Regardless of what society might tell you, you are so much more than just your profession. In many walks of life, the job a person does seems to be the one thing that defines them. After all, it’s the question that we commonly ask when introduced to someone, and you can tell a whole lot about other parts of a person’s life through understanding their vocation.

However to do so – to cast someone as a doctor, or a pizza delivery guy, a teacher or a stand-up comedian – risks misunderstanding a whole lot about whatever else that person might be. We can’t just define a person by what they do for money. If we do that, we won’t really know another person at all. Instead, we can look for a person’s kindness, their sense of humor, their deep interest in politics (that is entirely separate from their day job). We can understand what they like to do in their free time, how they talk about their pets and their family, what their biggest aspirations are in life.

Do those things, and you stand a chance of looking beyond the surface and getting to know the real person inside. However, for some people, a person is just about what they do – and, by association, what they can do for others. Take the person in this story for example. A retail worker, sure, but also the owner of pet chinchillas. And yet, to another customer in the store she was visiting, she was a retail worker, and she was there to serve.

Read on to find out why this was a problem.

I can assure you, I do not work here

Apparently I just look like an employee, all of the time.

I was at a pet shop on Thursday, wearing a white t-shirt and black pants, buying some food for my chinchillas.

This company’s employees wear bright blue shirts and khakis.

Nevertheless, a woman taps me on the shoulder and asks if I have any paper towels.

Let’s see how this customer responded.

“No…” I replied slowly, confused as to why she was asking.

“What sort of pet store doesn’t have paper towels for pet accidents?” she shouted.

“Ma’am, I don’t work here… I’m just shopping.”

She angrily sighed at me and stomped away.

That wasn’t the first time this had happened – and it probably won’t be the last.

Another time, I was in a young women’s clothing store, flipping through a rack of blouses, when another young woman stepped up to me.

“Excuse me, do you have this in a medium?” she demanded as she thrust a shirt at me.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t work here,” I turned back to my shopping.

“Yes, you do,” she insisted.

I replied, “No, I definitely don’t.”

“MANAGER!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Let’s see what happened when the manager responded.

Everyone in the store turned and stared at us and a manager rushed over. “Your employee won’t check if there’s a medium for me,” she pouted.

“This… this isn’t my employee,” the manager looked confused. “This is another customer.”

“But I’ve SEEN her here before,” she insisted.

“I’m not even from this state,” I countered. “I live about 2500 miles away from here. I can assure you that you have not seen me here.”

“I can check on a medium for you if you want,” the manager offered.

“Well, I just, I don’t want to shop somewhere that doesn’t train their employees to help people.” With that, she threw the blouse on the floor and stomped out.

Yikes. Some people really are just looking for drama.

It’s understandable that you might mistake a well dressed customer for another employee – it must happen all the time.

But to get tetchy when the person explains that they don’t work there? That’s not okay.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was on break when she was physically dragged back to the register by a customer.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person was shocked at the behavior of the woman in the clothing store.

While others had stories of even more ridiculous mishaps.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought she had a kind of retail worker aura.

There could be some truth in the fact that someone who works in retail – especially someone who has done so for quite some time – might carry themselves in a certain way. Knowing the frustration of customers moving things around and just leaving clothing littering the floor for example, they might make extra effort – even subconsciously – to pick up after themselves and put things back properly. After all, they feel the pain of the employees who are going to have to tidy up if they don’t.

And if you’re knowledgeable about a product, even if you’re in a rival or tangentially related store to the one you work in, you might speak with a kind of authority, styling the people you’re in a clothes store with for example, which could lead other customers to believe that you work there. Given this is to do with your words, your tone, or even your retail aura, those people could probably be forgiven for not noticing that you’re wearing street clothes.

In these cases, it’s an easy mistake to make, and one that both customers can easily laugh off. The problem? Well, the problem comes when the person who made the mistake gets frustrated, maybe even accuses the other customer (who is absolutely not a staff member) of lying to them. That’s nasty behavior and shows a person for who they truly are. Because what motive would a staff member have to lie?