Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 8


Day 8: Rude on the Cellular Level


            There are times when the staff will wonder, “what did your mother teach you?” The guests can be so rude it begs the question if they consider the staff human. One example of this rude streak in guests concerns their cell phone etiquette.
           
            Guests have a tendency to walk up to front desk with either a Bluetooth headset or cell phone pressed against their ear. If they decide to continue their call uninterrupted and signal the staff to wait, because they’re on the phone, they will most likely proceed to stand at the front desk and continue their conversation at the front desk. They will stand there, talking in the staff’s faces about whatever they deem important. We do not care to hear your conversation. Move away from the desk. In almost every other situation the person who is subjected to your phone call can move away from you, but we are trapped behind the desk. You can move.
           
They also will try to juggle both the phone conversation and their interaction with the staff. Since the staff cannot hear the other side of the conversation, we inevitably interrupt each other and the guests don’t really listen to the staff. Do they understand that in doing so, the guests are demeaning the staff? These same guests will come down later with many questions because they were not paying attention to the staff. It will cause the staff to want to rip the phone out of their hands and call their mother and question her as to why he raised such a rude person. The guests are communicating that the staff are not really the same level of human that they are, and then they wonder why the staff just treats them like just a room number.


            As the staff, we must understand that the guests have probably dealt with a high volume of service industry soldiers and their experiences will vary. The guests have probably encountered a number of rude associates (frankly, I have worked with some), but this is one instance where the excuse of past occurrences doesn’t really apply.  

            

3 comments:

Christopher Selland said...

Haha, yes, you make it very clear here. I completely understand. I work at a cafeteria, and when I'm cleaning a counter at the buffet, people reach around me to get food as if I'm just an inanimate object that poses a bit of an annoying obstacle to their hungry reach for food. I understand your struggle.

Anonymous said...

This is a great post! This used to happen to me ALL the time as well. I used to work at Starbucks and people would come up to me blabbing on their cell phone. They wouldn't hang up when it was their time to order, they would simply tell their friend to hold on a second, "grande non-fat mocha, hold the whip" and then keep talking. This absolutely rude behavior used to drive me crazy! They treat you as if you are dirt on the bottom of their shoe and they made it very clear that they could really give a shit about you! I'm very glad I read this post and I'm very sorry you have to deal with people like that.

Blog said...

This situation sounds frustrating. Your writing made it clear how much you hate your position...Maybe instead of letting it get to you so badly, try turning it into something funny...perhaps laugh a little and tell them you will wait until they are able to talk to you..? I don't know if this would work or not but it is just an idea.