That's what I thought when I checked the mailbox and saw my charge cord for my laptop! Yaaaayy!
Anyway, last night while shopping with Tim I had the joy of being served by a clueless high school-aged girl. It was quite a funny situation, so I thought I'd share. It's not funny in a "ha-ha" kind of way, more or less a "what is the world coming to" kind of way...
Tim and I had been shopping for some time and both of us had become rather thirsty, we decided to stop at the Tim Horton's in the food court for a quick beverage and then continue shopping. I immediately decided I wanted to get a frozen lemonade, which I would highly recommend. (It's basically a lemonade slushie, delicious.)
As we approached the cash area, the high school-aged girl barked "HI" at us before she was finished a transaction with another customer. Once I was able to walk up to the cash, she then barked at us again. (NOTE: I'm using the word "bark" to describe how she sounded when she spoke. Usually a person barking creates an image of an angry person, this girl wasn't angry, she just spoke harshly. Still barking, in my opinion.)
I placed my order for a medium frozen lemonade, I quickly asked Tim if he would like anything, he said "I'll have the same" so I told the girl "make that two" and held up two fingers as a visual. (Not intentionally because I thought she was dumb, just out of habit.)
The girl told me my total was $2.02, I gave her the money and waited for our beverages. I thought to myself $2.02 isn't much, perhaps there's a promotion on. Within a minute, a frozen lemonade was produced for our enjoyment. I waited a few seconds and confirmed with Tim that I did order two lemonades, then once she was within earshot asked her if she rang in two lemonades to which she responded "No, just the one, my love".
With this I told her to punch in another medium lemonade and she informed me this time that my total was $1.57. I produced correct change and received the beverage, thanked her and walked away.
A safe distance from Tim Horton's, I discussed with Tim the fact that not only did she charge me more for the first medium lemonade, she did indeed give us two small lemonades... A total of (initial order - one, drink size - two, price - three, second drink size - four) four mistakes. I know she's a high school-aged girl, trying to make some sort of income, and hey - perhaps she was new, but seriously, there was no one in line behind us and she didn't appear to be under any pressure. I felt to bad for the poor kid that I couldn't possibly go back and point out all of her mistakes.
This all makes me wonder, what kind of people are we going to have in our service industries in the next few decades? Is this young girl an accurate representation of the generation up and coming? Are we going to get barked at by a professional (sadly, that's what she is) and the barker feel that it is an appropriate way to speak to customers? Are employers allowing employees to make these many mistakes per order, or even per hour, or per day? Should I begin to worry about what kind of education and training this girl is receiving in her workplace? What about the education she is receiving in our own provincial school system, should educators be held partially accountable for the way our future leaders are turning out?
In reference to my last question, by this time next year I will be finished my Education degree and be teaching children considerably younger than this particular girl. I do feel that as a teacher who spends five-plus hours with students five days a week, we are making a huge impression on these children. I believe it is important to demonstrate behaviors that are acceptable in public relations. And I'm not blaming this girl's teachers for her communication habits or her inaccuracy in serving me, I'm sure much of a person's behaviors are influenced by several different things such as their home life, social life, school life, etc. I guess I'm just beginning to see the world differently, and this specific incident really sparked my thinking on how people become who they are and how they interact with others.
If you have a minute to sit and think about this, a lot of time is sure to pass you by.
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