Being Nice is Cool Too

Well don't you just look fun!  CREDIT.

I have officially decided that some people go to restaurants just to complain.  They wake up in the morning, realize their life sucks more than they anticipated it would and throw on some pants so they can go out and ruin someone else’s day so theirs sucks just that much less.  I imagine them sitting in the car on the way formulating new ways to be totally awful human beings.  It’s like a game that I, as a server, am forced to be the center of with no prior consent.

I get it; life really sucks sometimes.  Trust me, there are days that being a total bitch would really make me feel better.  But we all know that isn’t nice.  So I pull up my tights and guess what?  I get the eff over it.  I don’t find my way to a restaurant where people are just trying to do their job and put them through forty-five minutes of torture.  I don’t complain that the beer is too cold.  I don’t get pissed because only light ranch is served.  I don’t say my burger was awful after devouring the whole thing in two minutes flat.

While I realize that sometimes it seems like shared misery is the answer, I can assure you it’s not.  I can almost guarantee you won’t walk through those doors, back into the big, bad world and feel better.  You might feel fuller, but you certainly won’t feel better.

What might make you actually feel a little better would be coming in, sitting down and trying to let yourself actually enjoy a meal.  Food tastes much better without a side of pissed-off.  Rather than using that forty-five minutes bringing someone else into your misery you could put it aside and enjoy those wings.  You never know, maybe afterwards you’ll feel better.  Or at the very least, you spent a little bit of time not thinking about whatever is bothering you.

You can have it back later if you want.  CREDIT.

A very wise corporate trainer once told me to “leave my shit at the door.”  And that’s what I do, if I’m in a bad mood I don’t bring it into work with me.  It’s my job to be happy even when I’m very far from it.  Even when my grandma died I had to go to work and pretend like it hadn’t happened.  That certainly wasn’t easy, but you know afterward I did feel better.  I’d gotten out of my own head and taken time to not dwell on things.

So while that advice has certainly helped me at a place where being peppy is expected no matter what, it’s also helped me in life.  Sometimes all you can do is take your shit and leave it for a bit.  You get some things done, you do what you need to do and then later if you want to pick up that shit and take it home with you, you are more than welcome to.  But maybe you’ll just decide to let that shit lie.  Or take less of it than you brought in the first place.

All I really know is, even if you don’t take my advice, please don’t bring your attitude into my place of employment and dump it in my lap.  You don’t want it and I REALLY don’t want it.  Sit back, eat your food and let me do my job.  Which is to make you have a better day in addition to keeping you fed.  I promise I’ll try not to let you down if you promise not to be an asshat.  That seems fair.