Let me paint you a situation: Its early in the morning, you need your caffeine fix and you need it now. You rush to the drive thru hoping to be in and out in a flash. But you end up waiting in line for 10 to 15 minutes, just to get to the front of the line and your orders messed up. Now you’re annoyed, late, and you don’t even have what you ordered, so what do you do?

Would you take your anger out on the person handing you out the order? That seems silly right since its not really their fault and to be honest you don’t even remember if you actually said iced or not? Unfortunately, some of the rudest interactions I’ve had have come from situations just like this and other service industry employees would agree. If something goes wrong you’re instantly the bad guy or even worse you get treated as if you’re not even there. Some of the instances I can think of off the top of my head just from this past week include being yelled at, people refusing to extend their arm to get the order, an exchange done entirely without eye contact (even to grab the drink, I was kind of impressed), and my personal favorite being yelled at for not taking a coupon for a retail location. You may think that’s bad but there are much worse instances that make even the most veteran service employee shudder.

So the real question is why? Why do some people see it as okay to treat those that are merely trying to work as if they are lesser, as if they are simply meant to take whatever punishment they can dish out? Perhaps its because they don’t even realize they’re doing it or they’re just having a ‘rough morning’? Or maybe they enjoy it knowing that the employee can’t rightfully say something back in fear that they would lose their job? Speculation aside, who knows why people do what they do. But the thing is it needs to stop one-way or another. There are proper ways to go about dealing with frustration and taking it out on another person is never the solution no matter how annoyed you are.

These employees work long hours and get paid very little for it, one of the reasons service jobs have a pretty high burnout rate. So what are some things that really stand out when you see a service worker looking pretty stressed out? Make eye contact is a big one, not the creepy kind but a normal friendly one can help. Try not to pay entirely in change; there are only so many totals of $3.18 given in just nickels one person can take. If they ask you to repeat your order, don’t get annoyed; they’re just trying to make sure its right. Don’t stay on the phone when you go to pay, a good rule of thumb is as I get up to pay I ask the person I’m talking to if they can hold on a minute until after I’m done. Don’t get annoyed if your food or drink is taking a long time, you can only cook so fast. Probably one of the biggest ones I can stress is if you’re going through drive thru at a place, actually reach out your arm to grab the item. Too many times have I seen people stick their hand barely out the window cause whoever is working to have to stretch to them, I mean come on now its just awkward.

Just remember these people are just trying to make a living and are just like you. If you think that you’d hate if someone did that to you, don’t do it to them. If you see someone being rude to a service employee, say something, someone has to and the employee can’t. And lastly, just be nice and remember it’s just a drink/ food; it’s not the end of the world.