Columbus Day Lemonade

Columbus Day is one of those Monday holidays that are sweet for the regular workforce and a tad hellish for those of us in the retail biz. The business is much stronger which pleases the bean counters but can be one more particularly crazy day for the folks who've already worked the really busy weekend shifts. This Columbus Day was not only busy but brought in one of the nastiest customers I've dealt with in awhile. A perfectly mundane exchange ended with him calling me the "dirtiest s.o.b. he'd ever met".

It's immaterial to recount the entire exchange with the gentleman. It simply began with an innocuous question about a coupon and out of the blue devolved into the heinous insult portion.

I've worked in the food business over 20 years and with the retail and hotel work added in, I've worked with the general public over 25. Ugly encounters are a blessedly occasional but still unfortunate part of this work. One of the elements of the food biz that so thoroughly burnt me out on it was the constantly delicate balancing act of keeping those customers satisfied. I was literally to the point that I never wanted to have any responsibility for a steak again. Too done, not done enough, I asked for medium rare but there's still pink in it,ay yi yi....
When you watch a beautiful dish go from such careful preparation from someone working in impossible conditions to someone who chooses to complain for no other reason than they've had a bad day or are looking for a free meal, your faith in humanity takes a hit.

If you let it.

The fact is, it's the nature of the beast. Yeah, I know, self-help platitudes are a helluva lot easier to spin than to live by. I've let many a bad customer encounter unseat my entire day. I've seen many a restaurant crew schlep out of work after a particularly abusive shift and kick in that old vicious cycle of endless partying and not only took part in it but served as ringleader at times.

The difference these days is hopefully how I react to it. It's a matter of perspective. The entire exchange with that difficult customer lasted maybe 3-4 minutes tops out of a 24-hour day. At the end of that day, I dealt with a lot of decent customers and several of those were even cool to talk to. For that matter, I received the gift of another day on the planet. That's always a good thing.

There is no excuse for that dude's treatment of me. He should have been banned from the store for his abusive behavior. However, the only one who can affect my reaction to him and how much importance I place upon his behavior is me.

So I'm letting the moment and him go. How's it go....When life gives you lemons make lemonade. Frankly, as a kid I was more apt to eat the lemon and make this awesome sourpuss face that cracked Kristy up. So, when life gives you lemons, eat 'em and pucker up, baby!