Follow up to Girl Reporter Incident

So, Girl Reporter did call back and ask to speak with the manager. Good girl.

My manager told me she was crappy and snippy. My ability to correctly judge people's characters over the phone is improving.

I figure that if I have to work retail, I might as well try to better myself, whether it is my palette, my kitchen utensils, or ability to read other people. There are several mental roads you can follow if you work long term retail: grouchy, mean drunk that people are scared to fire; sweet, chatty lady that fudges up transactions but is just so nice; and weirdly intuitive half-psychic clerk. That's what I'm going for. Aiming real high.

Raise your hand if you are affected by the economy.

The phone rang. I answered it. That is always a mistake. The caller identified herself as a "reporting student" from the university. She said she was writing a paper and wanted a quote from a local business on whether or not we were affected by this down-turn in the economy.

I was not touching that. Although it is probably harmless, any paper that could potentially be published could affect our business and I don't want my name and unofficial statement tied to it. I politely told her that she would get the best answer if she called back tomorrow and asked to speak with the manager. She seemed irritated that I wouldn't just tell her something. I don't care what sort of dead-line she has; call me paranoid, but I am not potentially compromising my job so that some 19-year-old can finish the paper she has put off until the last minute. And doesn't it seem like a reporter would come across reluctant interviewees and she should just learn to deal with it?

I am probably being a bitch and reading more emotion into the conversation than actually was there. Or maybe not. I am no reporting student, writing for grades and milking financial aid; I am just a clerk and there are a hundred people more educated than me waiting to take my job.