Server Not Servant

Archive for August, 2010

Umbrella Rules

Book Chapter: Personal Pet Peeves

Posted: 08/24/2010

I’m sorry for the delay between posts. I’m spending most of my time finalizing a proposal for a prospective publisher. Today’s post is just a spontaneous, rainy day rant.

We’ve had tremendous weather this summer in the Northeast, so we really can’t complain about a couple of days of rain. As always, on my way to and from the gym this afternoon, I engaged in one of my favorite pastimes, watching humans. Today’s observation, and personal pet peeve, people walking on Boston’s narrow city sidewalks with HUGE umbrellas. One woman had a two-tiered monstrosity that could easily keep a family of 5 dry during a monsoon. It was so big and out of place that it was funny. It looked like she stole it off of a table from a restaurant patio.

Another woman had an over-sized, promotional umbrella with Bacardi emblazoned on the top. She was charging down the sidewalk with the umbrella leading the way. I have to admit, unlike many days, people were pretty good today about being aware of each other, tilting and lifting or lowering their umbrellas when passing a fellow pedestrian.

I thought it would be fun to open up the discussion to umbrella war stories, and your suggestions for Umbrella Rules for the general public.

I’ll start:

#1- If you’re on a crowded city sidewalk with an umbrella intended for a golf course, picnic table or the beach, be aware of other humans and make room for them. Invite your unprotected brothers and sisters to join you for shelter. There’s plenty of room.

Permalink | Posted in Personal Pet Peeves | 11 Comments »

“If you don’t like serving, get another job.”

Book Chapter: Introduction

Posted: 08/11/2010

There should be no doubt about the need to raise awareness about the need for mutual respect and common courtesy between service industry workers and their customers. In fact, all human beings could use a reminder about civility. If you’re skeptical at all, read the comments posted in response to all of the stories about Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who dramatically left work and the plane following an altercation with a passenger. The vitriol on both sides of the discussion is unsettling.

As of this post, there are 133,700 people who ‘like’ Steven Slater’s facebook page, and 169 discussions with hundreds of comments. I started my own discussion on Steven’s page to respond to some of those comments:

Title: “If You Don’t Like Serving, Get Another Job.”

I’ve read every thread on these discussion boards. Every time a discussion surfaces about the relationship between customer service industry workers and customers, someone is quick to say, Tough luck, it goes with the territory. Suck it up. All jobs suck in some way…, or something similar. There’s a common misconception that service industry workers are looking for pity or special treatment from customers. In a lot of cases, that notion is dead wrong.

I’ve been researching this topic for several years, and what gets lost in the discussion is that most workers, especially thoughtful professional servers, are just looking for decency from customers–No special treatment, just a little mutual respect and common courtesy. It’s really not asking too much.

Nineteen percent of all customers are either impolite, disrespectful or downright rude according to the 200 current and former service industry workers who completed my questionnaire. In a lot of cases workers do ‘suck it up’ and say nothing because they can’t for fear of retribution, including termination. They deal with abrasive, surly, nasty, insecure control freaks every shift, and they tolerate a lot more than any human being should.

Because of the antiquated adage about ‘the customer being always right’, the pendulum has swung too far, and several customers have an entitled, ‘I pay you, I own you’ mentality, and are abusive to anyone serving them. It’s time to push back as individuals and as a society and say, No more.

Steven’s actions have already created a dialogue and raised awareness by igniting a media firestorm. I hope a lot of thoughtful conversations result in more people thinking about what ‘walking a mile’ in a server’s shoes is really like, and that we start to treat each other the way that we would like to be treated. It’s not that hard.

Good luck, Steven. Sincerely-Patrick Maguire Boston, MA 

PS- I’m very interested to hear from anyone who has been on a plane since Steven Slater’s encounter and theatrical departure. Did you sense that passengers were any more aware of their interactions with the flight crew and each other? Thank you.

Permalink | Posted in Introduction | 8 Comments »

My New Folk Hero

Book Chapter: Customer Hall of Shame

Posted: 08/9/2010

This is classic. Think of the number of times you would have loved to escape from horrific customers through a trapdoor or an inflatable chute. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story. I’d love to hear first-hand accounts from passengers or other crew members. Even if this guy gets fired, for now, he’s my new hero and I need to interview him.

Article from the Wall Street Journal, 8/9/10:

Flight Attendant Pops Emergency Chute, Escapes Plane at JFK

By Sean Gardiner

An upset flight attendant at John F. Kennedy Airport activated his plane’s emergency chute, slid down then made his way to his car and drove home, according to an airport official.

JetBlue Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh was taxing to a stop at Terminal 5, Gate C around noon Monday when a passenger got up from his seat before the plane’s pilot deemed it safe to do so. The man was trying to remove his baggage from one of the plane’s overhead compartments when the flight attendant confronted the man and asked him to return to his seat, the official said. The passenger and the male flight attendant exchanged heated words. For reasons that are so far unclear, the flight attendant then activated the inflatable emergency slide, went down the chute and ran into the terminal, the official said.

The attendant then took a shuttle bus to the long-term parking area at JFK, retrieved his car and drove home, the official said.

Police picked the flight attendant up at his home Monday afternoon and brought him to the Port Authority Police station at the airport for questioning. (No word on whether the flight attendant was one of the many former NYPD officers in jetBlue’s employ.)

“At this time, we are working with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to investigate this incident. At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crewmembers at risk,” said Steve Stampley, a JetBlue Airways spokesman.

Update from the Wall Street Journal: The Flight Attendant grabbed 2 beers from the galley before heading down the slide. Smart man.

8/10/10 update from the New York Times.

8/10/10 update from the Daily News.

Please forward this link and join the Server Not Servant Facebook Group.

Permalink | Posted in Customer Hall of Shame | 4 Comments »

Fully Committed

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 08/3/2010

After recently watching Fully Committed , a one-man performance starring Gabriel Kuttner, I reflected on times I’ve seen customers behave like children when they didn’t get what they wanted. I recalled a sleazy guy from NY attempting to coax a Royal Caribbean Cruise Concierge into giving his group a specific dinner table for the entire cruise, despite the fact that he had neglected to make reservations by the stated deadline. After the concierge said “No” several times, explaining that the table was promised to another guest, Mr. NY actually said, I hear Royal Caribbean is a ‘can do’ cruise line. Well I’m a ‘can do’ kinda guy. Let’s make this work, big guy. Some people have no shame and no clue… (He didn’t get the table.)

Fully Committed is a very captivating, funny show. The play features Kuttner (Sam), a struggling actor, answering the phones in a dingy, makeshift, basement office at a very chic Manhattan restaurant. Sam contends with  juggling the throng of demanding, snobby, and manipulative callers vying for tables. Here are a few excerpts from a recent Boston Globe review by Christopher Muther:

Is there a job that is less rewarding or appealing than being tethered to a telephone, juggling reservations for the entitled at a sizzling-hot four-star Manhattan eatery?… The classism, social jockeying, bullying, petty threats, and downright harassment faced by reservations clerk Sam Peliczowski in Becky Mode’s comedy “Fully Committed’’ would push even the strongest man to look more fondly at a career with the bomb squad…

…Kuttner plays 37 characters for this one-man show. With few pauses, he deliciously sends up these broadly drawn stereotypes of Manhattan’s elite, as well as those who want nothing more than to rub elbows with them.

There’s a cathartic and poignant moment at the end of the show when Sam realizes that conviction, combined with respect and decency, trump condescension, arrogance and elitism. Sam is an easy guy to root for. If you’re a fan of the underdog, you’ll love this show.

The show is performed at a cool outdoor amphitheatre on the banks of the Charles River in Brighton, MA. Please check out the website for Fully Committed, and enjoy the show if you are in the Boston area.

If you currently work in a customer service capacity, or have ever worked in a job serving customers, have you ever been unable to deliver exactly what someone wanted (you were Fully Committed) and had a customer snap or act innappropriately? How did you handle it?

Please share your thoughts. Thank you.

Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 6 Comments »