Guilt Tripper
Dear Barb,
Why do I feel so horribly guilty every time I have to reschedule appointments because I’m unwell or something urgent’s come up? My clients are always incredibly understanding, but I still feel awful whenever I have to do it.
Dear Guilty (but gorgeous) Groomer,
If feeling guilty for rescheduling clients was an Olympic sport, the grooming industry would sweep the podium. Gold medal, silver medal, and a participation ribbon held together with coat spray and caffeine.
Of course you feel awful. Most groomers aren’t cancelling because they’ve decided to frolic through a lavender field in linen pants. We’re cancelling because we’re sick, injured, emotionally cooked, dealing with family disasters, broken dryers, explosive diarrhoea, or one of life’s many charming little ambushes that always seem to happen on a fully booked Saturday.
And unlike other industries, this job gets tangled up in relationships.
A plumber reschedules and people go, “No worries mate, next Tuesday’s fine.”
A groomer reschedules and suddenly you’re picturing little Princess Muffin standing sadly at the front window in her knitted jumper wondering why her favourite aunty abandoned her.
That’s the difference - we don’t just service clients. We bond with them. We know which Shih Tzu has the dodgy knee, which Cavoodle needs fifteen minutes to calm down before the bath, and which Schnauzer has to be carried into the salon like a tiny German aristocrat arriving at court.
So when we have to move appointments, it feels deeply personal, even when it isn’t.
But after many decades in this industry, let me tell you this clearly: a groomer forcing themselves through a day when they are sick, burnt out, injured, emotionally hanging by a thread, or running on two hours sleep and a berocca is not being “dedicated”. They are being dangerous.
Nobody wins when you’re standing there dissociating through a matted oodle while holding curved scissors and questioning every decision you’ve made since 2009.
Your clients are understanding because they can see you’re human. You’re the one expecting yourself to operate like some sort of immortal grooming cryptid that survives entirely on adrenaline and spite.
There’s also this bizarre pressure in grooming where we think professionalism means never inconveniencing anybody ever. Meanwhile clients cancel because:
• “He looked sleepy.”
• “We forgot.”
• “Nan came over.”
• “Mercury is in retrograde.”
• “Kevin wouldn’t get in the car.”
Yet the second WE need to reshuffle a day, we act like we should be marched through town ringing a shame bell.
No. Absolutely not.
Good groomers are not the ones who martyr themselves into the ground. Good groomers are the ones who recognise when they are not in the best state to safely handle dogs, equipment, noise, pressure, and a schedule tighter than a show Poodle topknot.
You are allowed to get sick.
You are allowed to have emergencies.
You are allowed to protect your body and your brain.
You are allowed to reschedule without writing a 14-page apology letter to society.
And if your clients are kind about it? Believe them.
The people who matter usually remember how you treated them overall, not the one Tuesday in May where life went sideways and Kevin the Pekingese had to wait forty-eight extra hours for his tidy feet.
Give yourself some of the grace you hand out so freely to everybody else.
Barb-bye!
