03/24/2023
✋salon owner here. This week I have:
-Had my glasses slapped off my face by a cat
-strained a muscle in my back holding up the rear end of a lead-ass golden
-been pooped on THREE times
-a**l glands to the chest by a cat
-bursitis in my shoulder flared up from a cocker mix that has never been to a salon before, fighting for everything
-had two clients complain about the integrity of a haircut THEY asked for
-interruped 3x outside of business hours/ during family time for someone to complain about something that wasn't even our fault
- someone showed up early to collect, and got cranky that I wasn't done. You would think after a decade of grooming their dogs they would have an ounce of compassion when I say I am moving slowly today as my arthritis is in high gear and I'm HURTING but still want to do a good job.
-my pipe that ALL my tubs drain into sprung a leak, because of a thrashing dog ripped my tub away from the wall, on one of my busiest days (and it's not the first time my husband has had to drop everything he is doing on his day off to come repair something an unruly dog busted: train your pets people)
-I've had 2 people complain about pricing even though it was the same as last time. They wanted to pay prices from 8 years ago... at that rate we would make more working at McDonalds
- three different dogs s*** in the crate and played in it. One of them was clean... the clean one did it no less than three times, so six poopy crates total
- twice I worked through lunch because I was falling behind schedule, because we work with live animals predicting how much time we will spend working on them is nearly impossible. I don't eat breakfast so that's basically 24 hours with no food, all because I fear the repercussions of an angry Customer because they think I took too long.
And it's only Wednesday 🥴
Check on your groomer friends, we are not okay: Full moons are not kind to us, it makes the animals act weird and the humans even weirder. And I know, I KNOW: "tips are always appreciated and never to be expected" 🙄 but if you can whip out a $20 for your waitress at the fancy steakhouse, why not 20% for your groomer, even every now and then? We get s*** on and bit every single day. We sweat just as much as people in the restaurant industry: we never sit down and hardly get breaks, we are wet and covered in itchy hair splinters and we try to keep a positive attitude while moving sharp objects over a moving Target for people with unrealistic expectations that like to tell us we charge too much...but sometimes...when the whole world seems to be dumping on you at once, it would just be nice to feel like the hard work we do is appreciated.
Eta: I'm not looking down upon clients that can't afford to tip well... Usually it's the people that CAN afford it that don't. Most of my well tippers are regular middle-class people like myself: And the people that can't afford to show their appreciation with money always find other ways to do so (like a nice review or a hot cup of coffee or some homemade cookies). This post is geared toward those who complain about the price even though they are driving brand new cars and have a purse that costs more than my mortgage. You know who I'm talking about.
