It’s 6 a.m., and you woke up this morning feeling particularly sluggish. Your kids are watching "SpongeBob" as loud as the TV will allow; your new puppy peed in his kennel for the fifth night in a row; and you learn that your old Subaru Outback will be in the shop for another three days. All before you’ve had your first cup of coffee.

Instead of fumbling with your own $12 coffee pot, you decide to treat yourself to a cup at your nearest drive-thru coffee stand. On a normal day, you might appreciate your barista’s enthusiasm for life. But today, she seems to be the source of all your problems. She asks way too many questions first thing in the morning. "How are you? What size would you like? Would you like that hot or iced? Straws or a sleeve? Any whip today? Would you like your receipt?" She is the only thing standing between you and your morning coffee, and she’s questioning you like you’re being detained at Guantanamo Bay. So instead of being a polite human being, you give her a few condescending responses, tell her she is overbearingly happy, and leave without tipping. You probably feel a little better now that you have a coffee in hand and your inferiority complex satiated, but the fact remains that you have just gone out of your way to bring someone else down, and that is really not okay.

One thing you need to realize, my dear grumpy customer, is that your barista is simply doing her job. She would love nothing more than to tell you to “eff off”, and throw your coffee right in your lap. Luckily, being in the service industry has given her a ridiculous amount of self-control when it comes to dealing with a-holes. Trust me when I say that we understand what it feels like to have a bad morning. Yes, even peppy baristas have bad days. We’re not all morning people, and some days we just don’t feel like having 45 different conversations before noon. But we suck it up and come to work to serve you your pumpkin spice latte with a smile despite wanting to spit in your coffee.

The problem here is not that you are having a bad day. So what if you aren’t as perky or spirited as the rest of the world on a drizzly Monday morning? It happens. The issue is that you choose to take your aggravation out on people who are here to make your life a little bit easier. Baristas tend to sub in as human punching bags to the general coffee-drinking public, and chances are we understand your bad day more than anyone. We do tend to take a lot more crap than the average person. So instead of taking an attitude with your barista when she asks you how you are, think about maybe following that advice your grandma gave you over and over again as a child, and treat others how you want to be treated.

The lesson here? Be considerate to your barista (or, you know, everybody). Or at the very least, tip. And if you don’t, be weary. We might just give you decaf.