"Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have be liked, but it's not like this compulsive need to be liked, like my need to be praised."
....................................Michael Scott (and Judy Koeck)
News Flash: I am a VERY non confrontational person. I don't handle conflict well and I don't understand at all the people who tend to thrive on it, create it, or go looking for it.
My basic work philosophy is; be kind, be helpful, and try to be a blessing to those around me. I'm very chill at work and I am friendly to everyone. So today at work I had quite the experience that leaves me shaking my head still!!!
Preface:
Let me say that this was one of the most stressful days for a lot of people at work! We had a group of 400 students and it required a lot of patience and teamwork. I don't really get stressed at work because I tell myself as bad or busy as it seems, nothing will last forever. I am only serving food for crying out loud, and the worst that can happen is someone waits 20 minutes for a cheeseburger or fish and may not be happy. No big deal. I have no control over how fast the food comes from the kitchen, but I can be friendly and do the best I can to accommodate the customers, so if they leave upset, it's not because of anything I've done.
Setting the Scene:
I was standing at the counter, with about 5 other servers waiting for cheeseburgers. The cooks were having a very difficult time turning them out as quickly as we all needed them and several customers had been waiting upwards of 15 minutes. I had my hand resting on the raised platform where the food is placed when it is finished. I need to add that this is a habit of mine; I do this all the time. As far as I was concerned, I was patiently standing there waiting my turn. I wasn't upset, frustrated, or angry.
The Act:
Anyway, my hand must have irritated the young girl next to me because all of the sudden she shouts, "get this lady her cheeseburgers first, because she is annoying the hell out of me." I turned to her (shocked) and asked, "who me?" She replied that I was exhibiting some kind of perceived "attitude." As I said, as far as I was concerned, I was patiently standing there waiting my turn. I wasn't upset, I wasn't stressed . I cannot even tell you what I thinking in the moments before she said this.
Still shocked, I thought I could just handle this with a simple apology so I kindly touched her on the shoulder and said to her that I was sorry if she thought I had a poor attitude, but that was not my intention at all.
Guess what? She would not even look at me AT ALL!!!! She just looked straight forward with this enraged (dare I say indignant) look on her face.
So I said again, "look honey....I just apologized to you. I assure you I was not intentionally emanating any bad attitude. Can you acknowledge that?"
Nothing!!!!
So I shook my head, walked away and ---------------- I let it go.
Well - - - - eventually I let it go. For a while there, I had steam coming out of ears over how rude and disrespectful she had acted and contemplated filing a complaint with the manager.
Epilogue:
In the end I decided not to file a complaint. I chalked it up to her being under stress and later, she saw me in the break room and randomly just said she didn't feel well; Still not acknowledging that her behavior was inappropriate-------but whatever.
I JUST
No comments:
Post a Comment