I am out in Colorado, a combination of work and pleasure (hey, Colorado is a very beautiful state; it has amazing fly-fishing and is usually 20 degrees cooler than South Georgia in the summer). I had occasion to go to Home Depot with my good friend, Chris Petersen. She was looking for deck heaters: the big tall kind that you might see at a restaurant. She had gone online and found a store nearby that said it had 4 in stock. She even called the store to confirm that there were, in fact, 4 heaters at that store. After getting bounced from one employee to another, she was told that they were “pretty sure” they had the heaters she was looking for.
While that was not as concrete a reply as she was hoping, we decided to go to the store and take our chances. We arrived at Home Depot and began our search for the heaters. After not finding them near where the gas grills were located (and since we couldn’t find anyone to direct us), we went out into the outdoor garden area of the store. Near the register, there were two younger employees having a conversation, clearly identified by the distinctive orange bibs that Home Depot employees wear. As we approached them, they continued their conversation, clearly unbothered by the presence of mere customers. I finally interrupted and asked whether they had the deck heaters we were seeking. A young man, probably in his mid-20’s thought for a minute and, without checking with anyone else or their computer system, says, “Probably not, we usually have those more in the fall and winter.”
OOOOOOKay, so if you DID have any, where would they be? He walked all of 15 feet from where we were standing and there, just tucked to the left and out of our line of sight, was a display of table-top sized heaters. Chris and I scour the area and below the display on the bottom shelf was a box that had the very heater that Chris was seeking! “Here it is,” we say. As she was looking to buy two, we ask if there are any more. “Nope, this is what we have,” says the clerk. “Well, your website said you had 4.” No reply. His attitude was one who was clearly bothered by our seemingly unreasonable line of inquiry. So Chris goes and gets a cart and I say to the clerk, “I probably need your help lifting this,” to which he replied: “It’s not that heavy”. Oh, so sorry to be inconveniencing your busy day! As I try to lift it and determine that it’s actually heavy, he finally ambles over to help me and we wrestle it into a cart.
As we turn to go to the register, Chris spies some boxes on the perpendicular aisle that look suspiciously similar to the one we have in our cart. We go over and Viola, there are the other 3 heaters. “Here they are!” Chris exclaims. Our millennial Home Depot clerk seems unimpressed. We take our cart over there and since Chris wanted to get two, we decide to go ahead and take another one. I think that most sales clerks would be astute enough to know that if I needed help with the first one that I would likely need help for the second one. Nope. Our guy was clueless. No offer to help us get them to the car. A complete customer service fail.
I am sure that his is NOT how Home Depot trains its employees. And I get it that any employee no matter how old they are can have a bad day and be off their game. But I believe that this millennial acts like this pretty much all of the time. Not grounded, for sure. And although not all millennials are like him, so many are that the whole generation is being painted with a broad brush as entitled, disengaged, and not hard-working. If you are a millennial, all I can tell you is that if your peers act this way, you will stand out if you choose to act in a manner that is respectful, courteous, and always giving 100%.
If you want to learn more about how to become a grounded individual, check out my book Grounded at www.davidpeterson.com/grounded.