Have you ever wondered why it seems like service industry employees (i.e. waitstaff and cashiers) hate their jobs? There is a good reason for it, and it boils down to the inability to see the human on the other side of the register.

Inevitably, like in any other workforce, there will be people who are incapable of doing their jobs correctly. But when you, as the customer, go into a transaction expecting the employee you are interacting with to be an incompetent buffoon and thus treat them subhumanly, they are likely to respond with the same to not just you, but other customers too.

So if both the customer and the employee are entering a transaction with the expectation that the other person will treat them poorly, it reinforces both sides and creates a cycle that builds into the stereotype we find today among the general populace: service industry employees are lazy and hate their jobs, and one that exists among service industry employees: customers are ungrateful morons.

I work in the service industry (you can find me every weekend night at the Port Republic Road Food Lion), and in order to prevent this editorial from sounding like a cashier whining about his job, I will boil it down to a few simple lists.

Here are things that service industry employees are paid to do: we are there to make sure you have a pleasant interaction with the store/restaurant. We are there to help you find/get what you need. We are there to be a friendly face. We are there to clean after you. We are there to do the things that you pay no mind to when they are taken care of, but complain about when they are not. Above all, we are there to help.

Here are things that service industry employees are not paid to do: We are not required to be kind to customers when they are not kind to us. That really covers everything. I am perfectly capable of helping you find canned string beans (aisle 2, left side, bottom shelf) while remaining stoic because you just said that I did not look happy enough.

That is where the cycle starts. When you are not kind to me, then I am not kind to you, so you are not kind to the next cashier you see, and I am not kind to the next customer in line. It is vicious and dehumanizing and frankly just unnecessary. If we can learn to see that the person on the other side of the register, whether they be customer or employee, is a human being with real emotions and feelings, maybe then we can break the cycle.

It sounds pie-in-the-sky, I know. But treating each other like human beings could turn this world around.