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A Service Story
5 Plays11 months ago
Salman soliloquizes on the service industry and shares personal stories and experiences around it.
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Transcript
Cultural Identity Through Comedy
00:00:00
Speaker
I grew up confused about my culture and identity and felt out of place most of the time until I found comedy, which forced me to be honest with myself and I realized mostly I'm just an expat brat.
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to my show.
00:00:14
Speaker
I'm Salman Qureshi.
The Rush of Life: Purpose and Goals
00:00:16
Speaker
So that's it with July, huh?
00:00:20
Speaker
We're already into August and I don't know where July went.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm going through a phase right now, guys, where simultaneously I've given up on the year because we're seven months in and it's too late to turn my life around this year.
00:00:39
Speaker
And at the same time, I've watched clips about people going on about like, there's still five months left and we still have enough time.
00:00:49
Speaker
I'm not even sure, though, when I sit back and think, time for what?
00:00:54
Speaker
Sometimes I just think I get into the race and then realize I have no idea why or what this race is.
00:01:02
Speaker
Why am I in this 100-meter sprint?
00:01:06
Speaker
And so...
00:01:10
Speaker
That's how my year is going.
00:01:11
Speaker
How are you guys doing?
00:01:15
Speaker
It's been interesting, isn't it?
Customer Service: Respect and Challenges
00:01:17
Speaker
I've been sitting thinking about some stuff that's been going on and one of the things that's been annoying me lately, as always, is some of the customer service stuff around, yeah?
00:01:31
Speaker
I have a lot of love and respect.
00:01:34
Speaker
Love is a strong word.
00:01:35
Speaker
Love would mean I really truly care so deeply that I'm probably up at night worrying about it.
00:01:43
Speaker
So maybe not love.
00:01:44
Speaker
I have a lot of respect.
00:01:48
Speaker
Actually, respect is probably the wrong word too because respect would mean I actually find most of them of a certain standard and some level of admiration.
00:02:00
Speaker
I have a lot of... Let me try this again.
00:02:03
Speaker
I have a lot of pain.
00:02:07
Speaker
No, that would mean I'm feeling it.
00:02:10
Speaker
I'll get there, okay?
00:02:12
Speaker
Just give me a sec.
00:02:13
Speaker
I have a lot of... I have a lot of...
00:02:18
Speaker
Sympathy, maybe that's the word I'm looking for.
00:02:20
Speaker
Sympathy for people in service business, service jobs, right?
00:02:27
Speaker
I think that's it.
00:02:28
Speaker
I have a lot of sympathy for them.
00:02:30
Speaker
At the same time, I want to kill some of them, right?
00:02:35
Speaker
It's like a sympathetic kill.
00:02:37
Speaker
And I guess because I feel sympathy for them, I think maybe that might be the best option for all of us.
00:02:43
Speaker
God, this turned violent really fast, huh?
00:02:47
Speaker
The reason I have sympathy for them is because I do understand sometimes some customers can just be horrible.
00:02:54
Speaker
All right.
00:02:55
Speaker
And to be honest, it's not like I've never been a horrible customer at some point, lost my like lost my shit or just got super annoyed.
00:03:06
Speaker
I just got more angry than probably the situation warranted, you know.
Moral Dilemmas in Customer Interactions
00:03:12
Speaker
But I think I think it is that I think.
00:03:14
Speaker
But at the same time, you know,
00:03:16
Speaker
you do a bad job at anything, sometimes it is right to get that angry.
00:03:21
Speaker
Or sometimes you feel like you need to get angry to get them to listen.
00:03:27
Speaker
And that sounds like an abusive relationship where they forced me to be the abuser and I feel bad afterwards and I have to apologize to them.
00:03:35
Speaker
I have to apologize to them because I lost my cool to them doing something that was really unhelpful and
00:03:46
Speaker
This is me like trying to explain why I hit my spouse.
00:03:50
Speaker
Like not that I – that's what I do.
00:03:52
Speaker
I've never hit my spouse.
00:03:53
Speaker
That's not what I meant.
00:03:54
Speaker
I meant like if I did, this sounds like a person who would hit their spouse.
00:03:59
Speaker
This is how they justify it.
00:04:01
Speaker
But in my case, it's not – it is justified.
00:04:06
Speaker
Like they actually do mess up things so far and you have to chase it for weeks and months sometimes to get something sorted.
00:04:14
Speaker
So it is their fault.
00:04:16
Speaker
But then an abuser might actually consider that they are right as well.
00:04:22
Speaker
So now I don't know if I am an actual abuser or I'm justified.
00:04:28
Speaker
Is it ever justified?
00:04:30
Speaker
Not that I've ever used any violence on any service person.
00:04:34
Speaker
This is not where I wanted this to go.
00:04:39
Speaker
What I meant to say at the beginning was that I feel bad for them.
00:04:43
Speaker
Let me, hang on, just let me restart this, okay?
00:04:46
Speaker
Cool.
00:04:47
Speaker
I do feel bad.
00:04:49
Speaker
Because sometimes these jobs are like lower paid, badly paid, and hours are horrible.
00:04:57
Speaker
And sometimes you're made to follow dumb rules.
00:05:00
Speaker
I've had my share.
00:05:01
Speaker
And listen, I can talk because I did have a service job once, right?
00:05:07
Speaker
Like if you've ever had a service job, then for life, you're allowed to talk about it, like talk about
00:05:15
Speaker
service and because you know for a minor part of my life I felt the pain and
00:05:23
Speaker
I think in some ways we all are in some kind of service to people, to our clients, to fellow colleagues, to audience members,
Fast Food Frustrations and Absurdities
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Speaker
right?
00:05:35
Speaker
So we're all in service.
00:05:36
Speaker
So it's okay for me to... God, now I sound like those people who say they have a black friend.
00:05:44
Speaker
This isn't... My point is... This isn't where... Look, my point is...
00:05:51
Speaker
I'm trying to say that for all the sympathy I have for service people, sometimes it is just horrible.
00:05:59
Speaker
I think an example might make more sense, okay?
00:06:02
Speaker
I once stopped at a fast food joint known for their Big Macs, all right?
00:06:11
Speaker
I don't even want to say their name.
00:06:12
Speaker
I don't know why, but you know who I'm talking about.
00:06:14
Speaker
We're talking about McDonald's.
00:06:16
Speaker
Ah, shit, I said it.
00:06:18
Speaker
Do I take this part off?
00:06:19
Speaker
No.
00:06:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:20
Speaker
I'm going to leave this in.
00:06:21
Speaker
Let's name them.
00:06:23
Speaker
Name and shame.
00:06:23
Speaker
Well, it's not shaming.
00:06:24
Speaker
I'm just telling you an incident that happened.
00:06:28
Speaker
All right.
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Speaker
In fact, I'm going to recreate the scene so you can feel what I felt.
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Speaker
All right.
00:06:37
Speaker
I drive up to the McDonald's drive-thru window and this is the conversation I had.
00:06:43
Speaker
Hi, can I order this meal with two cheeseburgers, the common meal you have with two cheeseburgers?
00:06:53
Speaker
Okay, sir.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yes, sure.
00:06:54
Speaker
Anything else?
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, actually, could I replace the cheeseburgers with hamburgers?
00:07:00
Speaker
You know, the same ones you have, the small hamburgers instead of the cheeseburgers?
00:07:07
Speaker
Oh, no, sir.
00:07:09
Speaker
No?
00:07:11
Speaker
Really?
00:07:13
Speaker
Why not?
00:07:14
Speaker
It's the same thing, right?
00:07:16
Speaker
Oh, no, sir, we cannot do it.
00:07:20
Speaker
You can't.
00:07:21
Speaker
You can't do it.
00:07:22
Speaker
You can't do it.
00:07:22
Speaker
Why?
00:07:24
Speaker
Why not?
00:07:24
Speaker
Oh, sir.
00:07:28
Speaker
System.
00:07:28
Speaker
System.
00:07:31
Speaker
System?
00:07:32
Speaker
You're talking about, like, what, capitalism?
00:07:34
Speaker
Capitalism?
00:07:36
Speaker
What system?
00:07:37
Speaker
What, sir?
00:07:39
Speaker
No, I'm asking you.
00:07:42
Speaker
I don't get it.
00:07:42
Speaker
What do you mean by the system?
00:07:44
Speaker
Oh, sir, no button.
00:07:48
Speaker
There's no button?
00:07:50
Speaker
What's that got to do with cheeseburger and hamburger?
00:07:53
Speaker
Sir, no button on the till.
00:07:56
Speaker
No, cannot change.
00:07:58
Speaker
No button to change.
00:08:01
Speaker
You don't have a button to change what?
00:08:03
Speaker
I don't... I'm so sorry.
00:08:06
Speaker
I'm confused.
00:08:07
Speaker
There's no button for what?
00:08:09
Speaker
Sir, no button until no replacement.
00:08:11
Speaker
No cheeseburger?
00:08:13
Speaker
No.
00:08:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:15
Speaker
All right.
00:08:16
Speaker
You know what?
00:08:17
Speaker
It's fine.
00:08:18
Speaker
I'll take the cheeseburger.
00:08:21
Speaker
It's fine if you can't replace it.
00:08:21
Speaker
Just give me the two cheeseburgers and... Could I have them without pickle?
00:08:25
Speaker
Oh, no problem, sir.
00:08:26
Speaker
I remove pickle.
00:08:27
Speaker
Anything else you want to remove?
00:08:30
Speaker
Um...
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:32
Speaker
Actually, could you just remove the cheese?
00:08:37
Speaker
Oh, no problem, sir.
00:08:37
Speaker
No, we remove cheese.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay, so you can remove the cheese of my burger and give it to me without the cheese.
00:08:48
Speaker
You, sir.
00:08:49
Speaker
But no hamburger?
00:08:50
Speaker
No, no, no, no.
00:08:53
Speaker
All right.
00:08:54
Speaker
I'll just get that then.
00:08:55
Speaker
Thank you.
00:08:59
Speaker
That was a true story.
00:09:00
Speaker
That was a true story.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's what happened.
00:09:02
Speaker
I had this whole conversation and the guy kept saying no.
00:09:05
Speaker
He said no a lot more times than I did in this recreation.
00:09:08
Speaker
I just didn't want you to...
00:09:09
Speaker
I wanted you to feel what I felt, but I didn't want you to feel the entire frustration I felt in case you get angry along with me and crash your car while listening to this episode or something.
00:09:20
Speaker
I just, I wanted it to be, I wanted to make sure, I wanted to make sure you're safe, okay?
00:09:28
Speaker
And that's part of service.
00:09:29
Speaker
That's what I meant when I'm like, you're in this,
00:09:33
Speaker
this is what I meant.
00:09:35
Speaker
We're all in service.
00:09:36
Speaker
We gotta be thinking about our fellow people, right?
00:09:38
Speaker
And like I said before, I have done a job and it was a very intense
Lessons from Working in Service Jobs
00:09:44
Speaker
service job.
00:09:44
Speaker
It was like one of those customer service jobs.
00:09:47
Speaker
And I had to do stuff in there that I definitely didn't like.
00:09:51
Speaker
It was one of those mall information desk type things.
00:09:56
Speaker
And some of it was really good.
00:09:59
Speaker
I had fun people I worked with.
00:10:01
Speaker
In fact,
00:10:01
Speaker
When I was doing it part-time, I had a good friend who was working with me, so it made it really fun.
00:10:10
Speaker
We had a good time together.
00:10:11
Speaker
We'd laugh about it.
00:10:12
Speaker
Sometimes it would get intense, but I knew we had each other's back.
00:10:15
Speaker
So we had that.
00:10:16
Speaker
There was a lot of stuff.
00:10:17
Speaker
Sometimes people would make us angry, but most times, you know, sometimes people are just rude, outright rude, right?
00:10:23
Speaker
So I get why some service staff started getting defensive, but I never let it make me angry with everybody.
00:10:31
Speaker
I would just be annoyed at rude customers.
00:10:34
Speaker
I didn't start becoming rude with all customers.
00:10:37
Speaker
I just didn't have it in me.
00:10:39
Speaker
And that's why I was so good, you know.
00:10:44
Speaker
Praise myself so much.
00:10:46
Speaker
But I thought I was good.
00:10:47
Speaker
I was very helpful with the team.
00:10:50
Speaker
And just so you know how good I was, I had joined after a couple of the people on the team.
00:10:56
Speaker
And I got made team leader very soon, which was nice because it gave me a little bump in pay as well.
00:11:05
Speaker
And I enjoyed that part a lot.
00:11:09
Speaker
It was like, you know, really quick.
00:11:13
Speaker
So I think I impressed people quite a bit by doing that.
00:11:18
Speaker
But it wasn't all this smooth, right?
00:11:19
Speaker
Like...
00:11:20
Speaker
One of the times, just to explain what I was dealing with, just to explain what I was dealing with, right?
00:11:26
Speaker
Sometimes you just had people who would confuse the hell out of you or didn't know what they wanted or something.
00:11:32
Speaker
It wasn't their fault, you know, but things like this happen.
00:11:36
Speaker
Like, let me take you back.
00:11:38
Speaker
Let me recreate one of the conversations that's memorable in my mind.
00:11:42
Speaker
And so you can feel what I felt.
00:11:48
Speaker
Excuse me?
00:11:49
Speaker
Hi sir, what can I do for you?
00:11:51
Speaker
Yes, can you tell me where I can find Dikni?
00:11:55
Speaker
Dikni, sir?
00:11:56
Speaker
Dikni.
00:11:58
Speaker
Sorry, are you looking for someone?
00:12:00
Speaker
No, Dikni.
00:12:01
Speaker
I'm looking for Dikni.
00:12:03
Speaker
Sir, Dikni.
00:12:05
Speaker
We don't have anyone named Dikni working here.
00:12:07
Speaker
Are you sure you want to ask the mall management?
00:12:10
Speaker
Is that someone in mall management?
00:12:12
Speaker
No, my friend.
00:12:13
Speaker
Dikni.
00:12:14
Speaker
Dikni.
00:12:14
Speaker
I'm looking for Dikni.
00:12:16
Speaker
Dikni.
00:12:17
Speaker
I'm sorry, sir.
00:12:18
Speaker
I'm really confused.
00:12:19
Speaker
Is this a shop you're looking for or a person?
00:12:22
Speaker
Yes, shop for clothing.
00:12:23
Speaker
Shop.
00:12:24
Speaker
Dikni.
00:12:27
Speaker
Actually, look, sir, I've got this whole map for the mall here and it's got a list of the stores.
00:12:32
Speaker
Can I just take you through what we have?
00:12:34
Speaker
Yes, but you don't know?
00:12:36
Speaker
You have Dikni or no Dikni?
00:12:38
Speaker
I think maybe I'm forgetting.
00:12:39
Speaker
It's my fault completely.
00:12:40
Speaker
Let me have a look.
00:12:41
Speaker
Look, it starts with D. Dikni starts with D. Yes, Dikni.
00:12:47
Speaker
Okay, cool, sir.
00:12:48
Speaker
Here are all the shops with D. What kind of stuff do they sell?
00:12:52
Speaker
Clothing, my friend, clothing.
00:12:53
Speaker
Dikni.
00:12:54
Speaker
All right, okay, so I'm really sorry about this.
00:12:57
Speaker
Look, these are the stores.
00:12:59
Speaker
Do you recognize any of the other?
00:13:02
Speaker
Is this one you're looking for right here?
00:13:03
Speaker
Yes, this one.
00:13:04
Speaker
This one right here.
00:13:06
Speaker
It's right here.
00:13:06
Speaker
Where is this one?
00:13:08
Speaker
Sir, you're talking, you're asking for DKNY?
00:13:12
Speaker
Yes, Dikni.
00:13:15
Speaker
Okay, all right, sir, just go down this side to the left, take the right, to the last right.
00:13:22
Speaker
You'll be at Digny.
00:13:25
Speaker
Right.
00:13:26
Speaker
If you notice in my replay, I don't lose my cool.
00:13:30
Speaker
And I will stick to the story that that is exactly how it went.
00:13:34
Speaker
And that was how polite I was and how helpful I stayed throughout that interaction.
00:13:42
Speaker
It was as close to the truth as possible, as humanly possible.
00:13:47
Speaker
All right.
00:13:48
Speaker
So so that's the kind of stuff you deal with, but you learn to deal with it.
00:13:52
Speaker
And, you know, all kinds of stuff happens like being made team leader wasn't easy on me, but I handled both things quite well together.
00:14:02
Speaker
Being team leader didn't just mean I was handling customer complaints and customer inquiries.
00:14:07
Speaker
I was also trying to lead.
00:14:10
Speaker
the team, right?
00:14:11
Speaker
Like they would come to me for stuff.
00:14:14
Speaker
My manager had basically turned me into the goal between the rest of the team and her.
00:14:23
Speaker
And this way she wouldn't have to deal with them.
00:14:28
Speaker
Oh, now that I think about it, it wasn't very service oriented of her to do that.
00:14:33
Speaker
But I mean, we all kind of won in that situation because I, like I said, I got a promotion.
00:14:39
Speaker
I got a small bump pay.
00:14:41
Speaker
And I think she got a pretty good bump pay now that I think about it because she was made manager and she had a bigger kind of like org chart under her.
00:14:52
Speaker
And so she became a bigger manager.
00:14:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I didn't think about that back then, but she always made it sound like it was a favor to me, which it was.
00:15:05
Speaker
It was still a favor to me.
00:15:06
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:15:08
Speaker
So, you know, she was the manager.
00:15:10
Speaker
I was the team leader, and we had teams, and sometimes there would be issues like...
00:15:17
Speaker
You know, we had this one staff member and she was super nice and polite and I got along with her really well.
00:15:26
Speaker
One of the things I don't have though is a strong nose.
00:15:29
Speaker
And I don't mean for like trouble or like a hunch.
00:15:33
Speaker
I mean like a strong nose for smelling, literally like smell.
00:15:36
Speaker
I'm like the opposite of a, what are those dogs?
00:15:41
Speaker
Bloodhound?
00:15:43
Speaker
Hound dogs?
00:15:44
Speaker
The ones that you use for hunting?
00:15:47
Speaker
Hound dogs?
00:15:48
Speaker
Bloodhound?
00:15:50
Speaker
One of those.
00:15:50
Speaker
You know what I'm talking about, right?
00:15:52
Speaker
And I'm like the anti that dog.
00:15:57
Speaker
The complete opposite.
00:15:58
Speaker
So my point is I don't have a strong sense of smell.
00:16:01
Speaker
And this girl, one day my friend who worked with me walks up to me and goes, hey man, have you realized how much smell comes from her?
00:16:11
Speaker
And I was like, no, I never noticed.
00:16:14
Speaker
And he was like, no, she smells horrible.
00:16:16
Speaker
Like something's off about her body odor is terrible.
00:16:20
Speaker
I don't know if it's her clothes or what, but it's really hard standing next to her.
00:16:24
Speaker
And I said, I've worked with her.
00:16:27
Speaker
I've never noticed.
00:16:28
Speaker
And he's like, no, just catch a whiff next time.
00:16:31
Speaker
Like really check it out.
00:16:34
Speaker
So I had an excuse to like go past her and we were in close proximity.
00:16:40
Speaker
So I did a more deeper inhale than I would normally do.
00:16:44
Speaker
And this is one of the reasons I'm not a good swimmer is because I can't take deep breaths.
00:16:50
Speaker
And so after a while, like, you know, I start like flopping around.
00:16:54
Speaker
That's not the point of it.
00:16:56
Speaker
I'm going off on some different tangent.
00:16:58
Speaker
But yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
Not the swimming bit, but just to give you an idea about how bad my lungs are or whatever, my ability to breathe.
00:17:09
Speaker
Like if I was a superhero, smelling and breathing wouldn't be my superpowers is what I'm trying to say.
00:17:17
Speaker
So I walk by her and I take a stronger whiff than I would normally inhale a bit stronger.
00:17:23
Speaker
Like you know how you would do with a cigarette when you're trying to pretend around your friends you can really smoke but they suspect it so you kind of pretend to take a deeper inhale.
00:17:35
Speaker
And I did that.
00:17:36
Speaker
And and so I did I did that.
00:17:38
Speaker
And I smelled it then.
00:17:41
Speaker
And it was such a bad smell that I felt like my nose fell off.
00:17:45
Speaker
And it was so terrible.
00:17:46
Speaker
I was traumatized.
00:17:47
Speaker
And I was really angry with
Awkward Workplace Scenarios
00:17:49
Speaker
my friend.
00:17:50
Speaker
I was like, why would you why would you make me do that?
00:17:54
Speaker
Why, what have I done to you for you to do that to me?
00:17:59
Speaker
And he was like, no, I was just trying to tell you how bad it smelled.
00:18:02
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, that was, that's like, I can still, this was about 20 years ago or something.
00:18:08
Speaker
And I can, if I close my eyes, I can't see.
00:18:14
Speaker
But that's not, what?
00:18:16
Speaker
No, what I meant was if I really think about it, I can smell it.
00:18:21
Speaker
All right.
00:18:22
Speaker
And that was,
00:18:24
Speaker
That was a problem.
00:18:26
Speaker
She had a really horrible smell.
00:18:29
Speaker
So I forgot about it after that.
00:18:31
Speaker
I just avoided her.
00:18:32
Speaker
I stood as far as possible and I made sure I held my breath or just not do my deep fake inhales.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I was fine until my boss, she came back and she was like, hey, Salman, I got to have a conversation with you.
00:18:44
Speaker
And you know what?
00:18:45
Speaker
I'll replay the conversation so you can feel what I felt.
00:18:53
Speaker
Salman, I need you to do something for me.
00:18:56
Speaker
Sure, boss.
00:18:57
Speaker
What do you need me to do?
00:19:00
Speaker
You know this... your colleague?
00:19:04
Speaker
She's smelling.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess she is.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, I just found out recently.
00:19:12
Speaker
Burnt my nose.
00:19:13
Speaker
Yes, it's very terrible.
00:19:15
Speaker
Salman, I need you to talk to her and tell her.
00:19:19
Speaker
Talk to her about this, okay?
00:19:22
Speaker
You want me to talk to her about what the smell?
00:19:25
Speaker
No.
00:19:25
Speaker
Oh God, no.
00:19:27
Speaker
I don't think that's a good idea.
00:19:29
Speaker
No, Salman, you should.
00:19:31
Speaker
You're the team leader.
00:19:33
Speaker
It is a situation.
00:19:35
Speaker
It's a problem.
00:19:36
Speaker
The rest of the team are complaining a lot.
00:19:39
Speaker
Maybe the customers can smell it.
00:19:41
Speaker
We don't know.
00:19:42
Speaker
So you must talk to her.
00:19:45
Speaker
I'm not I'm I don't think that's a good idea.
00:19:49
Speaker
I why don't you talk to her?
00:19:51
Speaker
You know, you should talk to her.
00:19:53
Speaker
It might be more, you know, comforting for her for you to talk.
00:19:58
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:19:59
Speaker
No, I I tried.
00:20:01
Speaker
I tried talking to her.
00:20:03
Speaker
And yes, I tried once.
00:20:05
Speaker
OK, so so what happened?
00:20:08
Speaker
She didn't like it.
00:20:09
Speaker
She got really angry and defensive and she doesn't want to talk to me properly anymore ever since.
00:20:14
Speaker
Wait, so she didn't listen to you and you think it's a good idea that I do?
00:20:17
Speaker
I work more closer, close up with her.
00:20:19
Speaker
This is, this, this, this clearly is not a good idea.
00:20:23
Speaker
I'm a, and you're a girl, a woman.
00:20:25
Speaker
I'm a, I'm a guy.
00:20:26
Speaker
Like it would be more horrible coming from me.
00:20:30
Speaker
No, no Salman.
00:20:33
Speaker
Look, I made you team leader for a reason.
00:20:34
Speaker
I think, I think you should, you need to talk to her.
00:20:37
Speaker
All right, I can't.
00:20:37
Speaker
I can't do that.
00:20:39
Speaker
There's no way I will do that.
00:20:41
Speaker
If you don't, I'll have to bring it up in your performance appraisal.
00:20:45
Speaker
What?
00:20:46
Speaker
Okay, well, hang on.
00:20:48
Speaker
I'll do it.
00:20:49
Speaker
I'll do it.
00:20:49
Speaker
Okay, I'll do it.
00:20:51
Speaker
Thank you, Salman.
00:20:52
Speaker
You're always so supportive.
00:20:55
Speaker
That's how the conversation went and I was forced to.
00:20:58
Speaker
But I did tell her, listen, just give me a day or two to kind of work up my courage and find the right time to talk to my colleague about the smell.
00:21:06
Speaker
And I spent the next few days just terribly worried about what's going to happen and how will I do this.
00:21:13
Speaker
And I did get lucky, though.
00:21:15
Speaker
Maybe one of my prayers got answered and my boss came up by herself and she said, you know what?
00:21:22
Speaker
I thought about this.
00:21:23
Speaker
And I don't think it's a good idea that you speak to her.
00:21:26
Speaker
And I said, yeah, exactly.
00:21:28
Speaker
I was like, thank God.
00:21:28
Speaker
Like, you know, that's what I was saying.
00:21:30
Speaker
And she's like, no, I think you were about to.
00:21:33
Speaker
And I don't.
00:21:34
Speaker
She turned around like it was I had thought of it and that she had thought it through instead and decided that I shouldn't.
00:21:44
Speaker
And I didn't care to correct her too much because I was just relieved that I didn't have to do this anymore.
00:21:49
Speaker
So I told her, cool, we won't.
00:21:52
Speaker
And so we all kind of just lived around that situation for another year or so before that person got married and left.
00:22:02
Speaker
And that's a whole different story because when I saw the guy she was dating, I was like, oh, my God, he looks like he would definitely – he's like a domestic abuser kind of
Reflections and Final Thoughts
00:22:14
Speaker
guy.
00:22:14
Speaker
Like there will be complaints.
00:22:16
Speaker
And then I thought maybe I'm just being rude.
00:22:18
Speaker
And I felt sorry for the guy because he was also really polite to me.
00:22:21
Speaker
And I thought –
00:22:22
Speaker
How will you get intimate with her when she has this bad body?
00:22:25
Speaker
What will happen when he finally notices?
00:22:27
Speaker
And then my friend who works with me, he comes back and he says, Salman...
00:22:34
Speaker
I think they're made for each other.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I was like, what do you mean?
00:22:36
Speaker
And he said, look, it's he smells just as much.
00:22:40
Speaker
And I was like, holy what?
00:22:43
Speaker
And and he said, yeah, if I was like, I didn't smell anything.
00:22:46
Speaker
And he was like, go next time you go past him.
00:22:48
Speaker
I was I was having coffee and I and I got it through in spite of the smell of coffee around me.
00:22:54
Speaker
And you do this.
00:22:54
Speaker
And I was like, no, I am not doing that deep inhale thing anymore.
00:22:59
Speaker
I'll take your word for it.
00:23:02
Speaker
And I always worried about the two of them.
00:23:03
Speaker
I just thought, you know, it's been years, like 15, 20 years maybe since I last saw them.
00:23:09
Speaker
And I do wonder about them every so often.
00:23:12
Speaker
Anytime I get a bad smell somewhere, I think of them and I go, did they ever catch on to their situation?
00:23:22
Speaker
And if they didn't, are they walking around this world?
00:23:25
Speaker
They must have kids by now.
00:23:26
Speaker
I didn't know they got married, but they must have kids now.
00:23:29
Speaker
And
00:23:30
Speaker
Oh, my God.
00:23:31
Speaker
Like, you know, what's going to happen?
00:23:35
Speaker
What's happening to people around them?
00:23:37
Speaker
What's going on?
00:23:38
Speaker
All right.
00:23:39
Speaker
So this episode was about service.
00:23:42
Speaker
And those were the stories from my life in service.
00:23:47
Speaker
I.
00:23:48
Speaker
Dear God.
00:23:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:50
Speaker
All right.
00:23:50
Speaker
That was intense.
00:23:52
Speaker
That was a lot of memories.
00:23:53
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode.
00:23:55
Speaker
I got to go and I've got a gig coming up in about an hour.
00:23:59
Speaker
So I was like, you know, part of my determination to provide service meant I recorded this episode before I did that.
00:24:07
Speaker
So I'm going to go prepare for that and I'll catch you guys in the next episode.
00:24:11
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed this one.
00:24:12
Speaker
Take care of yourself.
00:24:13
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on another adventure with the expat brat proudly brought to you by capra productions.
00:24:19
Speaker
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00:24:27
Speaker
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00:24:29
Speaker
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