A customer snapping at you isn’t a verdict on you. Finish the drink, breathe, take the next order.
RESILIENCE
WHAT THIS MEANS
Other people’s bad moods arrive carrying their own history. Somebody snapping at you across a counter is usually partway through a day you know nothing about, and almost none of it is about you even though it is pointed your way. Taking it as a judgement means absorbing something that was never yours. Letting it pass through is worth learning early.
Give yourself a reset you can do in ten seconds: finish the task, breathe out, call the next person. Mention it to a coworker afterwards if it stung. Then let it be their day rather than yours.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Whose bad temper did you carry home as a judgment?
MORE IN DISCIPLINE, WORK & STANDARDS
- Discipline isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s putting the controller down at ten like you said you would.
- Cows, chickens and barn cats all notice when feeding time is late. Living things run on your clock.
- On a new job, the person who asks “how do you want this done?” beats the person who guesses confidently.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.