The Soapbox Archives:
It made me think of my 2 months as a waiter at the South Seas restaurant in West Hartford before my senior year in college. I wasn't very fast, though I was very conscientious. 4 tables was my limit, but then, I took care of those 4 tables. My manager had taken me aside to explain that the other older waiters had been doing the job for years and had become jaded in the way they treated certain customers because those customers, as a group, tended to tip poorly regardless of the service. As a result, those waiters treated those customers poorly, and as expected, they got bad tips from those customers.
My manager explained that treating customers poorly because you expect a bad tip is a self-fulfilling prophecy: They're going to tip you poorly because you gave bad service. The trick is to treat everyone well; you're going to get whatever tip you're going to get. Don't give them a reason to tip you worse. I took that advice; some of my best tips came from those stereotypical customers. One even gave me a 50% tip and told my manager I was the best waiter he had ever had. So much for stereotypes.
On the other hand, being a waiter is a really tough job. It's a very demeaning job because, while it's dependent on the quality of service you provide, you're also at the mercy of whatever mood the customer is in. If they're having a bad day, then nothing you do will be good enough for them and you'll get a bad tip as well as a tongue-lashing. (one customer told my boss to fire me, in front of the other customers).
Most people view bad service as an excuse to punish a bad waiter and they do that by leaving a bad tip. And the waiter probably won't understand why; they'll just assume that you're cheap or just a bad tipper. What good does that do for anyone? I think a better way to handle it is to leave a normal tip and then tell the waiter why you were disappointed with the service (in a polite way) and that you hope they'll give you a reason to leave a better tip on the next visit. Let them know that they'll get a chance to redeem themselves.
Just an opinion from a former waiter: fulfilling a customer's request ("May I have some ketchup, please?) has a higher priority than figuring out someone's bill.
I decided to fill out the warranty card to register the product. I was thinking that it'd be a good idea to register the product if they decided to issue a recall on the product.
Where the hell is he going with this?
At the bottom of the postcard that I had to fill out had the lines:
"GE Applicances takes your privacy seriously. All information you rpovide shall be held in strict accordance with the GE Appliances Privacy Policy. Read the full policy at their website.
All that's fine and dandy, but if they're serious about maintaining my privacy, why was I suppose to put all that allegedly private information on a two-sided postcard where anyone could read it in transit?
Well, they might have been using a passive-aggressive technique to get you to register your product on their website because it was less work than putting the postcard in an envelope to mail it..
I remember thinking that this guy was an idiot.
Who's your hero?
I was thinking how the average police officer wakes up in the morning and when he looks in the mirror over the bathroom sink, he or she has got to be thinking, "I could take a bullet today protecting someone from a bad person." And they get dressed, kiss their spouse, hug their kids a little extra harder...and go to work anyway.
I was thinking about the people at the fire department whose job is to do the exact opposite of what a rational mind would say to do: run into burning buildings to look for people who need help. A lot of NYC firemen died in 2011 because they were running *up* the stairs looking for people to save when the Towers came down.
I was thinking about those doctors and nurses in China who had to handle that sick man when he came into the hospital in 2002. No one knew about SARS back then and a lot of staff at that hospital died. That could happen to anyone in the medical field. How many doctors went to Africa to save people from Ebola? And what about all the people who ran *towards* the explosions on April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon?
And then there are the soldiers, the men and women of the Armed Forces who are asked to be shot at, to put their bodies in harm's way and stand between America and a lot of really bad people. And even when there was a draft, there were people who *volunteered* for this duty. And they went into a foreign land to take the fight to the enemy so they wouldn't have to do battle at home.
2016 Presidential candidate Donald "The Donald" Trump did everything he could to avoid going to Vietnam and yet chose to belittle the sacrifice, duty and honor of Senator John McCain who volunteered for a life of service to his country as did his father and grandfather and he put himself in harm's way. Flying into enemy territory with a load of bombs and rockets *once* is an incredible act of courage; doing it *23* times while the other side is sending missiles and bullets his way goes beyond a mere "hero". Donald Trump has no concept of the kind of honor it takes to refuse repatriation while his fellow soldiers were still being held in captivity.
Flying an attack plane into battle is awesome enough; taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier should qualify any naval airman for a shoulder patch that says "Badass". John McCain's Silver Star, Bronze Star, as well as The Purple Heart and other medals he *earned* was the country's stamp of approval that we had a genuine American hero here and he proved that he was a man of honor. Only a man of honor would go to Congress and make an effort to negotiate a win-win solution instead of just being a captive attack dog for his party. And heroes don't go around bragging about how great they are.
The Donald? He did what he could to avoid military service. A high draft number? He could have volunteered, just like Senator McCain. Instead, he chose to sit on the sidelines and yap at his betters.
PS: Yes, there are certainly many others who I would consider heroes; however, I think most of us are quite clear as to who isn't qualified to tell us who are the heroes and who aren't.