What is GSA?
U.S. General Services Administration… it’s government offices.
A quick recap from AskJeeves:
Well, I’ve worked retail at a museum for seven years. Something about that combination of retail and exhibitions attracts the weirdest sales staff (no matter how carefully we interview).
There was the guy who wore tons of fake rhinestone jewelry - earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings. He though it to be a very tough, gansta look, but mostly he looked like he raided his grandmother’s jewelry chest.
There was the guy who pooped on the shop floor. Just a nice, neat little log in the doorway. He never came back to work after that.
Many, many other strange ones - some of them on the selling floor now!
Telemarketers are soulless hellspawn completely devoid of reason.
How about carnival workers? I don’t even make eye contact with them when I walk past them to get to the rides at our state fair. The ride operators aren’t any better, but at least they aren’t out there trying to shill me into playing one of their rigged games. Still, most of them look creepy (missing teeth, eyes out of alignment, etc.)
Lots of strange people call TV stations wanting whoever picks up the phone to be their friend.
I once had someone threaten to hit our traffic person with a hammer because she had the audacity to hold a red umbrella on St. Patrick’s day.
In my experience, entomologists and herpetologists can both be pretty damn strange.
I recall one of the herpetology grad students when I was in grad school who used to pace up and down the corridor outside his office in the basement playing the bagpipes with his pet 10-foot-long python coiled around his neck. Rumor had it that he was stocking up ammo in the walls of his house so he could defend himself when civilization collapsed (this was in the 1970s). He eventually got his dream job, keeper at the local zoo, but was fired within a few months after accidentally letting the rhino out of its pen.
'Course, there are some whacko ornithologists too.
Wait, I’m actually eyeing a janitorial position as a job. :eek:
I need a job, the pay can be alright, you get to wear a uniform (oh yes, so very attractive to someone who hasn’t had any experience with the real world), and it’s honorable. Like in Good Will Hunting
Uh oh, I’ve had three of the jobs listed so far…
Not completely, since MARC rules (MARC = MAchine Readable Cataloging) were originally dictated by the punctuation & layout of the physical catalogue cards, and retain a lot of leftover anal dreck from that.
If you really want to get cataloguers riled up, say:
“What’s the point of authority control anyway? It’s so useless!”
Wind 'em up and watch 'em go! Whee!
P.S. I’m a librarian, but not a cataloguer. Cataloguing class drove me nuts!
Shirley:
You must live on an auxiliary route to have 3 different carriers. Either that or your regular carrier is out and you are getting subs to fill in. I’m a rural sub and working a route you don’t know while getting paid the same amount as the regular carrier who has done the route for years is enough to make you grumpy… especially if it’s raining!!
Note: Rural mail carriers (the ones not in uniform) get paid “evaluated time”, or the same amount every day, no matter how much mail there is or how well they know the toute!)
Not to admit that I’m…strange, although my sons would be first to slap that label on good ol’ Mom…but some of the paper carriers I know are very, very odd.
My favorite odd conversation with an odd carrier:
Him: Hey! How are you?
Me: I’m doing good, how about you?
Him: Good! How about YOU?
Me: Ummm, good! Hate this snow though!
Him: [Hearty laughter] Well, I am just thinking.
Me: Oh. Okay…
Him: Well, I just have some things to say, and…
…at which point he wanders off and never finishes his sentence. This happens ALL the time with this fellow. Good guy, but strange.
I think the job–the solitude, hours, etc–attracts loners and offbeat folks. Which is, of course, how I prefer to think of myself, rather than “that nutso paper lady.”
Me too! All-night cabbie, cataloguer and expat English teacher. Can’t say the assessment is that inaccurate, though.
I’d vote for biologists. Not that they are really crazy, but they have a very different view of the world than the rest of humanity. Sort of a Gary Larson/Farside sort of thing. (Did I mention that I’m a biologist?)
There is a dedicated path of study to become a librarian? Fascinating! I guess I always assumed librarians just started working in the library while studying whatever and decided to stay librarians or that it was a position that English and History majors would tend to gravitate towards.
You’ve fought my ignorance and won today Motorgirl. Thank you!
The Psych profs I had in college were all strange. (Stranger than Math and CS profs. That bad.) I assume such people go into the biz hoping to diagnose/cure their problems.
Factory workers can be pretty far out there as well. (warehouse as well)
OOH! OOH! I know this! DMV workers!! That and “evolutionary psychologists”…what the crap is with that job?!
How bout anyone that works 3rd shift ? They really do have a world of their own. Working at night - sleeping in the day… might tend to set anyone a little off balance. So… imagine a 3rd shift Postal Worker… that could get scary…
No one’s said theater people?! Those folk are completely nuts. I should know.