How often do you actively acknowledge that someone working in the service industry has all the stresses of any other person’s life in addition to helping you? I do not mean to be patronizing; I understand that this is not new information, and if anyone stopped to think about it, they would understand what that entails. I simply wish to drive the point home that while it is legitimately their job description to provide a service to you, the customer, this does not mean that basic human decency should be thrown out the window.
I will use the example of wait staff. The first thing to understand is that while you may be a customer and thus are entitled to their attention and help meeting your needs, you are not their only customer. If you go out to eat and the restaurant is packed full of people, be patient. They have not forgotten about you and are certainly attempting to get everything to you as quickly and efficiently as possible. More than likely, if something is taking a moment longer than expected, it involves a backup in the kitchen. While this may be frustrating to you, it is also very frustrating for the people in the back of the house. To expand this beyond the restaurant example, the point is that people in the service industry are trying their hardest. It is their job to provide a service and they will do their job. If it is taking a while, it is most likely an unforeseen obstacle, and with patience it will be resolved.
In addition, if you are patient with a service worker, they are going to be far happier helping you. This gratitude for a positive interaction extends to pretty much anything that you can do to make their day easier. For example, if you make a mess at your table, your waiter/waitress is going to remember you far more fondly if you at least attempt to clean it. This is not an outlandish request in any circumstance other than being at a business. We have been taught since we were children that if we make a mess it is our job to clean it up. It cannot be expected that we will entirely clean our place at a restaurant — however, it is still logical that if we spill something, we wipe it with a napkin or make sure that our trash ends up in the garbage can.
The purpose of this article is simply to make people more mindful of the fact that while it is a service worker’s job to serve the customer, they are still people. To aid this, I honestly believe that everyone should work in a service position for some period of time. It is far easier to empathize with a waiter/waitress at the end of a ten-hour shift if you have been there yourself.
