The REAL Santa has sad job, I mean , Santa does not even really work, he has Elves and Mr Clause doing all the hard core work. What does Santa do then all year? Well, Santa is a really like the FBI for people under 12. He is always watching and if you are cleared, you get a special delivery. No one is really sure how the package gets there, no one ever sees him get in and out of the house, its mysteriously planted under the tree, usually camouflaged in paper to hide its identity. Minutes after the package is opened its destruction process starts and within hours it is guaranteed to be abandoned at some unknown location in the house. If you ask me, Santa does not have a happy job.

The fake Santa however has a happy job, the fake Santa gets all the perks, gets to chat up with the kids, gets all the praise and affection of kids all over. The fake Santa works only 3 weeks of the year,  even has his picture in every house hold, talk about being famous, when it comes to happy job, fake Santa is absolutely on.

A Nurse in the Maternity ward or a stand up comedian for example have happy jobs, and as some of my friends on twitter told me, being a mom is the happiest job of all, and how can I disagree, I cant imagine anything in the world more important, rewarding and happy than being a mom.

The reason I am writing this post is because i felt sorry for the 3 guys at my car dealership yesterday. My car had broken down, and I was there to pick up a replacement while mine was being fixed. It was just before the end of the day, I am sure these guys had been there all day.

And what do you get at the end of the day, well i will tell you what you get. You get PISSED off customers. Imagine, you had a hard day at work, finally you get to pick up your broken car, and you get there and the guy is going on about problems they found, corrosion, oh  you did not bring it here for the tune up at 2400o miles, instead you came in at 25000 miles and here you are now, with a misalignment, breaks, etc… oh oh, and the bill is $1100, Merry Christmas.

I stood there, and watched one pissed off customer after other, bitch at them, and they are just there reciting their lines, repeating warranty blah blah, repeating lines they learned when they got their training, making sure they avoid answering most comments and avoiding eye contact at all cost. I would like to think as naive as I am going to sound, I think these guys get the worst of it. They get it from the customer, they get it from the dealer, they actually take the fall for the dealer every time. They don’t make the car, they don’t drive the car, and they don’t service the car. All they do is deliver the message, and it just happens that angry tired customer felling ripped off at the end of a long hard day are going to shoot the messenger. I truly feel bad for them and think there is better ways at this.

For starters car dealers should have different checkout lines, the customers coming in to pick up a car from an oil change should have an express checkout where you just go and pay, this is the happy line, transaction done quick, customer is happy, service rep relaxed, no need to subject anyone to the complaining happening around. Staff can rotate, you get the happy line once every three days. Then you have your middle of the line checkout, these are the folks who came in for an oil change and leaving with a $600 break job. They are not happy but at least they are not pissed off. Yea, better safe than sorry, you really need to have new breaks especially with them kids in the car (who is going to argue with that), you get that shift on your second day of your routine. Then you have your problem checkout, you know there is no silver bullet there, I mean the transmission is gone, sugar coat that if you can, no way! You get that line on day 3, but if day 3 ends up being on a Monday, then you got a long week coming, but at least you know, its not personal, you know today is gonna be long, so better buckle up, shut up, and go for the ride.

Point is at least you get 2 happy days out of the 3, and that aint bad, why finish everyday on a bad note. Its a small change that make a big difference.