Whoa! I didn't expect that my article about Working in the food industry would come to part 4. I'm not sure up to how long will I be talking about this is I still have some thoughts in my mind.
Have you read the first 3 articles for this topic? In case you haven't yet, the first part was some of the positions that I had while working in the food industry and some of my roles, duties and responsibilities. Second part was about customer complaints. Third part was still about customer complaint that is brought about a bad service.
I guess for the fourth part would be about respect. We do respect our guests especially because they are the reason why we are in business. But how long should we hold up our anger and feelings if a guest humiliates us in front of everybody or if a guest threatens us or hurts us?
I too have felt humiliated in front of a lot of guests but I was able to keep my composure. It wasn't actually related to the food or service but the previous management. I was hired as a restaurant supervisor and the restaurant changed all their employees. A mother of a an old trainee who had her on-the-job training in the restaurant was asking us for an OJT certificate. I explained to her that we were all new and we don't know the certificate that she was talking about. She said that her daughter told her that her certificate was ready for pick up. Prior to that, the restaurant was closed for more than 3 months because of a fire incident. That is the reason why the new set of employees. The mother kept shouting at me and even banged our telephone and threw the stuffs on top pf the counter. She even told us that we have an unorganized management. She told me to call the old supervisor and asked about the certificate. How would I know the contact details of the old supetvisor when we haven't even met? I told the mother to calm down and to lower her voice but she still did made a scene.
For her to feel satisfied, I told her that I will ask about the certificate from our head office. She waited until I made the call and being a franchised company, I can make the certificate but the signatory will still be the franchisees. I relayed all the messages to the mother and that is the only time that she calmed down. She even apologized for me for everything that she have said and done. When she left, some guests were asking what happened. I remembered we even had a Php100 tip from one table. Probably they felt sorry for me or for us restaurant staffs. The mother went back to the store few days after when I told her that the certificate was ready for pick up and that time she had a smile on her face and was very peaceful and complaisant.
I know that the mother is not our guest but how about the other guests that I have encountered? Do they have the right to be an ahole? Talk down on us? Hurt us with physically, mentally or emotionally? Can't they just understand the situation that we were in? Should they always have to act all high and mighty?
I know some of them are thinking that most people working in the food industry haven't finished their studies yet. Whether or not a person has finished his or her studies, whether he or she is working in the food industry, I think no one has the right to humiliate or embarass a person. And now because of our modern technology, many can take a photo or a video of someone being humiliated in public. How many of you have watched some videos of guests embarassing the food staffs or any employee in general? How did you felt about it?
How I wish those who degrade other people will have a taste of their own medicine. Rich or poor, educated or not, we should treat each other with utmost respect and to always be kind to everybody. Whether it is the restaurant staff or the janitor, security guard, garbage collectors, salesperson, we have to treat them as how we would like to be treated. You wouldn't know maybe someday that person will be successful and you will be the one working for them. The world is vast and round. What goes around comes around. I feel like I want to sing the song of Alicia Keys with my last sentence. LOL. Seriously though, no one has any right to be rude and to be an ahole to everybody who is just doing their jobs. I hope that people would put their feet on other people's shoes so that they would know how it feels like to be embarrassed or humiliated. I hope that they get to experience how it feels like working in a service department. Yes we may have chosen this job but don't treat us as if you own us. We also have feelings.
I remember two of our trainees was scolded by a guest. I forgot the scenario but both were different and happened on different days. I couldn't jump in to help my trainees because the guest was already in beast mode. When the customer left, our trainees cried their heart out. They both said that they didn't expect everything that the customer would say. We all just calmed them down and advised them that each complaint is an experience for them to learn. There were some unpleasant words that had been said and they shouldn't take it to heart. I know one of them continued her career in the food service. As for the other trainee, I don't have any updates but I hope that she is also doing well. Just like what they say, experience is the best teacher. Still it doesn't give other people the right to put the blame on them and release their anger to others. It would have been better if the customer called for the attention of the trainee and/or the manager on duty to talk about what happened and to not lash out their anger in front of other people.
