Giving back the same energy

Photo by Jessie McCall on Unsplash

This female celebrity, who I never liked eversince, is in the news again for smearing the icing of her birthday cake to a server.

I’m really not into this cancel culture but can we please teach her a lesson this time?

I don’t tolerate disrespect especially when it comes to service people as they are not paid enough to be treated rudely. How would anyone feel if the server is your brother, father, friend or boyfriend and you saw him being laughed at after this celebrity smeared chocolate icing on his face?

And what pains me every time something like this happens, is how the server can’t do anything out of fear of getting fired. In this case he just stood there, surprised, kept a straight face, unable to do anything.

I’ve never worked as a server, but I empathize with them because I have worked in customer service and have my fair share of irate customers and guests and their unreasonable demands and verbal abuse.  It’s hard enough for service people to earn a decent living, but for other people to make it harder for them by treating them rudely when they are just simply doing their jobs is just too much.

I have a degree in Business Administration Major in Marketing, but I never believed in the saying “Customer is King”. I remember rolling my eyes in class when my teacher was discussing this during one of our sessions. Take note that this was the early-to-mid `90s, but even then, I felt that the saying is so dated. “The customer is always right”-slogan is so turn-of-the-century. There’s nothing wrong in giving customer a quality customer service, but not at the expense of the customer service people. Being too customer-centric means that you don’t support your own people. When I was still a phone agent dealing with hotel guests, I hate it when my manager would throw me under the bus and side with an unreasonable guest and give them what they want despite all my best efforts.

I usually mind my own business and avoid social interactions, but I am also that type of person that would stand up for a service person at any given time. There’s something about it that triggers me to do something and not just stand there and watch the abuse and feel sorry for the service person. I will not hesitate to call out a customer acting like an entitled toddler and disrespecting a service employee. In some instances, I end up arguing with them.  

If you are on the other side of this as a customer, always make sure that what you’re asking for is reasonable to begin with. Be kind with your words. Remember that you merely paid for the service, but not for the other person’s dignity. If you are a bit inconvenienced, it’s okay to let them know but make it a point that you’d still be courteous or at the least, civil. No matter how high you think of yourself,  you are not, in any way, above them. 

Never, ever make fun of them for a good laugh. This is so common these days because a lot are making careers out of the internet by playing pranks. I’ve seen this Tiktok video of a drive-thru girl who threw a drink to the customer after the driver loudly beeps the car’s horn at her. I say that is deserved.

I really believe we should normalize service people giving back the same energy, whether it’s negative or positive, that a customer is giving them. I also think that we should not just stand and watch when we see things like this. Our inaction is enabling these people to keep doing it.