BLOBBY'S BLOG

Human

I'm not big on human interaction now and again. Specifically in the service industry.

I am the guy who gets annoyed when you walk into a store and the salespeople/clerks accost you to see if they can score a sale from you assist you. But I'm equally annoyed when they're not around or are around and then they don't or won't help you. You can't win with me some times.

In my former, and now again current, parking garage at work, no matter which exit you went out you had inferior attendants you could not avoid unless you had a key card (which I did not have for my first year) and had to pay cash to exit.

Attendant #1 was more focused on dancing in her enclosure than taking your ticket and sheckles so you could leave. Attendant #2 had a hard time taking and sorting money even when you gave her exact change. G-d help you if she had to make change. You may as well get out your copy of War & Peace and finish a chapter or two.

So now fast forward a year and there is a new system in place. A wonderful, magical place: no humans.

You take your ticket, put it in a machine in the lobby, pay there and use the ticket the machine returns so you can exit the garage via another machine. Ok.

Four of the five days this week worked like a charm. I loved it. LOVED it......and let's face it, I do not love a lot of things. No lines at the gates waiting for these "workers" to process the hundreds of other people who share my garage.

But on day five of five was a FAIL. A big one.

I left the office, late-ish. 18:00, or there abouts. But it was a Friday and impending bad weather had the office and building cleared out fairly early. So I go to exit the garage and there is a line of people waiting to get out. However, it is a no-go. The ticket-taking / gate-opening machine does not work at one exit. The gate is closed completely at the second exit.

....and no human.

A button the machine did summon a human voice - and as we all sat there with our collective engines running, doing the slowest mass suicide by carbon monoxide, we waited.....and waited....and waited.

Secretly I was hoping the soul sitting in front would just drive through that wooden gate and free us like Moses did the slaves. But he had a really nice car and I suspect he wasn't willing to scuff it - even a little. Even for precious precious freedom.

Eventually some sad sack worker appeared, most likely from another garage where there was still humanoids who manned the structure.

Yeah, I was annoyed that it was a Friday and I wanted to be gone, but I was dry, I was in a warm car, but still delayed for 30 minutes. On the plus side - I get my key card in the next few weeks and I won't have to worry about this crud.


Song by: Maria McKee