.....And The Staff Isn't Much Better.

Yesterday's blog was all about some of our more amusing clients, who's decidedly original rationale make our jobs so much more fun. Lest you think I am being punitive and judgemental about our clientele, let me assure you that, no matter how nutty the clients are, we've had plenty of staff to compete. In the 25 years that the Mister and I have worked together, we figure we've seen about a hundred staff go through our place, that we can remember. Lots of them were nice, normal people who just wanted to make a living. Aaaaaand lots of them were certifiable.

The "juniors" or "assistants" are the people who shampoo the clients, sweep the floor, do the cleaning and the laundry. (For some reason, they are vastly overrepresented in this particular litany.) We had one guy who used to bring in his own laundry and do that during his shift.

There was one girl who had put her wedding dress on layaway, and way paying for it over time. She was only 18 and didn't have a boyfriend. In fact, she had never had a boyfriend, but thought she may as well get the dress now, since it was perfect. We told her she should probably not mention this on her first date.

After bugging one of the colour technicians for weeks to highlight his hair, one guy called in the next morning to say that he wouldn't be in because now his hair was too blond and he couldn't go out. We nicknamed him "The Frosted Flake".

When I was a junior, I worked with a girl who I swear couldn't tell time. She never wore a watch, and couldn't time colors off the clock. (For example, if you told her to rinse a colour in 10 minutes, she'd always set a timer.) She'd ask me if it was time for lunch or time to go home etc. I wonder how she got through life.

We've had several receptionists who had terrible trouble with the till. One of them never did manage to balance the till, not once in the 6 months she worked there. Another one couldn't make change without a calculator. Another one told several clients that I didn't work there any more, while I was standing right beside her.

There was one guy who went off to Toronto to complete his apprenticeship, for six weeks. We thought he was coming back, but when we went to a hairshow, we noticed he was working for someone else now.

One young woman sat through an entire staff meeting, and after it was done, said good bye and see you tomorrow. A little while later we found her resignation letter sitting on the front desk. Why did she sit through that meeting if she wasn't going to work there anymore?

My favorite was the junior who figured, on his first day, that he was never going to remember our manager's rather unusual Greek name, and decided to call her "Miss Thing" from now on.
On his first day.

I tell you, between the clients and the staff, I don't know what's normal anymore.