Most of you are probably done with your holiday shopping, but the stores aren’t closed yet. There are still people doing last minute shopping, and even on Christmas Day, the supermarkets, convenience stores, and many restaurants are open.
Just a reminder here — please remember to be respectful and kind to service and retail workers.
People in service and retail work very long hours for very low pay, and it’s not an easy job — take it from me, this type of work is extremely stressful and grueling. Many service and retail workers must work on Christmas too, and many don’t get overtime or holiday pay.
Someone told me today about a customer who screamed at a cashier because he had been working for 12 hours straight and needed to take a break to eat and closed his cash register.
Service workers are human. They have to eat, rest, and take care of personal needs. They have families and lives just like you do.
So please remember to be kind to service and retail workers, who work hard to make it possible for you to have an easier and happier holiday. Even if a worker seems a little stressed, short, tired, or needs to take a break, please be patient. There’s no reason to take out your frustrations on them unless they are being truly rude.
Lucky Otters Haven 
I agree! We always tip more around the holidays.
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Yes, service and retail workers deserve our patience, respect, and kindness (and tips in tipping situations) every day, and especially at the holidays when they are often working longer shifts, would rather be with their families or doing their own holiday shopping, and dealing our stressed out selves. They make the whole retail, hospitality, and entertainment system run, mostly for low pay. These really are very important people in our lives.
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I always try to leave more than the 15-20% tip if the service was good. If it was just average , I’ll still tip but at the standard amount.
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I tend to shoot for 20% as a minimum. I’ve had friends who worked table service. It is physically hard, complicated, and doing it well is a kind of performance art.
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I never waited tables (I don’t think I could do it) but my son has — he’s good at it, but yes, it is a sort of balancing act and you have to be “on” all the time plus have a good memory.
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
LuckyOtter has this 100% right.
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I’ve never understood why someone would treat somebody who is helping them like crap–they’re doing you a favor. I’ve gotten frustrated with tech support at times, but never got to yelling–and I’d step back and take a deep breath and remind myself that things weren’t their fault, it’s just a weird system or whatever.
But to yell at somebody behind the register? That’s awful. And in that situation? Wonder who else was there and where the manager was–if I was the manager I’d throw the customer out of the store.
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I’ve seen it happen a lot, and it’s happened to me. Some people think just because someone is a low level worker, that they aren’t quite human and are fair game to serve as punching bags. Most customers aren’t like that, though.
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I can only agree with you.
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