After recently graduating from college with a degree in music, I of course found myself unemployed and set about applying for every job i could find. I always had this secret fantasy of being a young professional, trapsing through the city each morning with the rush of other office workers, taking "business lunches" with "colleagues," going to happy hour with coworkers. Armed with the passion of my Working Girl fantasy, my college transcript, and my 80-somthing wpm fingers, I started interviewing near and far. I quickly discovered that I was competing not only with my fellow graduates, but also with the hordes of well-polished, highly experienced executives who had been displaced by the recession and were desperately seeking employment. Considering my complete lack of experience in anything, I quickly abandoned my Word Processing dreams and turned, of course, to retail.
At the suggestion of my good friend Ashley, I applied at IKEA, and three interviews later, I was proudly sporting my very own yellow polo shirt. I figured it would be ideal. I like furniture. I like decorating. I like helping people. This will be great!
Wrong.
The single fastest way to make you hate working in customer service is by working in customer service. IKEA shoppers are easily the dumbest people you will ever meet. I'm not singling anyone out or anything, it happens to everyone. The second any person sets foot in an IKEA store, they are instantaneously stripped of intelligence and decency. Even the most educated shopper is rendered a drooling idiot when faced with 400,000 square feet of home furnishings.
The following posts detail the utter foolishness that is IKEA.
