Apparently Mondays and Grubhub don't mix. At least for me! Last night, I got an order shortly before the end of my shift. When I got to the restaurant, the order wasn't ready. That's happened before, so I stepped aside to wait. As the wait got longer, though, the cashier asked me about the name on the order again. Then she went to talk to the cooks, who didn't know anything about that order. After some investigation, she discovered that even though the order had been placed online, it somehow wasn't in the restaurant's computers. ???? We ended up with her on the phone with her manager and me on IM support with Grubhub to keep them posted on the situation. At one point, I think the manager must have asked how I was behaving, because I overheard the cashier say, "No, she's being really nice about it." That made me think. Yes, I was frustrated about the delay, especially since it was going to make me late for a coaching session. (You know who you are--thanks for your patience!) But being nasty to the cashier wouldn't make anything better. It wouldn't speed up the order or make it appear in the computers the way it was supposed to. And given how stressed I sensed the cashier was with all the ringing phones and other waiting customers AND no other cashiers on duty, if I took my frustrations out on her, I'd be the jerk who hurt her feelings and stressed her out worse over something that wasn't her fault. After 20-30 minutes of waiting, the order was finally ready, and the rest of the delivery went smoothly. (A word to the wise: house numbers are REALLY hard to see at night. I highly recommend putting reflective numbers on your mailbox and/or having a light directly above the house number. It'll help not just delivery people but also any visitors or, heaven forbid, emergency responders who need to find your house after dark. As I've been learning the hard way, GPSes aren't always trustworthy.) These days, it's fashionable to be take-no-prisoners passionate about our opinions and beliefs. It's okay, even good, to feel strongly about something and advocate for it. At the same time, consider this poem:
"I have wept in the night "For the shortness of sight "That to somebody's need made me blind; "But I never have yet "Felt a tinge of regret "For being a little too kind." -C. R. Gibson
So as we speak out for or against the issues that matter to us, let's remember this. No one ever changed their opinion by being yelled at. Write on, Candice P.S. Remember my post from a few weeks ago about Indie Writing Wisdom, the book to which I contributed a chapter on editing? It's available now! Check it out here!
(Photo: Andrew Thornebrooke, Unsplash)
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