I would bet money that if the seed-buyer and the eager-conversationalist were both men, the seed-buyer’s displeasure at being waylaid while obviously bent on getting the purchase done quickly would be unremarkable and in fact completely understandable. If the conversationalist were a women, unless young and pretty it would be considered laughable that she would offer advice to a man, in addition to the idea that she was wasting his precious time.
But when it’s a woman doing the choosing and buying, suddenly interrupting her plans by ‘having a conversation’ is A-OK.
Oops. I missed that. It’s still an opportunity to explain to the worker why it’s troubling that she’s framing the behavior of the regular that way. Is it because of the need to please a customer while on the job, or is this something done all the time for other reasons? Maybe the worker is in need of some advice about setting boundaries, too.
Nope to the reassurance.
Ringing up the customer without any further comment sounds about right to me!
David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of the Atlantic daily newsletter, plus author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), looks at where the initial actions of the Trump administration align with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and what’s still to come.
