Exercise Journal for This Assignment,

Exercise Journal For this assignment, I chose to complete the "Do You Work Here?" exercise. I opted to go into a local Old Navy clothing store three times and during each outing, I asked at least one customer a question pertaining to the merchandise. I went in with an open mind as to what might happen during these interactions and did my best to act simply as if I was a confused person, not someone conducting research or with any ulterior motives.

The setting was very lively, with bright colors, organized shelves, and lively music. I noticed right away that the actual salespeople were welcoming, perhaps because I went in on weekdays when the store did not seem very busy. This put me at ease that the environment was a safe one for this type of interaction. The first person I approached was a young, casually dressed woman, similar in appearance to the other women working at the store.

She had her back turned to me, and I asked loud enough for her to know I was addressing her, "Excuse me, do you have this in other colors?" And held up a t-shirt I'd found. She turned and looked at me, expressed a look of surprise and said, "Sorry, I don't work here." The second interaction was similar; however this time I asked the same question of a middle-aged woman who appeared to be shopping with another woman close by.

She gave a small laugh, as if she thought I might have been joking and said, "I don't know. I think there's a girl over there you can ask" and pointed to a sales clerk behind the counter. In the last interaction, I asked a middle-aged man who was, at the time of my asking, putting back a shirt he had just picked up. He appeared to be folding it, so my question did not seem to surprise him. His reaction was, however, the tersest.

He said, "Don't work here, Bro" without making eye contact. I almost laughed at his reaction, because of both the casual nature of how he addressed me and his seeming annoyance. It never occurred to me that I could make someone angry by completing this exercise. In fact, my only misgivings about it were that I would be wasting their time or embarrassing myself mildly. This exercise led me to examine why people might get offended at being mistaken for a salesperson.

Though any of the three people I approached might have jobs similar to working in the store and clearly do not think they are "above" the store (as they were customers in it), they all exhibited some degree of surprise or annoyance at being mistaken for an employee there. Perhaps when someone is in "customer mode" they are used to feeling in control and a tad superior. My questioning that status thus threw them for a loop.

When they are in "worker mode," they might be more amenable to helping someone else out (as I found when I interacted with the salespeople in the shop themselves). Additionally, it was interesting to me that the man seemed to feel more put off by my placing him in the status of worker than the.