you don't even demand respect for yourself.

Which brings us to the other half of the equation: the ass-kissing employees. Of course, not everyone kisses ass when they're being treated like shit. I sure as hell don't. But a lot of them do and higher-ups expect them too. We're supposed to sacrifice our self-respect for the sake of 'the sale.' When someone treats us like shit instead of hoping that we never have to see their bloated faces ever again, we're supposed to make them want to come back again because we want as much as their fucking money as we can get our hands on. We're expected to be insincere and to let ourselves be walked upon. When we clock in, we're supposed to suspend our human dignity and act against what we truly believe is right and wrong so that our CEO's can drive really sweet-ass cars.

Money is more important than people and that's so fucking sick. Why doesn't anybody care?

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