Service With A Smile…..
Service with a smile is hard to do when you are serving donkeys’ butts. Seriously. Think of getting out of the shower and sprucing up the old coif and dizen with your freshly pressed uniform. You sprout a smile and walk through a mist of perfume / cologne/ body spray for that added touch. You arrive at the place of work and high five a few of your co-workers. You inhale the smells of food that waft out from the kitchen and are the familiar smells of the grind. It feels like home and a prison all rolled into one, a cursed blessing. You keep your job because it pays the bills and on good days the tips can allow you some freedom. You start to get into the groove when a patron request an additional side of salad dressing. You are a little off your game and reply that there sits an extra dish full of the desired liquid right next to said customer. He expostulates (explodes) that if “I am asking for something it isn’t your job to tell me what-- it is your job to get it for me!” The customer demands the Manager who give a generous gift card with his apologies. As a server the thought crosses that maybe spitting in his food would be okay this once!
Really? Has our society come to this? Why do we feel entitled? Now don’t get me wrong……money is a reward for working hard and so when we give it away we expect good service and a recognition that we do not have to consume their goods if we don’t want too. Come on that is a given. But it is when we supersede our “common courtesy” assuming that the almighty dollar makes us better then those who are REALLY making our lives better by serving us. I just don’t get it people! Everyone is making a buck somehow. We are all in this “together” to coin an annoying movie that all preteens love. Instead of thinking “your” money makes you better then that little Barista serving you a sliver of lemon cake, think how grateful you are that she is there serving you in a way mama doesn’t even do! Heck, if someone came into my kitchen and served me a meal, refilling my water and asking me every ten minutes what I need……..well I would marry them! If someone came to the house and all I had to do was get up from my meal knowing they would clean up my crumbs, box up my leftovers and on my birthday sing…..well that makes them more important to me then the few dollars I would throw their way!
So, shared this before but will again, I make it a habit of looking on peeps-who-serve-me nametags. Then I use their names. I have made so many friends at the local gas station and dollar store you wouldn’t believe! I will see their name and ask them a question……Piggly Wiggly Market…Erma serving me. “Hello Erma, looks super slow here today!” This opens up conversations. I actually had a employee who has served me for months “come out to me.” You wouldn’t believe the things you find out about the people who are on the edges of your life.
So stop being narcissistic and explore the world you live in. We come into this earth the same way and we all leave it one way or another. So be kind and check out the nametags in your life. Do it.
Really? Has our society come to this? Why do we feel entitled? Now don’t get me wrong……money is a reward for working hard and so when we give it away we expect good service and a recognition that we do not have to consume their goods if we don’t want too. Come on that is a given. But it is when we supersede our “common courtesy” assuming that the almighty dollar makes us better then those who are REALLY making our lives better by serving us. I just don’t get it people! Everyone is making a buck somehow. We are all in this “together” to coin an annoying movie that all preteens love. Instead of thinking “your” money makes you better then that little Barista serving you a sliver of lemon cake, think how grateful you are that she is there serving you in a way mama doesn’t even do! Heck, if someone came into my kitchen and served me a meal, refilling my water and asking me every ten minutes what I need……..well I would marry them! If someone came to the house and all I had to do was get up from my meal knowing they would clean up my crumbs, box up my leftovers and on my birthday sing…..well that makes them more important to me then the few dollars I would throw their way!
So, shared this before but will again, I make it a habit of looking on peeps-who-serve-me nametags. Then I use their names. I have made so many friends at the local gas station and dollar store you wouldn’t believe! I will see their name and ask them a question……Piggly Wiggly Market…Erma serving me. “Hello Erma, looks super slow here today!” This opens up conversations. I actually had a employee who has served me for months “come out to me.” You wouldn’t believe the things you find out about the people who are on the edges of your life.
So stop being narcissistic and explore the world you live in. We come into this earth the same way and we all leave it one way or another. So be kind and check out the nametags in your life. Do it.
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