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I work in the service industry, and all the rumors about rude customers are true. People truly do not view you as a person, and every day I have to come to work and put a smile on my face regardless. So many customers are just entitled, flat out rude, or both. It amazes me how people just view you as a drone and not, like, an actual person. I'm super lucky that all of my superiors are nice people. My boss is strict in how we do things, but it's not like he's holding us to things that aren't standard. He never yells, and he's not really rude. He's a good boss. And most importantly, he has our back when customers are unjustifiably rude.

Honestly, like, the best way to be a customer is just to remember you're talking to an actual real life human being person with real emotions and real aspirations. We're not just service drones

Honestly, what really gets me is people who do not know drive thru etiquette. Like there is a right way to order in a drive thru. Every day people amaze me with how little they care about communicating with us properly. If you want to know how to properly order in a drive thru or just how to properly communicate with us, here are some tips for you.

Communication etiquette for talking to service workers.

In general

• Ask us how are day is going, genuinely.
• Know what you want to order beforehand. If you have any questions or are still deciding, please keep in mind that there may be people behind you. Get out of line if you can so you can make up your mind as to not hold up the line.
• If we ask you a question, for the love of god, respond. Do you know how many times I've asked people what size they want their drink, for example, and I just straight up do not get a response? It's crazy.

PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN. DO NOT BE ACTIVELY ON A CALL WHEN YOU'RE ORDERING. This drives me up a wall. Not only is it just fucking rude as hell, but it's more likely that we'll get your order wrong because you were not paying attention to when we were reading back your order.
• TIP US. I work at a place that accepts tips. If you have enough to money to order, you more than likely have enough to tip a decent amount. No one is stopping you from tipping employees in places that don't accept tips, also! Like that's allowed! Not illegal!
• Respectfully, do not tell us your life story or chat for a long period of time if we are busy. We need to focus on our work, and while making conversation is part of the job, please don't expect us to give you our full, undivided attention for a prolonged period.
• If something isn't right with your order, we are more than happy to remake it for you. We may be annoyed if it's busy (just being honest here), but as long as you're polite about it, then it's really no big deal.
• WE ARE PEOPLE. NOT DRONES. Please do not treat us like robots. Again, we are real life human being people with real emotions.

If you're ordering in a drive thru

• Please keep in mind most fast food places are timed from the moment you pull up to the drive thru to the time you leave with your order. Everything else above still applies, but double-y so.

• If you are ordering from the passenger side, we cannot hear you. I promise. Please just let the the person in the driver's side order for you.
• Please make sure you ordered EVERYTHING you want to at the speaker. It slows down our times when you pull up to the window and order another drink or food item.

• DO NOT SMOKE IN THE DRIVE THRU. This includes vaping. Not only is it breaking health codes even if you're not actually in the building, we do not want to smell your cigerettes or weed. If you do this, the smell will linger even after you leave. This applies to everyone in the car.

• If you have a large order, please just come inside. It will be better for us to track your order, and it will keep our times low.

• Not really much of an instruction, but did you know that if you're still near the mic outside, we can hear your conversations? The stuff I've overheard has been funny, downright sad, and diabolical.

Look, I'm not it's not our job to be friendly with our customers. But you'd be grumpy too if you had to deal with people who did not treat you like a person every single day while standing on your feet for hours. Now, if someone is like, genuinely rude to you despite following those instructions, then absouletly don't tolerate it. But if you're rude and/or entitled, expect us not to be too enthusiastic to serve you. I promise if you're particularly a bad person in our interactions, we will be talking about you while you're here and after you leave.

Pleeeeeeease just act like a normal human person and treat us with respect.