I had a cheery bus driver this morning.
I know. Its unbelievable, but you have to listen!
She smiled when I got on the bus. She was conversational, but not overly so. It was enough to restore my faith in bus drivers everywhere.
If any of (the 86 of) you happen to be bus drivers, please take a leaf out of the book of my driver this morning:
You can make the difference between someone starting the day right, or wrong.
Sometimes, all it can take to improve your outlook on your day is for someone to be polite and chipper in a situation that does not already require it of them. Most bus drivers range from 5-10 on the Surly-o-meter, why is this?
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, the interactions with the people who cross your path from day to day; whether they’re clients, customers, passengers, passers-by, buskers, farmers, shop-attendants, evangelists, telemarketers, employees, employers, subordinates or simply fellow countrymen, should always be polite and courteous.
There really is no excuse for being rude. It’s selfish and inconsiderate.
Stop it.
Well I don’t feel so bad for not dropping you to work this morning now 🙂
I’m totally with you on this one. I hate it when people are rude to me for no good reason. If they’re upset about something else then there is no excuse for taking it out on other people.
It especially surprises me the number of rude people in sales/hospitality. If you are rude to me, I will not come back if I have an option. If you are nice to me, I will be back, and back, and back…
It always makes my day when someone is nice to me, or gives me a random compliment, or something for free!
I always tried to be nice when I worked in retail. Some days though, when you had enough nasty people, you couldn’t keep making the effort. So I can forgive some retail people for not being overly friendly because they might be having a bad day. Rudeness is never good though – I’ve been having the worst experience with the Telstra shop, and when my contract is up I’ll probably go elsewhere. There are only so many chances you can give people.
This is exactly why, whenever I answer the phone at work (which is probably most of the time), I try and be very cheerful. Not in a I-don’t-even-care kind of way, but more of a I’m-so-glad-you-called-how-can-I-help way 🙂
It seems to be working!
I agree as well. There’s nothing worse than being on the wrong end of someone else’s grumpiness having been no part of the cause.