I spent several years at home in social isolation before I got my first job. I photograph people for documents (and do a few other things), and it can be unbearable. Some people genuinely have no idea what they look like, they’re often upset by their photos, and sometimes it turns into aggression towards me. One man was surprised by the asymmetrical shape of his chin and started shouting, “Do you really think I look like that?!” And what can I say to that? “You really do”? I just get nervous and try to find the words while he continues to talk rudely to me, as if I’d deliberately set the camera to distort his chin.
Then a woman brings her teenage daughter in for a passport photo, and they start arguing and yelling at each other about whether it’s better for her to have her hair down or not, and the girl doesn’t like any of the photos and can’t even explain what’s wrong, so we have to take several more, and they get increasingly irritated and start accusing me of that her cheeks too big and I should have told her to suck them in or position the camera somehow so her cheeks weren’t visible, or some other nonsense, like I’m a fucking wizard. I have a hard time dealing with situations like that, I often start mumbling and shaking, but it only seems to irritate them more, and they speak to me even more rudely, and then they just throw money on my table in annoyance and leave, and I sit there and try to compose myself for another half hour. I’ve been brought to tears several times already.
Some of them are insanely arrogant and rude people.
One woman sent me a link to some documents to print, but the link had expired, I showed it to her and asked for a new link, she said her son had sent the link and that it worked on her phone, I showed her again that the link wasn’t working and that it had probably just expired, but she kept insisting that it worked on her phone. I told her I couldn’t print anything for her, and she said, “what if I call your employer?” lmao. I had to take her fucking phone and call her son to send me a new fucking link. And there were a lot of similar moments.
It’s not uncommon for them to claim that I said something I didn’t say or didn’t do what they asked, and so on. I’ve cried so many times because of this job, and I think I’m starting to hate and fear people more and more, but I’m not sure I can find a better job where I live.
Unfortunately, yes, this is common for customer-facing or customer service jobs.
People have outlandish expectations, and for some reason their motivations are that they’re so lazy that “I’ll take my money elsewhere!” is gone and the ego-soothing dominance display of “I’m gonna Karen this shit up!” is now the standard because people have already gone somewhere and so they can’t comprehend going somewhere else.
People have fragile egos, and then when forced to look at themselves, they expect your work to be every IG filter they’ve ever used to fix their faces, but 10X better since they’re paying $2 for it. But they want it for free anyway. People are generally irrational, bad with money, look to blame anyone else for everything else rather than bear responsibility for something as personal as how their faces look, are unable to understand the world around them or how things work, and more than ever are combative for no reason. Even trying to be genuinely nice with some people results in unnecessary antagonistic behavior.
I recommend you realize that just because a couple assholes come in each day, they don’t own your day and shouldn’t be given permission to ruin your day. Their days are likely shit 24/7, so if you can emotionally separate their negativity and stupidity from your life, it’s healthier. Be yourself and do what you can within reason.
Exactly what I was thinking reading the first couple of stories. I think people just straight up aren’t used to accurate depictions of their own face. Even the horizontal flip is jarring to most people. No one is symmetrical, and we’re used to mirrors and taking selfies with a front facing camera that horizontally flips the preview.
People are generally irrational, bad with money, look to blame anyone else for everything else rather than bear responsibility for something as personal as how their faces look, are unable to understand the world around them or how things work, and more than ever are combative for no reason.
You so nailed this interpretation.