DEAR MISS MANNERS: I know several people who use walkers, and I see some of the devices’ limitations.
It can be hard navigating tall curbs, walking over rocky ground, maneuvering through tight spaces, walking downhill, traveling for long distances, standing in line for too long, and folding it up to put in a car.
Every so often, I see someone using a walker that seems really well-designed for various terrains or different uses. I sometimes stop and ask them about it — where they got it, if it works well, what they think of it, etc.
Everyone I have talked to has been receptive and informative. But now I wonder if they were just being polite and I was being a pest. What do you think?
GENTLE READER: Asking people about their medical devices is technically not, Miss Manners admits, inquiring into someone’s medical condition — which would be a no-no — but it is too nearly that to receive her blessing.
She would be slightly more receptive if you were using a similar device yourself, or if you were the person’s doctor. Or lying prone and in need of assistance.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am employed at a department store where my primary position is in the dressing room.
I check the number of items taken into each room, then I button, zip and hang up items to be placed back on the floor racks.
Our store’s dressing room has a limit of 10 items per customer at a time. Most of the time, the customer will bring in the full 10 items, keep two or three things and hand the rest to me when they are done.
Often they will bring shopping carts loaded with more than 10 things, try on a few, then bring those back to their cart to swap for additional items. They will still leave with just a couple of items, or none at all!
There aren’t nearly enough racks in the dressing room to rehang all the items that are deposited with me. We are a busy store and it’s impossible to keep up with this frenzy.
I wish I could get the store managers to reduce the limit of items allowed in the dressing room, but that’s not going to happen, so I’m appealing to you women here: Rein in the free-for-all try-ons.
You aren’t creating jobs, just making the work harder to keep up with — and making few purchases to show for it. Most of us only make minimum wage as it is.
GENTLE READER: Carrying out a policy that makes your workday harder is one of the joys of working for others — particularly when the policy is either so poorly thought out or so poorly implemented that it cannot achieve its objectives.
But unilaterally implementing one’s own policy will result in looking for a new job.
And so the options are: carrying out the objectionable policy, convincing the boss to see the error of their ways, or finding a way to implement the boss’s policy that does work.
The latter may be the most challenging, but will open up possibilities for an even better fourth option: finding a more agreeable job, either by expanding your experience or by proving your worth in your current position.
Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, gentlereader@missmanners.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.