The customer who’s rude to staff and sweet to the manager isn’t fooling anyone behind the counter.

Switching registers that fast gives it away, because the politeness was clearly available all along and was simply not being spent on people who seemed to have no power. Everybody behind the counter has seen the full performance, they talk to each other, and the manager hears about it anyway. The habit does not make you look important, only easy to read.

Keep one register for everyone this week, starting with the people who cannot do anything for you: the person clearing tables, the new kid at the till. How you treat them is what people mean when they describe what you are like.