Fire Walk With Me

Primarily because my mother taught me to. Never gave it much more thought than that until I realized that a lot people don’t do this. 

Why not? Because it’s their job? Because they’re getting paid? Guys, a lot of the people who do good things for you are being paid to do it. If you were rescued by a fireman, you would thank him, right? Even though it’s actually his job to rescue people? If a doctor helped you with a physical problem, you’d probably thank him, right? Even though you’re personally paying him to do exactly that?

But most service industry jobs, we are particularly ungrateful for, even though these are things that help us get through our day more smoothly. Say you ride the bus. You didn’t have to walk to work today because a bus driver took you there. The bus didn’t go there by itself. A human being drove it. The driver put up with early-morning traffic so you didn’t have to. Isn’t that worthy of a “thanks” once in awhile?

I’ve had service jobs of various kinds in the past. I remember quite vividly how many people felt entitled to treat you like dirt. Not just failing to acknowledge a job well done, I mean actually abusing you for doing it. Especially in any sort of food service job, people get treated like the gum somebody scraped off their shoe. People who spend their own work day being unappreciated and abused will turn around and dish out the same treatment to the people who put together their value meal so they don’t have to cook that night. Don’t be that guy. People in the service industry are people and deserve to be treated with respect. 

Most of all I’m sure anybodywho busts their hump all day doing a particular job would like to feel, at the end of the day, that it was appreciated. So tell the lady who bagged your groceries thanks, okay? She did that for you.