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Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier this school year, for the first time, I decided to get a job working in the food service industry. It was the first real customer service position I had ever gotten, and it has already taught me so much. <\/span><\/p>\n In the few months I\u2019ve worked this job, I have experienced a plethora of questionable interactions with people; I\u2019ve had people come up to me at the front counter and pretend to \u201cmake it rain\u201d with dollar bills, I\u2019ve had a woman come up to me and scream in my face for something I didn\u2019t do, I\u2019ve had endless sighs and comments such as \u201creally?\u201d, or \u201cyou\u2019ve got to be kidding\u201d thrown at me due to the fact that I didn\u2019t have specific food ready \u2014 that we don\u2019t even advertise as having ready. Not to mention, numerous inappropriate comments about my appearance, prank calls and eye gazes have been gestured towards me. <\/span><\/p>\n I want, for just one second, any one of these people to step into my shoes \u2014 my incredibly uncomfortable, non-slip shoes, that is. Then they might understand why none of this is okay. They\u2019d understand what I go through on a daily basis; I work anywhere between six to 10 hours in a given shift, my breaks are short, I\u2019m running all over the place trying to get things done quickly and, all the while, I have to make sure that I have a smile on my face and that customers are being served very quickly. When you have the added factor of difficult customers that are for some reason \u201calways right,\u201d it can be exhausting.<\/span><\/p>\n In no way am I trying to throw myself a pity-party \u2014 I chose to take on this position and this workload. That being said, I honestly think that if at some point in everyone\u2019s life they worked a customer-service job, I wouldn\u2019t have to deal with these kinds of problems. <\/span><\/p>\n Working customer service is a great way to learn about several important aspects of life. You learn how to be more patient. Being on the other end of the counter teaches you how things work. There are times where I have 10 orders in front of someone, and they get upset if they have to wait 10 minutes. I\u2019m sorry, did you want me to just magically make those tickets disappear? You have to wait your turn, and if you were in my position, you\u2019d understand that.<\/span><\/p>\n You also learn how kindness can go a long way. A nice comment or a \u201ckeep up the good work\u201d can actually put a genuine smile on my face. And finally, you learn why you should be understanding and respectful of the people who are serving you. <\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, customer service can offer so many other great things. You learn about the lives of people that you otherwise wouldn\u2019t have known. For instance, I\u2019m beginning to learn the names of several regulars and about the many things that go on in their lives. Just asking \u201chow has your day been?\u201d has led to several conversations with random people, and often times it really brightens their day to have someone to talk to. It can be an incredibly rewarding experience that you wouldn\u2019t have gotten otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n While I have had several experiences that make me question why people are the way they are, I\u2019m beginning to notice a pattern. Most of my frustrating experiences have been with people of an older generation. The younger ones are typically more respectful and willing to wait and work with me rather than just immediately get upset and throw a fit. It almost feels as if the older generation has become so removed from what it means to work a customer service job that they have higher expectations than what can actually be met. However, the consideration coming from the younger customers seems like a positive sign to me; the future is bright and the younger generation has a more empathetic attitude that is understanding and respectful towards customer service employees. I hope that carries on over time.<\/span><\/p>\n As for everyone else, you may want to consider picking up a customer service position at some point. Maybe then you can begin to understand why things happen the way they do, and why you shouldn\u2019t be blatantly impolite toward the people who are serving you. But, hey, if you\u2019re going to be disrespectful, at the very least, could you leave a tip?<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor Earlier this school year, for the first time, I decided to get a job working in the food service industry. It was the first real customer service position I had ever gotten, and it has already taught me so much. In the few months I\u2019ve worked this job, I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}