When I go to work I often come in contact with waiters and waitresses that are also going to their jobs and park in the same employee lot as me as there are many restaurants that are our neighbors.
Often we don’t speak, but I try to wish them a good day. Though we are in the same type of service industry, my hourly pay doesn’t depend on how many people walk in the door and what kind of mood they are in. I have never waitressed, but based on my own experience with customer service I know their job is much harder than mine.
The other day I took a phone order from a woman who seemed to delight in being condescending to salespeople.
Ma’m, do you spell your first name E-V-E-L-Y-N?
No, Kathy, it’s E-V-E-L-Y-N. Didn’t you hear me?
Evelyn, just bear with me a moment. I have to get the sales tax off your order and the computer is running a little slow this morning.
Kathy, what did you do wrong now? Oh and Kathy, when you fold that skirt make sure there’s no creases in it so that when I take it out of the box and put it on it’s perfect.
That is just a small portion of the penance I did. It went on and on………always with the “Kathy”. Constantly referring to someone by their first name doesn’t make you less of a bitch. Evelyn.
On Wednesday, at just past six and half a mile from where I work was a gas explosion right outside a popular restaurant in the Plaza area of Kansas City.
There have been many serious injuries and several people are still in the hospital. Everybody made it out of there with the exception of one waitress.
Her body was found the next day and one of her coworkers said, “Everybody loves her. Nobody can say anything bad about her.”
She was described as politically active, funny, had a law degree and loved working in the restaurant.
One of the hundreds of service workers that travel to that area every single day and try to eek out a living……
I hope she never encountered an Evelyn on her shift.
I hope somebody wished her well on what would be her last day on this earth.
