I wrote this while I was pregnant and never posted it. I guess I thought it sounded grouchy and didn't want people to think I was just being hormonal. Now that my newest little guy is six weeks old, I am still probably hormonal, but have decided to post it anyway. So here it is. Please don't feel that I'm always a grouch.
It is no secret that customer service these days is not what it was just a decade ago. While many can shrug their shoulders and go on, I find this very difficult. Now, before I go any further, I will say that when I'm pregnant, I am way less tolerant. Pregnant or not, though, I still think this is a huge problem. I know that there are some exceptional people in every business place, but I shouldn't have to hope that a certain person is working on the day I need to visit that business.
You may remember the commercials. I remember one where employees of a major retailer were making themselves available around the store asking people if they needed assistance. "Can I help you find anything?" "How are you today?" I remember going to that store as a young child and finding that to be true. Everywhere we turned someone would ask if they could help us with anything. Now I can go to that same store and have to search half the store before I find an employee, then chase them across the next half of the store to get their attention. Then when I ask them to help me find something, they act inconvenienced. Instead of taking me there, they point me in the general direction. If I do want someone to go out of their way to help me, I have to go in a store where employees get commission. People apparently are only courteous if their paycheck depends on it. I feel like one's paycheck should depend on it, commission or not.
When I drive through a fast food restaurant (with the exception of one), the people taking my order are often rude and have forgotten all manners. Then many times when I drive up, I can go through one and even two windows without even having a word spoken to me. As a matter of fact, at two different restaurants, before I've even pulled up to the second window, I've seen someone dangling my food outside. I wouldn't even have to stop! Heaven forbid I ask for condiments!!
This is a big deal. You never know what the person you are being rude to is going through. One day, several years back, I'd just been to the doctor and found out my baby no longer had a heartbeat. Later that day, I had to run inside a local drug store to pick up a few small items, and the cashier was on his cell phone the whole time. I couldn't even ask him a question, though I'd attempted to several times. I still remember that after all these years. He didn't know what I was going through. But by paying attention to me and helping me with my question and treating me like I was a somebody, he might not have sent me out of the store bawling.
Anyhow, I would be happy to see people skills being taught as a part of the training process after being hired on somewhere (because apparently they weren't taught at home). I really wish that employers would take extra efforts in their hiring process, and try to hire kind and courteous people.
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