I work at a low paying customer service job. I serve coffee to people who are often grumpy, ungreatful, and sometimes just plain mean. I’ve learned to take it all in stride. Today, I learned from a coworker that we were “Too happy” while we made your sandwich. You were so offended by our good mood at this often soul sucking job that you took time out of your day to complain about this to our manager. I am so sorry my good mood befouled your prescious sandwich. From now on I will be try to be as emotionless and dead-eyed as you’ve come to expect from customer service employees. —just another customer service drone
This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2013.
Thanks, much appreciated.
I declare shenanigans on this post! There is no way someone would complain to a manager that a staff member is too happy, if I were the manager I would laugh in the customer face! So I say to you OP a big o good day.
If you apply for something that requires a hairnet, hat, uniform or “sensible shoes” then you are either serving shit (food industry) or cleaning shit (nursing) …. both would gross me the fuck out!
Another reason for the return of the Automat
nope, I bet this is a legit posting. I have had customers complain about the most ridiculous things. and being ‘too cheerful’ is a complaint my boss got about me in the old days. of course, he may have made it up because he hated my manner on the phone with clients but had to admit, it worked. (this is ex boss by the way, not my current one who kisses my size 10s)
op, don’t change a damn thing. if I were still hiring i’d grab you in a new York minute. enjoy your work, enjoy your day, it’s just one idiot, and can you imagine how hideous it must be to be him/her?
There are those that joke, laugh and carry on, myself included, all the time. From the customers point of view though, it could be directed at him for all he/she knows.
But you are correct in that some people just look to foul the moods of others because they have nothing to wake up for.
I’d rather see a smiling face as opposed to someone who hates getting up in morning to go to a job they despise….smile everyone.
Agreed with Molly, don’t let them bring you down.
I was once reprimanded because my boss felt I had to have the clients “like me”. ME!
But I wanted to do him (my boss), so I didn’t really bitch back about it…
And no, never got the opportunity… dammnit! Denis, are you still out there?
i know people that have been reprimanded for being too nice at work. they want robots
This is probably real post. But what the OB is leaving out is the fine details. Like they may have been singing, or shananagining around and the customer felt they were not being professional? Either way you’re a sandwich artist so who the heck cares what the customer says. As long as their foods right then they should have taken their bad mood n pissed off. Rock in OB.
Perhaps the happiness was mistaken for foolishness? I have no doubt that you’re a friendly and happy person, OB. I have tons of patience when I am in service-related situations. Having said that, if I visit the local sandwich shop for my lunch break, time is of the essence. If employees making my lunch are laughing and carrying on, to me that would appear they are wasting time and not taking their jobs (and time limits), seriously. I commend you for your great service and I hope this was legit…that you were being friendly and happy and loving your job, and not being silly, joking around, and wasting time…..the customer’s time, other customers’ (in-line waiting) times, and your boss’s time.
Just some miserable old fart that hates anyone in a good mood because his life is a total fuck up and he can’t stand the sight or sound of anyone enjoying theirs.
Or they thought you were high…
Keep up the good work. There isn’t enough pleasant people in customer service these days.
Some people are menopausal douchbags from birth. Fuck ’em, be cheerful, be happy and don’t let a cranky old shit stain like that ruin your day!
Businesses cheap out in hiring an extra cashier and even an extra cash register to accomodate a large line up. When I I complain to managers about waiting a long time I criticize their managing. Everyone makes mistakes and also might get distracted that should be accomidated.
accomOdated, oh and don’t worry, there are no human cash registers;)
No human cash registers yet, but there is human furniture:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/sc3H4UkkZgk/maxresd…
Install more self scanners, eliminate cheerful cashiers.
Anyone who complains about someone’s cheerfulness to their manager deserves pity not animosity OP. Just keep doing what you’re doing, the majority will appreciate it.
WHAT IS BEING ‘TOO HAPPY’?
“Today, I learned from a coworker that we were ‘Too happy’ when we made your sandwich. ” Just another service customer drone
: “happy, a. (of person or circumstance) lucky, fortunate, contented with one’s lot.” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary)
Everyone strives to be happy, to live in a state of happiness (Gk. “eudamonia”) which is an end in itself, i.e., it is not an instrumental good to be acquired in the pursuit of something further, something else. It is the individual equivalent of ultimate social goods such as liberty, justice, and so on.
In addition to – or a consequence of – being an ultimate good it is not subject to division into parts. One cannot be partially happy and partially miserable. One is either happy or one is not. If you like, it is an exclusionary concept. Its presence dictates the absence of competing concepts. A corollary, of course, is that one cannot, logically speaking, be “too happy.” It is an oxymoron in the same way that one cannot say of an individual that he is “too healthy” or that a society is “too free” or “too just.” The phrases have no conceptual content. They are both, in philosophical discourse, “empty concepts.”
The question then arises as to whether this conceptual analysis of the nature of happiness has application in the present case. I see two applications: (1) Employing the concepts above, the customer service drone can engage the manager in Socratic fashion, demanding that he “define his terms.” What, in other words, does he understand by the concept of “happiness” and its application in individual concrete contexts? The manager will become nonplussed and possibly fire the drone but, at some cost, her philosophical rectitude has been maintained. (2) If the drone could have articulated the concept of “happiness” as given above then she wouldn’t be slinging sandwiches in the first place. She would be telling the manager what to do. It’s called having an education.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
What really gets me is the overly cheerful folk who work at the fast food outlets in the hospitals. I stopped to get a coffee after visiting someone who was dying. I really did not want to be told “have a nice day” by some minimum wage drone. Would a little sensitivity training be out of the question in these places?
I would LOVE to know if your manager actually ‘addressed the problem’.. hahah what the FUCK??? how would someone even know how to say someone else is too happy?? like are you serious? I would think the manager would spit in my face.. Id love to know if this was actually followed up with you.. because how the hell did the manager justify that complaint ??