That's Awkward...

As a second job I do promotions for a local rum company. I generally enjoy this. It's a fun job and you get to chat with lots of different people. Every now and then, however, you chat up some perfect stranger and they start to tell you their life story. This wouldn't be so bad if some of these people didn't pull the "overshare".

You are all familiar with this and some of you are guilty of it and some just subjected to it. I've been a party to both. YIKES.

To some degree this helps me in overlooking the incident but occasionally you encounter someone who is apparently unaware of the inappropriateness of the statements they are making. I'm no expert but I would think it unnecessary to discuss the personal habits of your wife or husband with a perfect stranger. I don't know if I make people uncomfortable when I approach them with a $2 off coupon for a bottle of rum or if they generally just say whatever they happen to be thinking. Am I that imposing? Do I need to rethink my sales strategy?

I'm going to test out a theory. I am usually not the only company rep in these stores and tomorrow, if given the opportunity, I'm going to ask the other reps if this is something they encounter as well. If it is then I going to chalk these incidents up to the level of stress people carry around the holidays. If not, maybe its me...