Adventures in Customer Service, Episode I

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 10:37 PM
                 Everyone around here seems to look forward to Canada Day because it’s a statutory holiday. Wahoo! Government-mandated day off! Sadly, I haven’t gotten one of those in many years. In fact, my summer job makes it mandatory for all employees to work that day. The big reason for this, of course, is that we offer Canada Day activities, so people are needed to make them happen. That being said, I never got to participate in any of the fun stuff, always being stuck in the regular day job I always do…until this year.

This year, I became the mascot.

*cue dramatic music*

Yes, my friends, this year I got to be the beaver mascot for the museum. It’s funny, as soon as I had agreed to do the job, I started getting a lot of unsolicited advice from coworkers.

“Drink LOTS of water.”

“Take many breaks. Mascot outfits aren’t conducive to urgent bathroom needs.”

“Wear as little clothing as possible underneath.”

And my personal favourite:
“If you see a bunch of kids cackling and giving you evil looks, run. They are going to attack you.”

                When the day finally came, I brought the most scantily outfit I’d ever worn to work (which, admittedly, was just a tank top and shorts) and with an overenthusiastic attitude, donned the Beaver outfit.


                The experience itself was a lot less intense as I had been led to believe it would be, although it was a very hot day. This would explain why nearly every adult I ran into would say something like:

“Geeze, you must boiling in there!”

“How are you handling the heat?!”

“I hope they’re paying you a thousand bucks to wear that outfit!” (that would’ve been nice…)

Seriously. It got to be a bit weird, but I suppose it’s nice to realize that everyone was feeling compassionate towards me.

Other memorable experiences:

  • Walking into a room and having a boy (age 9ish?) literally jump on me while yelling “Squirrel!!!!!” and proceeding to tell me all about how I am his favourite animal.
  • Terrifying my co-worker’s 3-year-old son. The poor kid ran screaming into another room at the mere sight of me!
  • Various people who wanted a picture with me and would then do funny/weird poses. One person actually kissed the outfit. Another person suggested kissing the beaver to their sibling, whose response was “ew, no! I don’t know what’s under that! Uhh…no offence.”
  • Accidentally walking into a group of 5 kids who had just gotten balloon swords. The sword fight suddenly turned into: “let’s get the beaver!”
  • Meeting a really cute Australian (I think) guy who was really happy to see me, saying “I don’t know if you’re a guy or a girl under there, but I’m going to hug you!” No complaints there.
  • And, of course, having full permission to act as weird and crazy as I wanted while at work (providing that I was in the costume). 
In all, a pretty fun day. I can officially claim that I survived being a mascot. Someone should give me a certificate or something. Or maybe send me more cute Australians to give me hugs.


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