Think about your first job. You'll have some pleasant memories, and you'll have some terrible ones when customers were extremely rude to you. You'll think about the terrible uniform. If you worked in fast food or as a cashier at a retail store, you'll understand the struggle of being cussed out by rude customers, huge messes, and people who forget that employees are humans too.
Although working with the public can seem awful, it's beneficial to have that job as a stepping stone in life.
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Working at Taco Bell for two years changed the way I view fast food and retail employees. Working with the public also instilled values in me that will be useful for a lifetime. For these reasons, I encourage my friends, family, and future children to experience this as well at least once in life. Here are six lessons that working with the general public will teach you:
1. Respect: You've Got to Give It to Get It
Okay, so you may not always get respect, but it is definitely necessary that you give it. It is important to give your customers, bosses, and fellow employees the respect that you desire from them. You'll find that being respectful makes it easier to get your requested time off, good shifts, raises, etc. Not only does having a job with the public teach you to respect your customers, but it also teaches you to respect employees when you are the customer! Many people seem to forget that fast food and retail workers are humans too. You'll realize just how hard it is to work a minimum wage job, and you'll definitely have more respect for those who do also.
2. Tolerance
As a working individual, you will have to learn to tolerate rude customers, bosses who seem to not care about your needs, and coworkers who are extremely different than you are. It's extremely hard to not get angry, but losing your cool could mean losing your job. Let's be honest, one lousy customer cussing you out because he or she ordered the wrong menu item despite your effort to help them simply isn't worth having to find another job. You learn how to work with and tolerate coworkers who have different working styles, interests, and backgrounds than you. This is valuable not only for working with the public, but for having any job.
3. Kindness is Free
Simply asking someone how their day has been or giving them a warm smile could completely switch their bad day around. A lot of people expect rude employees when they go to a drive-thru or have a cashier ring them up at Walmart. Be the difference to change someone's opinions on employees who work with the public. You never know, your smile could give someone hope or make an impression on a future boss. People simply don't forget great customer service.
4. How to Manage Money
This lesson goes for any job, not just working with the public. Having a job truly teaches you the value of a dollar and how to stretch it. Suddenly you're not okay with getting one of the most expensive items on the menu. You don't need that shirt from Forever 21. It's easy to spend a whole day's worth of pay in one shopping trip. I guarantee you'll begin to think twice about how you're spending and saving your money.
5. Clean Up After Yourself
It's obvious what customers have had to clean up the messes of other customers before. Those who have worked with the public will always throw their trash away and attempt to lessen the mess for employees. It may be "someone else's job," but I bet that you wouldn't want to clean up the big mess you left. For families with screaming kids, I know you want to get out of the restaurant as soon as you can before your children make you pull your hair out. However, I don't want to have to clean up the food your child threw on the ground. You don't like cleaning it up at your house, so why leave your area looking like a mess in someone else's place of business? And let's be honest, it's kinda gross having to clean up food that could have possibly been in someone else's mouth. Yuck.
6. Responsibility
This one is obvious, but having a job of any sort will teach you responsibility. When an employee is working for someone or some company, they are the face of that brand. This means that the employee has to take responsibility of their actions in front of customers. One bad employee can ruin a customer's outlook on the whole workplace. Employees are responsible for keeping the work place clean, being on time for work, their actions, their words, and much more. Working withe the public at a possibly minimum wage set job can help prepare you for the responsibilities for a better job along the road.
These lessons cannot be taught as effectively from home as they can be taught from the workplace. Everyone needs to learn what working with the public is like because even if they don't learn the lessons that I have, they will at least realize that getting an education is important so they don't have to continue to work for minimum wage for the rest of their life. I know we all have days where we hate the general public. Oh yeah, and don't forget that the customer is always right.
