Today I was at a home improvement store looking for anchors to fasten a hat rack to a hollow core door. My wife has taught me to ask if I don’t know what I need, so, being the obedient husband, I asked the highly trained employee in the hardware department. I got a look that made me think I was at school and told the students to answer in complete sentences. I walked him over to the area I assumed the item would be found and explained again what I needed. He tried to give me several things that would not work so I made an excuse, came back and looked myself. As I was looking I had an inspiration: Why not ask in the department that sells hollow core doors. Surely someone else has asked this question before.
The other area had two employees. The closest I got to an answer was, “No one has ever asked that before.” Then I remembered something that I keep telling students at school. They will tell me that the answer is not on the page. I tell them to read it again. They say they already read it four times. I say read it five. This goes on until they get so bored they actually look for the answer. Low and behold, there it is! I tell them to assume that the answer is on the page. That attitude makes it easier to find.
Armed with this moment of “practice what you preach” I headed back to the hardware department and guess what I found? Anchors for hollow core doors. I could not find the employee of the hardware department so I could not educate him in what is on the shelf. He must have seen me coming and hid. So I headed back to the door department. The employees there were in chairs staring at computers and looking busy. They could not escape without standing up. I shared my discovery with them, just in case some one else should ask the same question.
The point is attitude. If you assume something is where logic and experience tells you it should be there is a good chance you will find it there. Remember that next time your wife tells you to get the “thing” from the “other room,” and that it is “right where it has always been.” It might be.
homo unius libri
Your mistake was in assuming that a mere employee might know something. Unless they're over the age of 60, they rarely do. But, you trusted your own instincts AND THE PERSON WHO DECIDES WHERE THINGS ARE STOCKED (usually a manager), and bingo! Ten points for humor, by the way.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it the help at these places does seem to be getting younger. Or am I getting older? Probably both.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Grace and Peace