before anyone jumps in with an āop has clearly never worked in the service industry,ā i work in a public facing library job
i have a patron who is mean as a snake. wonāt respond when you greet her, barks orders at you, and is generally nasty
i couldnāt stand her & dreaded the moment she walked in the door, until i stopped one day & went āwow, to walk around feeling unhappy enough to treat people so horribly every day. what a difficult way to live.ā
and so my tactics changed. i made a point to be extra kind & friendly to her. she changed her hair color one day & when i complimented her on it, she was very caught off guard & said āoh, thank you. my whole life iāve thought i was ugly.ā
now weāre at the point where she shows me pictures of watercolor paintings she made & says hi when she walks in the door. sheās not my favorite patron, but sheās perfectly okay. most unpleasant people arenāt inherently rotten, theyāre just unhappy & coping with it poorly
assume people are always doing their best, even if their best happens to fall a bit short. assume good intentions