The Business
Had a really rough time today.
Only people working in the service industry can really understand the level of stress involved. People look at a job like mine and dismiss it as being easy, boring, dull and perhaps below themselves.
So how can stress possibly be involved in that? Right?
Ok so working in the service industry provides a routine of sorts. And yes that routine isn't exactly difficult. However to adopt a condescending view of the matter is to ignore a crucial element of the industry.. human beings.
See, this is why anybody who hasn't worked in the industry would struggle to properly empathize. Generally speaking human Beings will be behave in a particular way according to society. By this I mean, what most consider to be acceptable.
Somewhere, something has gone horribly wrong.
It is acceptable for people to eat like pigs and throw food on the floor. It is acceptable for people dining in a fast food restaurant to compose an origami like concoction of rubbish across one or several tables. It is acceptable for parents to allow their children to run amok, leave further messes or even for them to urinate etc somewhere and then expect another to clean it up.
Who is to blame? The industry has long promised quick and fast service. For many years the doctrine was not for people to spend a long period time inside the restaurant. Ray Croc, founder of McDonald's built his empire on this very purpose. Get them in, serve them, get them out.
However with time different facets of how the business is conducted has changed. Customer expectations have changed. I keep hearing about how the modern customer is more sophisticated. So the service evolves. Different aspects to the menu's are added. The simplicity of the arrangement is forced out the window in an effort to remain relevant. There were something like seven items on the McDonalds menu to begin with. Now there's fifty.
Think about that for a moment.
The items in themselves aren't especially difficult to make... but it's automatically fifty things to keep in check at any given time. As I said before this has been done in order to keep up with the customer. It begs the question, when is the customer going to keep up with us?
It isn't about herding customers in and out anymore. We want them to stay. The "service" we are providing is no where near as "disposable" as it once was. And that's what we're trying to do. Provide a service. So why hasn't the customer kept up with the times? Why are they still treating the place like a dumpster? Why do customers have to automatically adopt a stance that we are trying to screw them over? 99% of employees are honest to god trying their best to make your experience as good as they can.
This brings me back to my original point. Where did it all go wrong? When did it become acceptable to treat the person who wants to SERVE (ie help) you like a piece of dirt? Why is this a one way street?
What people working in the service industry understand is that dealing with human beings means dealing with people. And I've got to tell you that some people are just plain jerks. Nobody really likes a confrontation and yet people in our "lowly" position are constantly found in that very situation. When people are treating you like something they scraped off their shoes does it really matter how easy the routine of the work is? Is the reasonable response not stress?
Rest assured I enjoy my job, but some days will really test you. It's something anybody who doesn't work in the service industry will scoff at. We'll never have the level of respect we deserve for enduring the psychological games we have to play on a minute by minute basis, because after all, the socially accepted point of view is that it's just a lowly plebs job.
Lowly plebs job? Maybe for those who aren't trying to be good at their work.
Only people working in the service industry can really understand the level of stress involved. People look at a job like mine and dismiss it as being easy, boring, dull and perhaps below themselves.
So how can stress possibly be involved in that? Right?
Ok so working in the service industry provides a routine of sorts. And yes that routine isn't exactly difficult. However to adopt a condescending view of the matter is to ignore a crucial element of the industry.. human beings.
See, this is why anybody who hasn't worked in the industry would struggle to properly empathize. Generally speaking human Beings will be behave in a particular way according to society. By this I mean, what most consider to be acceptable.
Somewhere, something has gone horribly wrong.
It is acceptable for people to eat like pigs and throw food on the floor. It is acceptable for people dining in a fast food restaurant to compose an origami like concoction of rubbish across one or several tables. It is acceptable for parents to allow their children to run amok, leave further messes or even for them to urinate etc somewhere and then expect another to clean it up.
Who is to blame? The industry has long promised quick and fast service. For many years the doctrine was not for people to spend a long period time inside the restaurant. Ray Croc, founder of McDonald's built his empire on this very purpose. Get them in, serve them, get them out.
However with time different facets of how the business is conducted has changed. Customer expectations have changed. I keep hearing about how the modern customer is more sophisticated. So the service evolves. Different aspects to the menu's are added. The simplicity of the arrangement is forced out the window in an effort to remain relevant. There were something like seven items on the McDonalds menu to begin with. Now there's fifty.
Think about that for a moment.
The items in themselves aren't especially difficult to make... but it's automatically fifty things to keep in check at any given time. As I said before this has been done in order to keep up with the customer. It begs the question, when is the customer going to keep up with us?
It isn't about herding customers in and out anymore. We want them to stay. The "service" we are providing is no where near as "disposable" as it once was. And that's what we're trying to do. Provide a service. So why hasn't the customer kept up with the times? Why are they still treating the place like a dumpster? Why do customers have to automatically adopt a stance that we are trying to screw them over? 99% of employees are honest to god trying their best to make your experience as good as they can.
This brings me back to my original point. Where did it all go wrong? When did it become acceptable to treat the person who wants to SERVE (ie help) you like a piece of dirt? Why is this a one way street?
What people working in the service industry understand is that dealing with human beings means dealing with people. And I've got to tell you that some people are just plain jerks. Nobody really likes a confrontation and yet people in our "lowly" position are constantly found in that very situation. When people are treating you like something they scraped off their shoes does it really matter how easy the routine of the work is? Is the reasonable response not stress?
Rest assured I enjoy my job, but some days will really test you. It's something anybody who doesn't work in the service industry will scoff at. We'll never have the level of respect we deserve for enduring the psychological games we have to play on a minute by minute basis, because after all, the socially accepted point of view is that it's just a lowly plebs job.
Lowly plebs job? Maybe for those who aren't trying to be good at their work.