one of the keys to service work
Already : Hatachi Archives
one of the keys to service work Sunday May 30
susana is one of my co-workers. she had finals this week, so i was scheduled for six out of the seven days. good: i have about one-third of my first month's rent paid -- even before i move in. bad: i haven't really gotten a chance to do anything yet. i tried to go get a library card at the flushing branch on thursday, but i was informed that i needed a piece of postmarked mail to prove that i am a resident of new york city.
a piece of postmarked mail is easily forged, and that's not really the point of this post anyway. i am having difficulty accepting that i "am a resident of new york city". i feel like a fraud, a phony, a kid from the suburbs who has dared to infiltrate the real city limits. i suppose it gets worse when people ask where i'm originally from (as my accent gives away my foreign-ness). do i say 'new jersey', the armpit of the east coast, my birthplace, and where my family spent much time....before i was born? or do i refer to 'near chicago', casting myself in a light of midwestern irrelevancy?
all of this came to head tonight when i was at work. my shift ended at seven, but i routinely stay afterwards to wait for tables to leave. if i do that, i can take my tip money on the spot, and i'm just kinda, i dunno. it's not that i don't trust other people. it's just that i don't trust other people. as much as i trust me. i digress.
there were four people from the hair salon across the street sitting at the bar, talking to me. and they liked me, genuinely. they called me 'all-american', rich referred to me as 'joe america', which is not the first time i've been called that. tyler from champaign also once referred to me in this way. but what's not to like about me? i'm honest, occasionally funny, i make great facial expressions, and i'm not ugly. i have a great smile, i laugh a lot, i'm sensitive and compassionate, and i am ambitious. i also have my share of faults, but this is my website. they will receive minimal treatment.
for whatever i may be though, i choose to show the best when i'm standing there at the counter. the service industry is just another performance space for me, much like the chair behind the microphone, much like the stage itself. much like this very web medium. a stage for me to perform, a stage for me to craft a personality based on what i perceive to be the best given the others around me. in that sense, fitting in is no problem: i can make up whatever i'd like to believe that they expect to hear.
so this foursome asked me where i was from. and all the usual bits followed. what did i study, why i am out here, etc. the key to answering these questions is adaptation. adapt the conversation to meet their expectations, but surprise them in little ways. never give up too much as to lose the whole jig. never give up what's really going on, because as soon as you reveal that you are not what they have already assumed you to be based on first impression, you become human. you become a person in their life, and not the two-dimensonal character they have created you to be. when i am tipped, i like to think that it is not based on the service. i'd like to think it's based on my performance.
so if i have adapted so well to this service job, why is it, then, that i cannot feel like i really belong in this city until i get that damn library card?
