Treat others how you want to be treated

I have always respected my elders and everyone in general. I’m not sure if this was something that was instilled in me from my parents, teachers or others but I obviously learnt it somewhere along the way when growing up. Working in customer service you come to realise a lot of people missed this lesson as they were growing up and are just completely rude for no reason.  It’s an interesting study into human behaviour when you have to be nice to people no matter how they treat you.

I fail to see how me asking somebody how their day is or if they would like some help makes them think they automatically have the right to be rude to me. Sometimes they snap back at me without listening, some of them just completely ignore me and don’t even respond but instead prefer to pretend I don’t exist. Others and this is my favourite, literally hold their hand up in front of me to stop me from getting close to them and tell me to go away. Seriously people, am I that intimidating to you that you need to block me? By the way I don’t ever get close enough to be in someone’s personal space in the first place.

There are however, a bunch of lovely customers who politely thank me, whether they accept my help or not. These are the ones I love. People who obviously have manners and know it’s respectful to treat others the way you would like to be treated. My favourite customers are the ones who stay and talk to me for ages, I know their life stories and sometimes they have been coming in to see me for years. I LOVE these women. They are the reason why I go to work (well apart from my need for money in order to live).

Wearing the neck brace has made people’s reactions so much more interesting. The most common reaction has been people asking me why I’m wearing a neck brace – mostly because they are just nosy and have to know everything. A few lovely people have actually gone beyond that and had a conversation about it with me and expressed genuine concern for my wellbeing and even said they hope I’m feeling better soon when they leave. These people restore my faith in human nature (trust me it gets tested every day). One lady today asked me from behind for help and when I turned around she just froze and couldn’t stop staring at my neck and then eventually apologised for asking for help. It was mildly hilarious that a piece of cotton around my neck could freak her out so much she was lost for words.

Do you think about the way you treat others before you say something to people? Do you consciously make an effort to be polite to people each day? It would be a more pleasant day for everyone if each morning we all did this.

In addition to this please don’t judge people by their appearances because it has nothing to do with who they are. My car accident was not my fault and yet it’s affecting the way everyone is interacting with me now that I have the neck brace on. Don’t judge a book by its cover; read a few pages before you form an opinion.

Toni x