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.
