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Marylin: I've been a travel agent for 25 years. When I started, it was common for customers to come to the office. Some would dress up. They would make a day of it. These days, people barely have four seconds to spend on booking their trips.
The Internet has changed this business a lot. Now that it's easy for people to book their own flights and hotels, I'm often asked to arrange more complicated trips. A family of 13, from all over the United States, wanted to have a reunion in Italy. I put together all the details, including trains and car rentals. Another client wanted to visit every baseball park in the United States. I had to look up all the hotels close to ball parks. I booked a trip to Antarctica for a woman's 50th birthday, and later that year, arranged a trip for her to the Arctic Circle.
About 80 percent of my business comes from the same 20 people. These are keen travelers. With them, I'm like a concierge. They ask me to book theater tickets in London, make restaurant reservations in Madrid. The company where I work now is great for that. Most of the people here used to own their own agencies and have traveled all over the world, eaten at every restaurant. They are my best resource, better than a book or the Internet.
Before I worked here, I had some odd experiences. A client once called from Florida, hysterical, because his hotel room was green. He had chlorophobia - a fear of the color green. We had to find him another hotel.
I was once consulted by an F.B.I. agent who was trying to locate someone on a flight. I told him how to call the airline posing as a travel agent, gave him some of the lingo of the industry.
My clients are the best part of this job. They are intelligent people and very appreciative. I've received flowers, books, chocolates sent from New Zealand. I've dealt with some clients for so long, they let me make their travel decisions for them. They tell me, ''I want to be in such and such country on such and such dates. You do the rest.'' They trust my judgment. It's like I have power of attorney over their travel.
David: According to a study brought up on yesterday’s Oprah show one of the jobs that creates the happiest people is a travel agent, the part time job of yours truly. Now, technically, I’m not your typical travel agent. My job is basically a travel agent for study abroad. I coordinate and organize people’s educational travel. For instance, if you’re taking a trip to Spain and you want to spend your time actually learning Spanish a few hours a day while you’re there, I can make that happen. Or if you think, hey, I’m in France, I want to relax and immerse in the language – how about a language lessons and spa package. Call me, and I’ll arrange it for you.
However, until Oprah’s show today I hadn’t really thought about how happy my job makes me. But watching the show got me to thinking – is it one of the happiest jobs available? And honestly after thinking about it, I would say yes, it probably is. And here are the real reasons why:
Firstly, I don’t take my work home with me. When I leave the office I leave the office. I don’t bring home work stress. Because really, what stress? Seriously, you’re going to Spain to learn Spanish in the morning and do yoga in the afternoon. Your email can wait until tomorrow.
Secondly, I’m helping people improve their lives. People come to us to learn a new language, gain a new skill, and sometimes even change their career path, and my job is to help make that happen. And the end of the day that makes me feel good about how I spent my day and excited for my clients and their life plans.
The people who do complain and come to me with problems are one of two kinds – they are either people with completely reasonable complaints that I want to bend over backwards to help because they should not be dealing with stress on their vacation OR they’re just old fashioned complainers. The first type are a pleasure to help because they deserve it. The second type are those I will help because it’s my job but who I don’t feel the need to overcompensate for by stressing myself out with their well being because they just don’t get the simple pleasures of life. That’s their problem, not mine.
One more advantage is that I am dealing with international people all day long. On a typical day I speak to people in France, Argentina, Germany, Beijing, Spain, and the list goes on and on. This makes me feel like an actual part of the international community and validates my belief that the world is smaller than we all think.
Not a bad job at the end of the day, if I do say so myself. Will I do it forever? Who really knows? Regardless, I’m thankful. Of all the jobs to have in a crazy city like New York, mine turns up in the top 4 of the happiest jobs on Oprah. Life could be worse.
UNIT 8
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