Go Back To Jersey, Ya Moron
In general, I like helping people when I can. I like teaching. I like knowing shit. I don't mind sharing shit I know.
However. If you are standing on the street, map clutched in your hand, camera around your neck, from now on I will be trying to avoid you. Why? Because you, tourists of San Francisco, are mostly rude when you ask me things.
You interrupt me. You do not say "excuse me please" or even just "excuse me." When I oh so graciously take the time to actually help you, you do not thank me. You have an attitude like I OWE you the answers you seek. Last week when someone asked me how close we were to the Embarcadero, and I was tempted to say five miles instead of the truth (two blocks), I realized I was close to snapping. I do not work for you. My bosses can ask me anything and I will drop everything to get them an answer. But they pay me a lot of money to do that. Plus, they're almost always really nice to me. They always say thank you when I help them.
But if you're at a bus stop reading while you wait for the bus, do you want to be interrupted with "Does this bus go to Bart?" by someone standing too close, and wearing an "I Love San Francisco" t-shirt? I don't. If you're going to interrupt me, at least do it nicely. I'm all for representing the people of San Francisco as nice, helpful people. But don't you want to represent wherever you're coming from as a place that grows nice people also?
It made me realize I like helping people who act like they appreciate the help. Clearly I should never become a teacher.
So instead of doing the immature thing and lying to rude tourists by giving them wrong directions, I'm going to do the different immature thing from now on and tell them I don't know. I don't know how often the bus comes, I don't know if it stops at California, I don't know if you can transfer to Geary, my watch is broken, I've never heard of that place, I don't know how close we are to the Wharf, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
However. If you are standing on the street, map clutched in your hand, camera around your neck, from now on I will be trying to avoid you. Why? Because you, tourists of San Francisco, are mostly rude when you ask me things.
You interrupt me. You do not say "excuse me please" or even just "excuse me." When I oh so graciously take the time to actually help you, you do not thank me. You have an attitude like I OWE you the answers you seek. Last week when someone asked me how close we were to the Embarcadero, and I was tempted to say five miles instead of the truth (two blocks), I realized I was close to snapping. I do not work for you. My bosses can ask me anything and I will drop everything to get them an answer. But they pay me a lot of money to do that. Plus, they're almost always really nice to me. They always say thank you when I help them.
But if you're at a bus stop reading while you wait for the bus, do you want to be interrupted with "Does this bus go to Bart?" by someone standing too close, and wearing an "I Love San Francisco" t-shirt? I don't. If you're going to interrupt me, at least do it nicely. I'm all for representing the people of San Francisco as nice, helpful people. But don't you want to represent wherever you're coming from as a place that grows nice people also?
It made me realize I like helping people who act like they appreciate the help. Clearly I should never become a teacher.
So instead of doing the immature thing and lying to rude tourists by giving them wrong directions, I'm going to do the different immature thing from now on and tell them I don't know. I don't know how often the bus comes, I don't know if it stops at California, I don't know if you can transfer to Geary, my watch is broken, I've never heard of that place, I don't know how close we are to the Wharf, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
posted by Green at 6/17/2006 01:02:00 PM
2 Comments:
I can't imagine how annoying that must be. Ugh...ungrateful, rude, assumptive people are horrible.
My boyfriend and I like to do nice things for his grandma. He bought her a grandfather clock one year for no real reason. We also bring her flowers for her garden. I pull the weeds so she stays out of the sun. It's great because no matter how often we do it, she's always tickled, like it's totally unexpected and just the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her.
His mother is jealous of how much attention we give Granny. She doesn't come right out and say it, but she thinks she deserves that kind of attention. But when we do stuff for her, she has this attitude of "it's about time you treated me how I deserve - what else do you have for me." It takes all the good feeling out of being nice.
A little gratitude goes a long way.
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