Be nice to your waitress....

[Hermy]

...or she won't be nice to you.

Trust me. It's worth losing a few dollars just to make you wait on a refill.

But seriously. Be nice to your servers when you go out to eat, folks. When your glass is empty, or no one has gotten to your table yet to take your order, or perhaps you're ready for dessert and no one is there to hand you some ice cream, take a look around. Are there other tables in the restaurant? Then probably your waitress is busy. She will get to you when she can.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is show a little gratitude to those who serve you. Not just waitresses, but anyone in customer service. They are there to help you and to make things easier for you, not to be a doormat for you to mistreat just cause they're getting paid for it. There's no reason to take out your bad day on a cashier or to yell at the guy on the other end of the line when he can't change your cell phone bill. It isn't their fault. I really can't stand it when people are rude to those in customer service. I would like to see everyone in the service industry treated with some respect. Remember, if we weren't around, you'd be getting your own food, or, well, might not be getting anything at all since there would be no more cashiers or bank tellers or customer service reps for cell phone companies or... you get my point.

Appreciate people who do their job.

[Xenopaul]

FNA!

[Man in Black]

Lol Paul

Amen Hermy!

[qapollo]

[Hermy]

Okay, not to return to an old topic, but I found this in a magazine yesterday and thought it was worth sharing:

"Half of American workers have experienced psychological abuse on the job, The Handbook of Workplace Violence reports. Don't place the blame on bullying bosses, though - it turns out that customers, clients, and patients are more likely than supervisors to be perpetrators."

Finally, it's like we're being noticed!!! But that doesn't surprise me at all, considering what I go through at work. It's just kind-of sad that people in general have that little respect and common courtesy for each other.

[Raistlin]

Hermy, this is so true. Working at my cousin's bookstore, I know what you are talking about. Most of the people are very nice. Because it is not a chain store, we have a lot of repeat business and people that we know. But sometimes we get people in that are new. The attitudes that some people have, when all we are trying to do is help them. I cannot imagine treating someone like some of those people treat me. They talk on their cell phones while I am checking them out, completely ignoring me, and when I hand them their change they look at me like I am the rude one! Then there are the people that tell you what they want and do not care if you have it or not, that is what they want, and it is all your fault if they cannot get it.

I wish that everyone had to work in customer service at one time or another so that maybe everyone would be nicer to each other. Great points here Hermy!

[Man in Black]

Although I am now hidden away safely from the public in my kitchen, I have done my time in service of the public. 8 long years as a clerk and convenient store manager, not to mention restaurant manager and waiter. I agree with what all you are saying but let me play just a bit of devil's advocate...

It goes both ways. Soooooo many times I have been made to feel so unwanted by someone at a customer service position. I always try to be friendly because I have dealt with the public so much. But often at a grocery store or restaurant - employees are just plain rude. I think that part of the public's problem is that they lump you good servers in with the majority that are bad. To sum it up it is a people problem. People don't think of the consequences of their actions anymore. Hardly anyone wonders what effect their crappy mood will have on others, passing the bad vibes on down the line...

[Marii]

yep, you are all right.

it would certainly be a different world if people would "treat others the way they would like to be treated... "that is just such good advice... who came up with that one?? (jk)

I have been in those shoes too. one time a man asked me to sit on his lap because it was his birthday, so his friend could take a picture. I was so offended. I told him I couldn't do that because I was married... and he said he was too!!! his poor wife.

I have definetely had my share of rudeness with the public. It's like suddenly people become royalty or something. I give them the "are you kidding me?" look, followed by the "ooo-kaaaay, you are really immature..." look

and everytime I tend to them I make sure I have the look of "here you are, princess..." like they were a child. I am really good at seeming not to pay them attention, while killing them with kindness.

[Hermy]

It definitely goes both ways. I mean, I know that sometimes I can have a bad experience or be sick or something, go to the grocery store and be unfriendly with the cashier. Then that cashier might be unfriendly to her next customer because of the way I treated her. There's also the people that get bad service one place then take it out on the people at the next place they go to. It can be a big circle, for sure.

[Man in Black]

Yeah it really is like a wave that gets bigger and bigger sometimes each person that the negativity is passed to. I think about it all the time. A lot of times I'm really nice to people that deserve to be told off because I'm afraid they might take it out on someone else.

My advice - make an effort to be the person it stops with, stop the wave by not responding in a negative way. I know it's hard but at least it's something productive and the world could use every bit of positivity it can get right now.

[Marii]

here, here.

[Hermy]

Yes.

[Harley]

sound advice, hard to follow much of the time, but good advice all the same.

[jennifer]

I've gotten onto my family numerous times about the way they treat the waiter. They expect that they are the only table the waiter is serving...when that is completely not the case.