I’ve never had as much respect for people who work in the service industry as I did after the Class of 2008 Welcome Back picnic last weekend. As a new member of the 2008 Class Board, who hosted the event, I had only just found out that part of my job description was, in addition to helping to plan fun events that included delicious food, actually helping to actually serve that food.

The picnic attendees seemed thankful for the free food, but were also incredibly demanding. I was surprised–we were giving them free lunch, and they were complaining that they were going to miss the Eagles game. I gritted my teeth, sliced more pitas, and as I washed cherry water ice out of my hair that night, I swore never to be rude to anyone who served me food ever again.

Regardless of how true or false the generalization may be, Penn students are widely stereotyped as rude and stuck-up. According to Sociology professor David Grazian, many service workers in the area complain that Penn students are notoriously bad tippers and that we treat those that serve us as if we are superior.

Class of 2008 Picnic (Dramatization) [seykota.com]

Luckily for us, many Penn students are lucky enough to have no experience working in the service industry. According to Grazian, it’s “very easy for affluent people to–forget the humanity of the people that are serving them,” and he also pointed out that in an urban setting like Philadelphia, the customer-employer interaction is one of the few instances when people from different socioeconomic classes interact.

In a class I took with Professor Grazian last fall, he declared that every American should have to work six months in the service industry before they should be allowed to vote. While he obviously wasn’t serious, he made a strong point about the key lessons that can be learned by serving others that many Americans are too lucky to ever have the chance to learn.

Those that have worked in the service industry are typically nicer to those that serve them. After working in many service jobs, including a delivery driver and an ice cream server, College senior Matthew Dintenfass said that he has “definitely” changed his behavior toward those that serve him. He is now more careful to leave big tips because he understands the frustration of tip-based wages and tries not to get frustrated if the service isn’t perfect. After my own experience working in a clothing store my senior year of high school, I am now careful to refold anything I take off the shelves, and I never leave unwanted garments in dressing rooms.

Sure, Matthew, I or any of the other Penn students that have had similar experiences might have been just as considerate anyway, but now we really get it. We understand what it’s like to be treated like servants, and we appreciate the value of a customer that treated us with respect.

I’m not pretending that my one afternoon serving food or my four months refolding t-shirts can even remotely compare to the experiences of someone who makes their living in the service industry, but it’s definitely taught me how to treat the person on the other end of my lunch order.

there’s another person on the end of that sandwich, and even if you’ve never worked a day in your life, they don’t deserve to be treated as anything less.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.