I'm embarrassed to admit how much I enjoyed today. Oh, not the work itself, although the work isn't bad. The job is pretty physical, the kitchen gets rather hot, my "Choose Healthy! School Food Service" shirt gets a bit icky, and I come home with sore feet...but it's a straightforward job with plenty to keep me busy and very nice co-workers. No, on this day psychological war was waged against the children...and I enjoyed their squirming, oh yes.
The students at the intermediate school where I work are notoriously bad at keeping track of their debit cards, and this gets to be a big hassle at the end of the line. While some of them are just plain forgetful (and my mother would tell you that I fit that profile myself), most of them are clearly ignoring our pleas, preferring to simply memorize their numbers. I can understand the appeal to them, and if that system was working, I'd be on their side. But they forget the numbers, they type them into the keypad too fast, they enter them when the screen is still not cleared from the previous kid...it gets messy. Also, frankly, we told you, kids. Every day you 'forgot' it, in fact.
Today, when I arrived for my shift, my supervisor asked me to go into the deep freezer, retrieve the large box of ice cream sandwiches I would find there, and divide its contents between the two lines. Okay. She then wrote up copies of a sign - "FREE ICE CREAM WITH DEBIT CARD - NOT FOR SALE" - and posted them at each register. Her smile was positively impish.
We serve, on the average day, around five hundred students. I'd be very surprised if we gave away more than a hundred ice cream sandwiches today. And oh, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth that ensued! Sure, they were just little ice cream treats - but to the ten-year-old mind, missing out on a free reward is a big thing. They complained, they made excuses, they bargained. "I just left my card in my locker is all; can't I go get it?" Well no, honey. If you've got it at school and you're still regularly coming to lunch without it, our sympathy is low.
On a related note: due to some scheduling troubles and people being out, I've been doing a lot of serving lately instead of cashiering. I actually like this more - it's a more physical job, but I don't have to deal with the messed up accounts, balance my register, or worry about confiscating anyone's food. The downside, however, is that the kids can be rather rude. Some apparently don't know the words "please" and "thank you"; some merely blurt out the name of the item they want without using a full sentence; some merely point! I'm not a vending machine, folks.
Mind you, they don't do this with the other servers. The other ladies have been here a long time, they don't take it and they're not shy in correcting the kids. As for me, I'm new, I'm generally uncomfortable correcting other people's children, and my background in customer service has left me accustomed to being servile and polite to customers who aren't polite to me. And they can smell it on me. But I'm catching on, see. These kids are not my customers. They are students in their formative years, and I'm learning through observation that, even as a lunchlady, I'm not only permitted but expected to keep them in line in their dealings with me just as much as their teachers. And thus, my customer service programming finally broke today. Typical conversations went like this:
Kid: (perhaps with a slight gesture) Pizza.
Me: Yes. That is pizza.
(long pause.)
Kid: Uhhhh....and the salad. Pizza and salad.
Me: Yes, your powers of observation are very astute.
(longer pause...then, eventually:)
Kid: May I have the pizza and salad, please?
Me: Yes, you certainly may! Thank you for asking politely.
This repetition slowed down the line quite a bit today, but sweet googly moogly, I think they might larn something. Unfortunately, that something might just be "Wow, that new lunchlady is annoying."
The students at the intermediate school where I work are notoriously bad at keeping track of their debit cards, and this gets to be a big hassle at the end of the line. While some of them are just plain forgetful (and my mother would tell you that I fit that profile myself), most of them are clearly ignoring our pleas, preferring to simply memorize their numbers. I can understand the appeal to them, and if that system was working, I'd be on their side. But they forget the numbers, they type them into the keypad too fast, they enter them when the screen is still not cleared from the previous kid...it gets messy. Also, frankly, we told you, kids. Every day you 'forgot' it, in fact.
Today, when I arrived for my shift, my supervisor asked me to go into the deep freezer, retrieve the large box of ice cream sandwiches I would find there, and divide its contents between the two lines. Okay. She then wrote up copies of a sign - "FREE ICE CREAM WITH DEBIT CARD - NOT FOR SALE" - and posted them at each register. Her smile was positively impish.
We serve, on the average day, around five hundred students. I'd be very surprised if we gave away more than a hundred ice cream sandwiches today. And oh, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth that ensued! Sure, they were just little ice cream treats - but to the ten-year-old mind, missing out on a free reward is a big thing. They complained, they made excuses, they bargained. "I just left my card in my locker is all; can't I go get it?" Well no, honey. If you've got it at school and you're still regularly coming to lunch without it, our sympathy is low.
On a related note: due to some scheduling troubles and people being out, I've been doing a lot of serving lately instead of cashiering. I actually like this more - it's a more physical job, but I don't have to deal with the messed up accounts, balance my register, or worry about confiscating anyone's food. The downside, however, is that the kids can be rather rude. Some apparently don't know the words "please" and "thank you"; some merely blurt out the name of the item they want without using a full sentence; some merely point! I'm not a vending machine, folks.
Mind you, they don't do this with the other servers. The other ladies have been here a long time, they don't take it and they're not shy in correcting the kids. As for me, I'm new, I'm generally uncomfortable correcting other people's children, and my background in customer service has left me accustomed to being servile and polite to customers who aren't polite to me. And they can smell it on me. But I'm catching on, see. These kids are not my customers. They are students in their formative years, and I'm learning through observation that, even as a lunchlady, I'm not only permitted but expected to keep them in line in their dealings with me just as much as their teachers. And thus, my customer service programming finally broke today. Typical conversations went like this:
Kid: (perhaps with a slight gesture) Pizza.
Me: Yes. That is pizza.
(long pause.)
Kid: Uhhhh....and the salad. Pizza and salad.
Me: Yes, your powers of observation are very astute.
(longer pause...then, eventually:)
Kid: May I have the pizza and salad, please?
Me: Yes, you certainly may! Thank you for asking politely.
This repetition slowed down the line quite a bit today, but sweet googly moogly, I think they might larn something. Unfortunately, that something might just be "Wow, that new lunchlady is annoying."
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