I've long noticed that people seem to be getting ruder. It is now common to hear words like "bitch" and "fuck" and whatnot on the streets, on the bus, in the park, everywhere. This hardly phases me. Folks no longer greet each other with a polite "hello". If I say hi to someone in the elevator of my building more often than not I am awarded one of those cold do-I-know-you? looks. Whatever. What really rankles me is the vociferous rudeness of sales clerks, bank tellers, librarians, those who choose to work with the public. Can I get a "thank you" out of the sales clerks at CVS? They rarely say anything at all. Thank goodness for the cash registers displaying amounts or I'd have no idea how much money to shell out. That comes to $10.99, miss, thank you. Fuck that. I'd have an easier time getting a smile out of a corpse. Today I visited my local library. No problems there, right? While checking out my dvds, my "hello" and "thank you" literally died in the air as the librarian stared at me and scanned my goods like a zombie. She didn't even smile. This is at the library! What is up with these people?
At work on Friday night I responded to a young man's order for a T & T with my usual "My pleasure!". What's wrong with that? He guffawed and repeated the phrase to his frat-boy buddy, mockingly, in an exaggeratedly fawning English accent. I do not have an English accent. Perhaps I am fond of certain phrases which today seem antiquated. Perhaps I should have made the drink without comment, then simply rang it in while tapping my nails on the counter. Give me your money, jackass, and don't forget the tip. Maybe I should chew gum even. Maybe I am out of touch but I believe we could all use a rather large snifter full of common courtesy. Taken neat, of course. Those in the service industry and all those working directly with the public are on my shit list for failing in this department so miserably. Yea verily!
At work on Friday night I responded to a young man's order for a T & T with my usual "My pleasure!". What's wrong with that? He guffawed and repeated the phrase to his frat-boy buddy, mockingly, in an exaggeratedly fawning English accent. I do not have an English accent. Perhaps I am fond of certain phrases which today seem antiquated. Perhaps I should have made the drink without comment, then simply rang it in while tapping my nails on the counter. Give me your money, jackass, and don't forget the tip. Maybe I should chew gum even. Maybe I am out of touch but I believe we could all use a rather large snifter full of common courtesy. Taken neat, of course. Those in the service industry and all those working directly with the public are on my shit list for failing in this department so miserably. Yea verily!
7 comments:
When I don't get a "Thank You", I will sometimes smile and say "You're welcome" as I walk away.
'Round these parts (NYC's "outer boroughs"), we're lucky if a cashier hangs up his cell phone before completing a transaction. Some people are just important like that.
I have mixed feelings about this issue. I mean, sure, all customers have experienced crap service, people who are rude, or unhelpful, or just look bored & don't respond. There are a lot of people who shouldn't be in the service industry. But the service industry is also traditionally underpaid & underbenefited: you get a lot of workers who take the job because not a lot of other options are open to someone with their education or background or whatever; there's a lot of turnover, so you get college kids, kids just out of school, who perhaps only receive ragtag training & don't know any better. & if, as Enrique was telling me, this is the Era of the Child, when children have a hitherto underheard of importance to society, this is also the Era of the Customer. Unreasonable standards of service are expected, & unreasonable abuse of those serving the public is condoned. Who hasn't worked in the service industry & received the same rudeness etc. from the customer that the customer would not accept from the employee?
I don't mean to excuse rudeness, because I am a long time veteran of the service industry & I can still be polite (well, most of the time). & standards of courtesy in society do seem to be deteriorating, but I would rather be left alone in stores than have some employee 'meet-greet-feat-complete'* me like they're some kind of robot.
P.S. I work in a library & if you said 'hi' I would respond. & if you said 'thank you', that would be like manna from heaven.
I am largely underpaid and definitely under-benefitted (aka none). I am working as a bartender and I think I made it clear that even though I am perhaps overly polite I am not treated politely sometimes. This is not the norm. And when I venture out into the world to buy a tube of chapstick or whatnot I am, again, ignored or treated rudely (sometimes). This has nothing to do with how much one is paid or their benefits or schooling, please. I am seeking some kind of footstep of decent humanity to tip-toe across my brain.
Fuck all you whiny bitches. Shut your fucking pie-hole and get to work.
Nah, I spend most of my time driving in a rage of impotent fury--not due to reckless driving from my fellow cars, but mostly due to their total lack of courtesy.
Nobody seems to be interested in treating strangers with decency, hell, most people probably could care less about treating THEY KNOW will respectfulness.
Good point. And thanks for bringing up driving. I also have a beef with the way drivers completely disrespect pedestrians. I could stand in a crosswalk for ten minutes before a nice driver stops and waves me across. Do you really not have time to stop for a second? Are you that important? I walk pretty fast.
Okay, whiny bitch has vented.
I'm with you all the way on this. It's starting to become a grumpy-old-man-type obsession where I bet myself, "Will this clerk say thank you?"
I usually lose the bet. Depending on my mood, I will sometimes say, "you are welcome."
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