Wednesday, March 16, 2011

...or perhaps I shouldn't be laughing...

I kind of love this little job I have right now. Mostly because there is no script, and I'm at liberty to ask the people whatever questions I deem necessary. Like today for instance, when the lady told me that she'd had a stroke, I asked her what that was like. Not because it was at all relevant to her application, but because I was curious about what it felt like. She told me that her stroke took place over the course of a few days. She had to go to the store to purchase a neck brace to hold her head up straight so she could watch TV at the proper angle, surprisingly she endured a few days of television viewing with the neck brace before she deemed her condition serious enough to warrant a visit to the Dr.'s office. I laughed at her when she was telling me that, and she laughed too, but I'm not sure that she knew why we were laughing.

I also laughed outloud at the guy who told me he dated a girl in college who said that she'd filed his taxes for him, and then pocketed the money he'd given her to pay what he owed. He did not laugh with me, and I ended up apologizing for laughing, but then laughed again when he admitted that she'd done it to him two years in a row.

I also love to ask the convicts why they were incarcerated. I just throw in "and what were those charges sir?" and then move on with the rest of my questions as though it were all part of what they're required to divulge to me. Mostly I get a lot of assault and battery type people.

I also love asking people to describe their disease and ailments in great detail to me. They're usually more than happy to oblige, and will tell me more than I could even think to ask.

Oh, and I also love it when the people with mental ailments want to talk to me about why they were fired from their previous jobs. "Well they fired me after I threatened to kill my coworker," or "I got fired because sometimes I would have an anxiety attack when I felt there were too many people in the office." It's the most interesting job I have ever had.

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