i went to the mall to do stuff and wanted to try on some sweaters and asked the clerk where the fitting rooms were. and this dude instantly had this quite severe sort of - disappointed stern adult look about him as he pointed me there. like, he was very sort of clean and clean shaven and had a fitted sweater and everything. and i had a hat and a beard and longish hair and i’m a young guy so like yeah i guess but still i mean dude - you work at the macy’s, wtf am i supposed to be wearing to shop at a store and speak to you?
Was he judging you? Most likely. Will he remember this interaction in 24 hours? Doubtful.
30 minutes more like.
You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.
They just don’t care that much - they have hundreds of customer interactions a day and the only ones they’d even be likely to remember are the funny ones or where someone has been a complete anus.
During the pandemic I asked the woman at the checkout if she’d had a nice day and she turned her hollow eyes to me and said “a woman spat at me earlier because I told her we had run out of toilet roll” - she’s remembering that for a long time. A shop assistant directing a customer to the waiting rooms is not even bothering to file that in their memory.
Speak for yourself, I judge other people hard… but I also judge myself 99% of the time… so they usually get off easy.
And if you do, welcome to having an anxiety disorder