Aug
18
Respect for Others
August 18, 2008 |
Last night, I worked the Bengals game. Our Knights of Columbus Council has a concession stand with two other councils that we man and we get a cut of the money we take in for our respective groups. Most of the concession stands at Paul Brown Stadium are manned by one community group or another and is a good source for fundraising.
In any case, last night, the credit card machines went down at halftime (a common occurrence). As a result, the lines backed up 20 something deep. We worked the lines as fast as we could, improvising along the way when it came to credit card transactions.
Towards the end of the halftime rush, a father came up with his two sons. Obviously thinking that the long wait had to do with me and also thinking that I was an idiot, he proceeded to order as if he was talking to a second-grader. “I want two super dogs, two large Pepsi’s, a pretzel and a nacho. Do you have that? Again, that was two . . . super . . . dogs . . . two . . . large . . . Pepsi’s . . . a . . . pretzel . . . and . . . a . . . nacho. Do you need me to repeat that? Are you sure you’ve got it.”
It took everything I had to refrain from reaching across the counter, grabbing his shirt and letting him know in so many words that I had two post-secondary degrees and could most-likely take him down in a game of Jeopardy or any other test of intelligence of his choice. What’s worse is he did it in front of his sons who are being taught that it’s ok to treat people that way.
Let’s be careful how we treat people, especially when it comes to perceptions. Last night was the third game I’ve worked for the Knights and I’ve noticed how certain people react to us behind the counter. There are those who realize that we are working for charity and treat us with respect, courtesy and patience. And then there are those who think we are high school dropouts because that’s their perception of those who work concession stands.
The lesson I’ve learned from working these games is that we need to treat everyone with respect, courtesy, patience - no matter their job or position in life. It is what Christ calls us to do. We have to be 24/7 Christians and that includes when we are in a long line at the stadium concession stand. I’ve made this mistake before and I’ve now worked enough games to ensure I never make that mistake again.
Comments
4 Comments so far
This is so true. My parents made me get a job (my first) when I was 19 and on summer break from college, so I worked retail at a department store. People clearly perceived that this was my career and that I didn’t have an education, and treated me accordingly. I never knew how badly people were treated who are perceived to be uneducated or poor until that experience, but I’ve never forgotten it.
I mean this with the greatest respect, but both of you just disrespected other people with your comments:
“It took everything I had to refrain from reaching across the counter, grabbing his shirt and letting him know in so many words that I had two post-secondary degrees and could most-likely take him down in a game of Jeopardy or any other test of intelligence of his choice.”
And:
“People clearly perceived that this was my career and that I didn’t have an education, and treated me accordingly.”
We all do it.
Terry, you prove my point . . . we all do it. We have perceptions of others that are wrong and we can’t stand it when others mistakenly have wrong perceptions about us.
I realize I’ve been that man on the other side of the counter and my perceptions changed after my first time working a game a couple of seasons ago. But, I’m still irritated when others have those perceptions about me when I’m behind the counter.
Hate to hear the credit card machine is still as reliable as ever. I’m working the next game. :-)
It is incredible that they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the new stadium and still have such problems. Besides the hit or miss credit card machines they also brought a lot of the food service equipment over from the old stadium. We had one of our Knights get an electrical shock from the old junk.