The internet has thousands, maybe millions of chat groups. I am subscribed to a few of those featuring the pest control industry. I have talked about how an all women’s group was my favorite. You read the blog post. You know why.
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While chatting in one of these pest control groups, I asked one participant why there was so much rodent bait in a station. I was concerned that a label violation had occurred. I sent a screenshot of the highlighted portion of said label. “I am partial to keeping my licensing. I hope we all are,” I stated. The response – (typed exactly)Calm Down KAREN!
I replied with a mouse smiley face.
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I am not angry. I don’t feel entitled. I don’t have short blonde hair. (See profile pic) I am, usually, not obnoxious. I don’t feel any more privileged than anyone else – male or female – except that I have a great family. I have awesome friends, and people generally like me.
OK. OK. If you are going to call me Karen, I guess I’d better pick which one I want to be.
Maybe I can be a Karen Carpenter type, with the voice that spans generations. I could sing “We’ve Only Just Begun” or “Hurting Each Other” to let the world know that I’m not tolerant of label breaking pest control operators….P.S. You REALLY don’t want to hear me sing.
I could be Karen Dotrice, the cute, adorable Jane Banks from Mary Poppins. The Karen who is a Shakespearean trained actress. The Karen who stared in movies alongside Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, James Earl Jones, and Tim Curry……. “Cute & adorable” only applies when I talk to mice.
One of my Karen personas might be Karen (Duff) Duffy, the 1990’s era MTV VJ, who is now a certified hospital chaplain. She is also an actress who played a role in “Dumb & Dumber”. I highly doubt she’s dumb. Between accounts, the radio in my work truck blasts SiriusXM, sometimes with a pest control podcast.
I don’t have any ambition to be a political player, but Karen Pence did. The wife of United States Vice President Mike Pence holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She did some illustrations for a children’s book. I tend to like her, because she was a long tenured teacher. This Karen might be a good fit for me. We share the same birthday, a few years apart.
Last, but not least, there is Frosty The Snowman’s friend Karen. A smart, caring, independent, little girl who just wants to keep her wintertime pal around. She even hops a train to get Frosty to the North Pole.
================== In all seriousness, Read Labels, Follow Application Information, Know Your Target Pest, and by all means, Protect the Certified Applicator licensing you worked so hard to get. ==================
My name is Melisa, not Karen. If I had to choose which alternate persona I could be, it might be ANY Karen. I haven’t met anyone named Karen who I thought would be a wrong fit to emulate.
I did a quick search on LinkedIn for KAREN. More than 1.2 million results populated. Not to shabby. And…. I added a few of them to my network list. Mic 🎤 drop
Pest Control Chatter 