If you think your job is tough, check out this article from CareerJournal.com – Santa-Shift Workers Wrestle Perfectionists. The article provides a glimpse into the Vermonters (is that correct?) who come down to New York City every Christmas season to sell their Christmas trees.
A day in the life:
But unlike full-time jobs, the Santa shift poses a unique challenge: working for a perfectionist — the customer — each with an exacting calculus on what amounts to a perfect Christmas purchase. Nothing seems to conjure a desire for perfection more than a Christmas tree. It has to be tall enough, small enough, full enough, sparse enough for ornaments, and shaped but natural.
To be successful, these salespeople had best be solid qualifiers. More from their sales world:
Complicating matters for the workers are the 15-hour days (they don’t stay open all night anymore). They typically sleep on the floor at St. Ann’s whose yard they rent. They often don’t have access to a shower to wash the pitch blackening their hands. They come to New York City more than three weeks before Christmas and don’t return until Christmas Eve, working seven days a week.The Vermonters, to whom complaining isn’t the art form it is to New Yorkers, work cheerfully despite the fact that when they disrobe, they’ll find pine needles in places God didn’t intend.
Great line at the end. I always enjoy these types of stories – it gives me a real appreciation for just how easy my sales world really is.