Customer service workers need to have volunteers who wait outside their jobs that exist only to give hugs and patience awards out to those employees who are coming off shift. After waiting tables for years, I try to be as forgiving and nice as possible because of the shit I have seen heaped onto myself and coworkers. – furgenhurgen

Yep, it’s from Reddit again. I swear that there are always thought-provoking posts on Reddit that pop up when you really need them. They make you dig deep down into yourself and pull out your humanity, recognizing that we all share experiences though our lives are separate.  And many times these experiences lead us to tears.

Having worked many customer service jobs for a long, long time (it felt longer), I can completely attest to the amazing advice that you see at the top of this post. It is advice with a heart, and accompanied by many tears from those who work or have worked in this exhausting field. Honestly, the people who made these people cry (read the entire post on Reddit) should be forced to work in these thankless jobs under the same conditions that they dished out –  without a break for a month or two. I’m sure that not many would last before they too caved in.

If you’re a boss, watch your employees closely. Don’t just acknowledge when they produce for you. Watch what they are enduring and recognize the conditions. Dig deep into yourself, and ask if you would want one of your loved ones to go through what so many service workers go through. If the answer is an emphatic “NO!!!”, then you have some changes to make. Keep making those changes until the environment is balanced. It will become balanced because the customers will realize that they too have a responsibility. We all have our share in making life fair and balanced for everyone, and it has little to do with mechanisms like money (which take away the recognition of our humanity).

The business world (and status quo) have been brain-washing everyone with irresponsibly dangerous rhetoric. If you can’t recognize what inhumanity looks like, then you need to immerse yourself into the worst possible conditions in life until you recognize how wrong they are.

No one gets off being crappy to another living being, human or otherwise.

We should not have a society where we need this kind of advice. Something needs to change. Just saying…

Note: Empathy – it should be a prerequisite to being human.

A thought from Piccsy:

Have you ever had a conversation that just got so depressing that you had to change the subject? Only because you were exhausted with explaining your thoughts to those who won’t see your side. When it happens with someone close, it hurts that much more. It makes you wonder why you think so differently from so many others.

• Why are some of us not as worried about ourselves as we are about humans as a collective?
• What are the experiences that changed your thought process?
• Why is it that you look at the world differently?
• Why is it ok to NOT worry about long term repercussions of tunnel-visioned global decisions?
• Why must we split up people into categories without admitting that every human hurt alike?
• What is it going to take to stop this dangerous spiral into extinction we’re experiencing?

How do you answer the questions that a more inexperienced generation is smart enough to ask? You know the conversations that we should be having, but aren’t, because we’re too busy making sure that we follow biased and flawed legislation. Things like indefinite detention, institutional protectionism, or drone assassinations, or cyberwarfare by governments, or hidden negotiations to protect profiteering, or the approval of intolerance, or… there are just too many horrid examples coming to life all over the world.

I can’t help but be thankful that the people of this world are becoming more closely related everyday (whether they like it or not). Separations are closing because bridges have finally been crossed in the name of hope, love, and acceptance. Maybe it will help this devolution that this world is stuck in. Maybe it will force people to realize that life is much more important than things. Maybe people will start to think more about tomorrow then they do about today. Maybe the majority will grow a heart and a conscience.

Here’s a recent case of blind injustice that is being perpetrated by the US in the name of commercial protectionism. The frightening aspect of this case is that it is happening to a non-US citizen, which is opening the eyes of the world…again. Something definitely is wrong with the governments of the world. And it’s all tied to a simple cause: money. Fortunately, there are more people who understand the real repercussions of this case and so many others just like it:

“A generation for whom the net is not a ‘new’ technology are being hung out by an older generation of lawmakers who do not understand the new reality of the connected digital planet.” – Tom Watson on Richard O’Dwyer

Sometimes I wonder how so many people who believe in change have the strength to continue against the never-ending injustices in this world. I hear that they feel the same way that I do. The daily news makes it hard to keep believing, and yet they rise up each time a small piece of good news arises. It really is hard to give up on hope, isn’t it?

And here’s a bit of that hope from Two Door Cinema Club singing This is the Life:

Just a little bit of light, because we all have to hang in there and work on stopping the injustices. And that takes positivity in every form that we can find.

Piccsy had this really good reminder that sometimes we need to do more than fix something that’s broken. I don’t know how anyone else feels, but looking around at our world, it really does seem to be the better approach. Our world is in a world of mess that no one in charge wants to change, much less fix. War, bigotry, non-communication, and too many -isms has led to us looking over the edge of the abyss. But it doesn’t have to be this way if we choose to move past it all. If those in charge won’t help move positive change to the forefront, then it’s up to each on of us to move past those who only build gates in every aspect of society. We don’t need any more gates. We need more bridges.

So, here’s the thought for the day: Sometimes it really is better to start with a clean slate and build something better.

And here’s one inspirational book that might help us in that department -> Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution by Marjorie Kelly