In praise of polite service
We were in our local American-style "Mexican" fast food establishment recently late at night to grab something to eat after a long day at work.
The place was Taco Bell, what my ex-grandmother-in-law once called "that new Mexican restaurant."
After placing our order and sitting down with our food, I began to really pay attention.
The woman who took our order was pleasant and polite. The young woman who handed me our tray of food wore a big, genuine smile and was even more pleasant and polite.
I watched a team of nine employees move effortlessly around and beside each other in near silence as they moved through the tightly-spaced food service area preparing food, refilling food stations, taking drive-through orders and counter orders and getting those orders out to the right customers with as short a wait as possible. Added to the large number of people in the kitchen were a young man talking with the manager and two servicemen working on what appeared to be an electrical issue.
No one was loud, in the sense of unnecessary noise levels. No one seemed irritated with other people or with the close quarters. Everyone seemed, in fact, focused on doing their jobs well and alongside their co-workers.
I have to say I was impressed.
Fast food places are not necessarily known for their friendly staff, unfortunately.
Here in Brookhaven, Mississippi, we have a couple of fast food joints that are all too often characterized by less than stellar employee performance -- at worst, people yelling at cursing at co-workers or customers or acting like paying customers are a horrible inconvenience, or at best just being lazy and indifferent. The worst offender seems to have so many employees who meet these low standards that it seems like the interview process must involve questions such as, "Do you care? About anything? No? Good." "Can you mumble incoherently and get frustrated if a customer asks you to repeat yourself? What about rudely doing everything, never saying thank you or acting polite in any way? You can? Excellent. You're hired."
I'm always pleased to see people being polite.
I was raised to say "Please," "Thank you," "Yes, ma'am," "No, sir" and to hold doors open for people. Is it rude not to do these things? Not to most people, apparently. But I think it is rude and I don't like it. I won't allow my children to get away with not holding a door or not being polite in their speech.
Thankfully, it's been so deeply ingrained in them now that I would be surprised if they were not great examples of good behavior in this way.
Are people not polite anymore because it's a lost art, so to speak? Have we as parents not taught the next generation well enough? Are we not setting good examples ourselves?
I don't think it's necessarily the younger generations' fault. The rudest people, to me, seem to be adults -- not children.
Where did that all break down? Shouldn't we be killing each other with kindness? Or at least getting along as best we can?
I think the employees of Taco Bell in Brookhaven displayed that kind of polite co-existing that I like to see. Their smiles and seemingly-genuine desire to be of service made me happy and made me want to continue giving them my late-night gotta-have-a-fast-food-burrito business.
The place was Taco Bell, what my ex-grandmother-in-law once called "that new Mexican restaurant."
After placing our order and sitting down with our food, I began to really pay attention.
The woman who took our order was pleasant and polite. The young woman who handed me our tray of food wore a big, genuine smile and was even more pleasant and polite.
I watched a team of nine employees move effortlessly around and beside each other in near silence as they moved through the tightly-spaced food service area preparing food, refilling food stations, taking drive-through orders and counter orders and getting those orders out to the right customers with as short a wait as possible. Added to the large number of people in the kitchen were a young man talking with the manager and two servicemen working on what appeared to be an electrical issue.
No one was loud, in the sense of unnecessary noise levels. No one seemed irritated with other people or with the close quarters. Everyone seemed, in fact, focused on doing their jobs well and alongside their co-workers.
I have to say I was impressed.
Fast food places are not necessarily known for their friendly staff, unfortunately.
Here in Brookhaven, Mississippi, we have a couple of fast food joints that are all too often characterized by less than stellar employee performance -- at worst, people yelling at cursing at co-workers or customers or acting like paying customers are a horrible inconvenience, or at best just being lazy and indifferent. The worst offender seems to have so many employees who meet these low standards that it seems like the interview process must involve questions such as, "Do you care? About anything? No? Good." "Can you mumble incoherently and get frustrated if a customer asks you to repeat yourself? What about rudely doing everything, never saying thank you or acting polite in any way? You can? Excellent. You're hired."
I'm always pleased to see people being polite.
I was raised to say "Please," "Thank you," "Yes, ma'am," "No, sir" and to hold doors open for people. Is it rude not to do these things? Not to most people, apparently. But I think it is rude and I don't like it. I won't allow my children to get away with not holding a door or not being polite in their speech.
Thankfully, it's been so deeply ingrained in them now that I would be surprised if they were not great examples of good behavior in this way.
Are people not polite anymore because it's a lost art, so to speak? Have we as parents not taught the next generation well enough? Are we not setting good examples ourselves?
I don't think it's necessarily the younger generations' fault. The rudest people, to me, seem to be adults -- not children.
Where did that all break down? Shouldn't we be killing each other with kindness? Or at least getting along as best we can?
I think the employees of Taco Bell in Brookhaven displayed that kind of polite co-existing that I like to see. Their smiles and seemingly-genuine desire to be of service made me happy and made me want to continue giving them my late-night gotta-have-a-fast-food-burrito business.
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