Avon Calling (and calling, and calling...)
I’m really enjoying my new job. It’s great to be back in a professional environment and working for a company that has a sense of where it is going and – more importantly – how to get there.
It’s also a change for me in terms of actually going in to work. I now work about 30 minutes* from home so I can go in every day. My last job was just over an hour from home (on a good day) so I only went in once or twice a week.
The benefit of going in every day is that you get to build more of a relationship with your coworkers. However, depending on your office surroundings, it can also be a bad thing.
Take, for example, where I sit. My desk is right beside our administrative assistant. She is a very nice person and is very good at her job. Also, being the admin assistant, she has a lot of people come and see her for things that they need.
She also sells Avon products.
(This is not a problem.)
At work.
(This too, is not a problem.)
I have to sit beside her desk.
(Still no problem.)
I get to hear all the wonderful Avon-related conversations.
(Problem.)
I learn things I really do not need to know….
I JUST DO NOT NEED TO KNOW.
But now I do.
*P.S. For those of you who noticed, it is apparently a Canadian – and I understand an Idahoan – trait to measure distances by time. Actual distances for those who measure distance in something other than time are 55km and 103km.
It’s also a change for me in terms of actually going in to work. I now work about 30 minutes* from home so I can go in every day. My last job was just over an hour from home (on a good day) so I only went in once or twice a week.
The benefit of going in every day is that you get to build more of a relationship with your coworkers. However, depending on your office surroundings, it can also be a bad thing.
Take, for example, where I sit. My desk is right beside our administrative assistant. She is a very nice person and is very good at her job. Also, being the admin assistant, she has a lot of people come and see her for things that they need.
She also sells Avon products.
(This is not a problem.)
At work.
(This too, is not a problem.)
I have to sit beside her desk.
(Still no problem.)
I get to hear all the wonderful Avon-related conversations.
(Problem.)
I learn things I really do not need to know….
- I do not care about the benefits of Avon mascara. I do not care that it really adds volume to lashes. I also do not need to know that users of this product have to keep their eyes open of a specific length of time. Why? Well, apparently lashes get so long with this mascara that if you close your eyes before it dries the upper and lower lashes will stick together.
- I do not need to know where people apply their skin cream because it gets so dry in the winter. (For those of you who live in dry climates like the desert states, dry in Southern Ontario is a humidity level of 40% or less. Keep in mind that it only gets that dry when temperatures are below -10 Celsius and the wind chill feels like -15 or lower).
- I do not need to know how Avon product X is better than other manufacturer’s product Y. I really do not need to know what product Y did to you that one time you tried it.
- I do not need to know that your aunt/grandmother/mother/mother-in-law, etc. has used Avon products since practically before they were ever even sold.
- I do not need to know the reasons you are justifying a purchase for yourself when your really should be doing your Christmas shopping.
I JUST DO NOT NEED TO KNOW.
But now I do.
*P.S. For those of you who noticed, it is apparently a Canadian – and I understand an Idahoan – trait to measure distances by time. Actual distances for those who measure distance in something other than time are 55km and 103km.
posted by Mike at 9:04 p.m.
8 Comments:
When I used to smoke, I would measure the distance by the number of cigs I could have during the trip in my car.
you know, i used an avon product (of which i can't recall the exact name) and for a week, ducks talked. i bet someone messed up the recipe.
i bet you did need to know that. :D
p.s. your transition from time to distance in kilometers did little to help me. we always based distance on the number of barns you passed. "yeah, you can get there... it's three barns past the cemetary." wisely, i've moved since then.
"If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors."
- Sir Walter Scott
I just wanted an excuse to use that quote somewhere.
So Mike, can you tell me about the latest anti-aging products?
(I'm joking, I'm 27. I don't really need to know that.)
At least the job isn't a problem.
I'm so against sales people. Probably because I'm a pushover. But having to sit through a pitch of something I don't want in the first place is even worse. It's kind of like listening to morning shows on radio stations.
I used time to measure distance when living in Phoenix. But it usually went like this--"it takes me thirty minutes to get to work during rush hour, but only 10 minutes if I drive in earlier or later."
I DID need to know about the mascara causing your eyelashes to stick together. That must be some good mascara, I have noticed that no matter what brand I use my eyelashes still look the same length...
P.S. the mascara thing was supposed to sound sarcastic, just in case you didn't read it that way...
Avon is cutting thousands of jobs so that it's NYC Directers and Executives can keep earning their salaries while putting the people who have really done the work for Avon over the last 10 years out of work.......Avon is out sourcing America to India and China.....
Perhaps if Avon didn't pay some company millions to re-organzie it's company by closing departments and out sourcing ....and putting people in charge of departments they have no experience ...and just promoted the qualified people from within the department already in the organization and fired the incompetitant executives who just spent their time passing the politically correct buck........ Avon would turn higher profits....Perhaps somebody should inform Andrea Jung of Avon that the very people she is are putting out of work is in fact Avon's own customer base....and FYI if their customers can't afford to put food on the table they certianly aren't buying Avon.......Avon is a disgrace to America !
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