Saturday, April 25th, 2009...11:49 pm
Sam I Am (Not)
Did you know that a French girl named Anna Sam wrote a book about the “Tribulations of a Cashier“? First, she had a blog, which she used to vent her frustrations, then was asked to write the book, which has been reprinted 19 times in France and has sold 100,000 copies. Now, there is a movie in the works, a musical comedy on the way, and, get this, a comic strip.
As a result of her fame, she has also been asked to participate in training execs and managers from all over Europe on how to best communicate with employees and better prepare those employees for the “tribulations” that they are bound to face in their positions.
My French is fair, at best (I only took it in high school, and stayed for three years, because the teacher was so handsome), but the blog seems to be a little less focused on finding the humor in her job than in changing the job for the better. Fighting injustice? Of course I’m down. I was a card-carrying member of Amnesty International (ignore the fact that Monsieur French teacher was also the faculty adviser for the campus branch), after all. I support her in her quest for a better world for cashiers, everywhere, but also think that learning to see the comedy in any situation is healthy.
Don’t get me wrong, Anna does have her funny moments, even if they are more Tom & Jerry than South Park, “You can’t educate shoppers to behave better but you can train employees to handle them. But what checkout girls would really like is a hammer to hit them over the head.”
Am I slightly jealous? Yes. But also superpsyched that checkout girls are getting their due. Well, ONE checkout girl. Still, that’s how the revolution will start, with just one.
10 Comments
April 26th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Now this is really discouraging because it perpetuates the myth inside my head that the random hits I get from Los Angeles and New York are potential editors/publishers just waiting to pounce on my awesome writing talent.
I try to balance this idea with reality — I have a small pond where I appear to me a medium to big fish. (It helps the fantasy if you can create the size of the pond.)
In the ocean I would appear like a speck of fish food. Or chum.
Yet I still hold out hope that success will fall into my lap without any effort on my part.
And then when I see someone like Anna Sam parlay massive success from a blog it really pisses me off.
So there. I have no positive thoughts to share.
Twitter: homesliceva
April 26th, 2009 at 9:11 am
i’m with cardiogirl. someone even was a total tease and suggested that i consider writing a column for a local publication, and then i’m sure her bosses were like, “WHAT??? WHAT DID YOU TELL HER?” because then she wouldn’t return calls or emails.
I’m not buying that book, or clicking those links, just to spite her.
April 26th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I think it’s awesome she had such great success! I just wish I could speak French so I could actually read her blog and know what the hell she was saying.
April 26th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
@Shopgirl: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://caissierenofutur.over-blog.com/&ei=iJ_0SffUHYqMtgeM7cGyDw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://caissierenofutur.over-blog.com/%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DLXT
April 27th, 2009 at 5:23 am
Uh, my wife would think that you should be a “checkout woman”. You’ve heard the phrase “who you callin’ boy?” haven’t you?
Aux armes, citoyens!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968
April 27th, 2009 at 6:37 am
I’m taking back the term “girl”.
April 27th, 2009 at 6:39 am
thanks!
April 27th, 2009 at 9:24 am
So, does the French version of you always carry a loaf of bread and drink a lot of wine and smoke cigarettes from one of those extender-thingys and wear a béret and ride a bike everywhere and have one of those little pencil-drawn mustaches and wear striped shirts with a red scarf?
Still like you better.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:58 am
The French version wouldn’t shave her legs so often.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
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