I was in the airport traveling from Philadelphia, on my way to Minneapolis. I was hungry for breakfast. I was at gate D9. There is a buffet-style restaurant right near this gate. I’ve been here before and I knew they had what I wanted for breakfast. Most airport and ‘travel’ food is mediocre, but as most goes, this was my first choice that day.
As I entered the line the girl employee looked at me. Apparently she didn’t know our language, or simply thought she didn’t need to talk. Either way, this must have been her way of saying, “Good morning. What can I get for you?”
I thought when I ordered, I’d try the same method communication that she was using – none. I found that to not work very well. We both just looked at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. Since I knew by now that she had either no communication skills, or a huge case of attitude-itis, I decided to brake the silence by verbalizing my order in the form of, “I’d like the bagel with egg and bacon please.”
She responded by handing me a pre-made biscuit with egg and sausage. I told her that wasn’t quite right and repeated my order. Her response was, “These are faster.” I told her I appreciated her concern, but speed wasn’t really an issue for me since I was on time that day and my flight wasn’t leaving for another two hours. She told me the bagel I ordered would have to actually have the ingredients put on it by her, and then cut in half, by her, making it take her more time.
Now that I realized this was another typical slacker, (who would have found herself out on the street had I owned the joint) only concerned about her time. So I politely informed her that what I ordered was right there on the menu, and that is what I would like. She responded by telling me, “Well I didn’t make the menu and I don’t agree with it.” I told her it doesn’t matter if she agrees with it or not, that’s what I want.
There was another time I made an order elsewhere and was asked if I had the exact change because, “That would make it easier.” We don’t have to even guess for whom, but I can assure it didn’t have anything to do with making my (the customer’s) life any easier.
Welcome to the world of the entitlement generation where employees now think they run the business and can do whatever they want, and feel it is the customer’s responsibility to make their job easier – and still think they should get paid.
My prediction is that one of two things will eventually happen: 1.) Since this is the generation who will be owning the businesses in the future, we won’t have many places to patronize. Why? Because they obviously have no clue how to treat people. And 2.) This is going to result in no one patronizing them. And here’s the funny part. The people of that same generation who don’t want to do what’s required for success, still want (and expect) things to be done correctly for them.
This is good news for the majority of people who want to run a business in the future. Since the entitlement generation will do such a crappy job of operating businesses, this will make almost everyone else look better. And, the ones who simply do what it takes, will look like superstars compared to these bozos.
My particular choice is that whenever possible, confronted with such poor entitlement attitude and lack of effort, I will patronize another business that really cares enough to hire employees who really care. If all of us did the same, the owners would soon get the message, and the employees who aren’t willing to do what it takes will be right where they belong – walking the street, or in the unemployment line. It’s time to stop sanctioning this incompetence and start sending a message by patronizing the business owners who care enough to hire the right kind of people, invest in the proper training of new employees, and as a result, provide services and products worth purchasing, over and over again.
