Conversations overheard...

My co-workers are entertaining to listen to. They never cease to amaze me as to what's right and wrong, what's acceptable and what's not. Here we go: When I walked into work yesterday, I over heard Ginger griping to Evelyn about how some guy was parked in "her" space, just hanging out, reading a newspaper. HOW DARE HE?!?!?!? So, Ginger waited patiently, for about a minute, then got out of her car and kicked him out of "her" spot. Here's the funny thing....we park in a free parking lot...no meters, no marked off spaces for anybody, as there's 9 businesses that use that parking lot. And her name is not painted onto any particular space, nor is there a sign stating "This space reserved for Ginger Brown"., soooooo, she doesn't "own" a space. She is a creature of habit and parks in the same space, and has probably done so for the 26 years she's worked there. Doesn't matter. And, of course, Evelyn fed right into it....ass kisser. The second occurrence: Due to lack of business, I had Friday off. Which worked out fine for me, as I was doing all kinds of experiments. However, Evelyn actually did some cleaning around the salon...something Chrissy and I do EVERY DAY WE WORK. It's to the point where she and I don't always do the cleaning, because we're tired of always doing it. There are days, frequently, when Evelyn has lots of time on her hands, and does nothing constructive with it. Her station is always FILTHY, her tools are disgusting, there's color blobs all over the floor (we have floating floors and they're light colored), and slop marks from people spilling their beverages that don't get wiped up. She also almost never sweeps up her hair, so there's always that debris laying around. But, apparently, she cleaned her station, the retail fixture next to her, the tile floor in the shampoo area, (including prying up all the spilled wax & dropped waxing strips that stick to the floor) and the floor space behind the dryer chairs. I was actually led around and shown these things. Seriously. Like I was supposed to sing praises of the fact she actually cleaned something. I just said a lot of "yup, uh-hmms" throughout the entire 5 minutes (that I'll never get back, mind you) of Gingers diatribe. Whatever. By the end of the day, Ginger was actually doing the call back list, Chrissy was taking care of her last client, I was taking care of my last client, and Evelyn skipped out early, instead of hanging around like she usually does. Must be she had "date night" with her wonderboy husband. (he's just as lazy as she is) Something else that happens in the salon that I can't stand (and I've probably mentioned it before) is the whispering that goes on when everyone is still around. You know damn well they're talking about one of us that is still working. And neither of them has the class to take the conversation OUTSIDE so no one can notice what they're whispering about. One of these days I'm going to speak up and say "HEY! Quit talking about me!" just to see their reaction!! Or, better yet, "If you're going to talk about me, at least go out into the hallway where I can't hear you". Talk about childish and unprofessional.... And, finally, my fabulous color from yesterday. Katie's bestie, Vanessa, was in yesterday to get her highlights re-done. I did a partial...from just above the occipital (the top of the curved part of the back of the head) and down the front of her head. Vanessa has a ton of hair, which is, thankfully, fine in texture, and STRONG. Her highlights came out pale blonde and BEAUTIFUL!! WOO HOO!!! And, of course, Ginger had to grill me on how many I did. Must be we're hurting for money. If she questions me again, I'll just explain that she's Katie's bestie and I owe that kid a lot for always being there for Katie (and me, too!). See, I don't believe in overcharging people for the services I provide. The biggest thing in this industry is the tremendous mark up of the services versus what the materials cost, which includes water usage, electricity, time, my education, the chemicals, tools used. I'm all about making money, don't get me wrong. However, I don't think it's necessary to soak the client, all because I think I'm worth it. Right now, everything I do is still in the realm of learning experience, I've only been there two years, so my prices should reflect that, in my opinion, as should Chrissy's. However, I don't think that Evelyn, even with 13 years of experience, should be charging the prices she does, because, well, she doesn't do superior work. She's sloppy, she ruins hair, she never tries anything different, and she never does what the client wants...ever...I haven't heard her arguing with a client lately, but I'm sure she's still doing it. I just can't soak my clients. If we had a posting of what our starting prices were, that would be good. I'll be doing some digging on some down time this week, writing down what the starting prices are, so I will have them available to quote people. Then I won't be hanging myself out to dry!!