Servers, clerks and parking attendants – invisible people

In this society, there are jobs which are taken for granted by many, such as servers, store clerks and parking attendants. And the irony – aside from the fact that each of these individuals are still people and deserve to be treated as such – is that these very individuals have the power to make your few moments in their realm pleasant and effective… or otherwise.

I’m reminded of a few scenes:

* A young woman who had completed her training as a parking attendant only lasted a few days on the job. Each time I saw her, I’d ask how she was doing and how her new work was going. And each time she responded sadly that her customers had been so mean to her that day.

* As a clerk was assisting a customer who demanded a discount though he didn’t have proof of his discount status, he looked down upon her and said, “Look at my title on my business card, and tell me I have time for this.” And there was a similar scenario in which a customer told a bookstore manager that if any of her co-workers had gone to college, they would’ve been able to understand his inquiry. (Incidentally, of course many of her co-workers had completed or were working on their undergrad, and several had completed their masters. Bookstores do tend to attract such employees.)

* Years ago, baristas adjacent to a retail store had shared with me the change in the demeanor of their customers. They’d witness their customers at the retail store, relatively polite to the clerks, shift into nervousness and rudeness when they stopped by to order their latte. The baristas had seen it often enough to assume a pattern having to do with the change in dynamic of the relationship their customers felt towards them.

* In line in a Siberian post office, I was waiting to pick up my mail. Someone had pushed their way in front of me, but I hadn’t been bothered by it. As I approached the window, the postal worker recognized me because I always asked after her health. She ignored the gentleman whose turn it was and who’d pushed his way in front of me, and she ran to grab my mail, excited on my behalf that I’d received letters from loved ones near home. Humorous, no?

Where does this come from? I would guess a couple sources: insecurity and bullying. Whether we’re headed to the theatre trying to find an inexpensive, safe place to park; or trying not to look like an idiot as we place an order at restaurant where we don’t know anything about the food; or whether we’re feeling bad about our job but better about it when we engage with a clerk. Maybe the cruelty comes because we’re feeling bad about ourselves.

So, as I see it, we could approach a solution from two angles, whether magnanimous or self-interested: that people in these invisible positions deserve the same respect as others, and that these same people can make our journey smooth.