Baskin Robbins, Pizza Street, M. Isabella’s, Panera, University Book Shop, The Kansan, KU Catering. Over the past seven years, I have worked a part-time job at each of these companies. Some for as many as three years, and one I lasted just five hours.
However, I learned something from each of them, and while I didn’t always enjoy going to work (particularly to open Panera at 5 a.m.), I never begrudged the necessity of having a job.
Working as a student is invaluable. You meet people who don’t necessarily go to the same school or share the same interests. Part-time jobs teach you social skills, the value of earning your own money, accountability and flexibility.
That being said, in any restaurant or retail store you can distinguish between a customer who has worked a similar job and a customer who has never been behind the counter.
The majority of these people end up doing one or more of the following ignorant things.
Here is what not to do when interacting with the name-tag-wearing people behind the counter:
1.Just don’t leave a tip, because we’re already getting paid, right? This is what we’re here for anyway.
2.Blame us for things completely out of our control: prices, the way the food tastes, the temperature of said establishment.
3.Treat us like we’re less than you, like we’re not there or like we don’t have the power to mess with the food we’re bringing you.
4.Talk on the phone while we try to decipher between your conversation about how short Kim’s skirt was and how you don’t want your soup actually in the bread bowl.
5.Tell us we’re wrong about the ingredients in the food item from the menu we had to memorize and have been eating for the entire time we’ve worked there.
Being disrespectful to the people serving you food is arrogant. A black apron, polo shirt, or goofy hat is not an excuse to abuse or disregard someone.
Caitlin Thornbrugh is from the
University Daily Kansan, University of Kansas via UWIRE
