Well, it was bound to happen. I go into the restaurant, begin my normal perusal of the place, take mental notes of cleanliness, engagement levels by workers and their overall demeanor. I place my order, open my phone to carefully jot down some of my observations (under the guise of texting a friend) when I hear the restaurant employee say, “Your total is $13.86”. I slowly raised my head and said, “Why would I pay for my meal before I’m even served?”. As my tone slowly faded towards the end of my curious question and I looked around, I realized my foolish mistake . . .

. . . I had forgotten how to return to being a quintessential shopper and failed to turn off my ‘secret shopper’ mentality.

Oops! :)

It's easy to get stuck in a certain mentality. Years ago I worked on a software development team and we were on a tough project, working 18 hour days and at the testing phase - where you try every possible combination to "break the software". Leaving late at night with a colleague in my car, he turned on the radio, but then absently starting pushing ALL the buttons in random patterns. He was unconsciously TESTING every possible sequence.

I find I can't turn my "mystery shopping eyes" off even if I am not doing a shop. I find myself quickly glancing at the cashier/salespersons name tag, asking for a receipt, noticing things, etc and then I realize I am not doing a shop! You become so well trained with your eyes and ears, it just becomes something you normally do. Not a bad thing though!

MY toxic traits are restaurants (food places), fixing peoples problems, and body language. Let me explain why though;

• I spent almost ten years working with food both in lower demand areas like a deli, and higher end places where the price of the food wasn't even on the menu because the customers didn't care about the money part. After dealing with things like how things are plated, cleanliness, food safety, auditors, inspectors, demanding customers and some really talented people it just becomes a way of life. Even before shopping, I normally ask to use the restroom but get lost and oops end up in the kitchen to see if their work area is clean, mops in the sink, mop heads in the proper locations hanging face down, full trash cans, steam coming from the dish area, odd smells, trash on the floor, organization and uniforms. If it's not up to par, I'll cancel my order and walk out.
• My current job is working for an IT company. Mostly old people that call in because their screen turned sideways, mouse stopped working, printer doesn't print, Email says it's full and they can't figure out how to delete things they don't need, but need everything even dating back to 2014 etc. So my job is to fix things for them which I just had my 9th anniversary at this current place.
• Body language comes both from the military and sales. Reading someone usually tells you more about them than their words will. During assisted living shops to make myself more convincing I normally ask, "Would you let your parents live here and would you live here when the time comes?" and "The food here looks ok, and the kitchen looked pretty well staffed. How often do you look forward to eating here with your residents?" Unless the other person is pathologic, it'll normally spark some body language like looking left or right, fidgeting with their hands or feet, or a super quick and unfelt yes absolutely!

On my last assisted living shop, I caught myself checking the fire alarms and door tops for dust...