The American View: Small Jokes, Large Impact

People in customer service roles are often required to be nice to you no matter how boorish you act. Business Reporter's resident U.S. 'blogger points out that one of the fastest methods for sabotaging effectiveness in a modern company is to treat the Help Desk staff poorly. Don’t do that. I made a stranger’s day recently by letting her unintentionally insult me. This was a good thing for both of us. The story also helps to frame my argument on why we all need to go slightly out of our way to reach out to co-workers whose position requires them to ‘serve’ us in some capacity. Let me explain … I chose a random restaurant near my office for lunch. I was in a hurry, so, I picked the first fast-food place that I encountered in the strip mall near my office. This is relevant only to establish my mindset going into the encounter. I wanted a swift and efficient transaction, as did all of the people ahead of me in the queue. All of us customers were harried office workers; people for whom time was more important than the quality of one’s diet. Every minute wasted on lunch was extra time that had to be spent at work. Right as I reached the till to order, I noticed a promotional poster for a new menu item. I asked the salesgirl if their ‘for-a-limited-time-only’ bacon sarnie was available as a lunch combo. She nodded. I asked for it. [1] As the salesgirl bent over her touchscreen register to key in my sandwich, she mumbled ‘… (something) (something) large?’ I blinked. ‘I’m beg your pardon,’ I said. ‘I’m a bit hard of hearing. What was that?’ The salesgirl glanced up and raised her voice. ‘For your combo,’ she said. ‘Would you like it to be small, medium, or large?’ ‘Ahhhh!’ I said. ‘I’m sorry. I thought you were referring to me.’ I patted my midriff and sighed, as if depressed. ‘It’s a fair observation … I am a large fellow.’

[1] I was 99% certain that anything sold in an American fast food joint would come with too many chips and a gallon of sugar water.

Title Allusions: None this week.

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POC is Keil Hubert, keil.hubert@gmail.com Follow him on Twitter at @keilhubert. You can buy his books on IT leadership, IT interviewing, horrible bosses and understanding workplace culture at the Amazon Kindle Store. Keil Hubert is the head of Security Training and Awareness for OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining OCC, Keil has been a U.S. Army medical IT officer, a U.S.A.F. Cyberspace Operations officer, a small businessman, an author, and several different variations of commercial sector IT consultant. Keil deconstructed a cybersecurity breach in his presentation at TEISS 2014, and has served as Business Reporter’s resident U.S. ‘bloggersince 2012. His books on applied leadership, business culture, and talent management are available on Amazon.com. Keil is based out of Dallas, Texas.