Be Nice

There is very little that makes me angrier than seeing people act rudely toward folks who work with the public (who don't deserve it).

1. The person being yelled at is at work.  They can't say or do much to defend themselves while at work.  Most importantly, they cannot leave.  If you are yelling at a person at work, it's like yelling at someone in a cage.

Work/Jail.  Same thing.

2. You have no idea what is going on in that person's personal life.  As human beings, it is our duty to show kindness and compassion to one another (strangers included).

I work as an insurance agent.  Yesterday, a gentleman came in to add his son as a driver on his auto insurance policy.  The problem was that his son only had one year of driving experience.  In my state, there is a rather large surcharge for inexperienced operators (people who have had their drivers license for less than three years).  Adding this gentleman's son to his policy made his premium increase substantially.  Yelling ensued.

Customer: What do you MEAN it's going to be that much a month?!  I've never had a wreck; I pay my bills on time!  Where are MY discounts?!

Me: I'm sorry, sir, it's the inexperienced operator rate that's making the premium so high...

Customer (interrupting): HE'S NOT INEXPERIENCED!!!

Me: He only has one year of driving experience.

Customer then stormed out of my office, slamming the door behind him.

Facepalm so hard.

If you read my post from yesterday, you know that it was a really difficult day for me.  I was nervous and upset the entire day.  The last thing I needed was for someone to yell at me for something that I had zero control over.

Of course, the man yelling at me yesterday had no way of knowing what I was going through.  It is for that very reason, though, that I am so sweet and nice to cashiers, baristas, customer service representatives, etc.  I have no idea what is going on in their personal lives, so it is best to assume that everyone needs to be handled with care.

The moral of this blog post: be nice!