Customer: Two cold barley (drinks).
Staff: Barley – hot or cold?
Customer: Cold.
Staff: One?
Customer: Two.
I had the above dialogue thrice already, with the same service staff, at the same eating place, on different occasions. It’s rather amazing to me how she never seems to learn that I always give a short but clear and complete order, while it is her mindfulness that is unclear and incomplete. All she had to do was to pay a little more attention. It’s as if her mindfulness is selective, focusing only on the word ‘barley’ while not registering the other two words. Lacking mindfulness, she doesn’t realise this, and the same dialogue is thus ‘reborn’ repeatedly.
I’ve encountered quite a few other service staff who exhibit the same problem. It seems to arise from their unmindful attachment to how an order should be given and received – even when situations are otherwise. They want to hear what is the item ordered first, before hearing how the item should be (e.g. hot or cold) or how many of it are wanted (e.g. one or two). As such, they tend to listen only for the name of the item first, while mentally blocking out any other information, even if it’s useful.
This is essentially not a complaint about bad service – but more of a ‘cautionary tale’ of how our minds are able to habitually filter out relevant information at times. What’s scary is that this can happen ‘unknowingly’. It’s also amazing to me how some long-time Buddhists are able to continually ignore important though slightly more ‘inconvenient’ aspects of the Dharma in practice, be it intentionally or unmindfully. Surely, we are sometimes similar – because if our mindfulness is already perfectly clear and complete, we would be perfectly enlightened already!
i guess we cant blame them as it is their responsibility to repeat the orders again. in order to prevent wrong order.
Er… not in this case. If u see the dialogue above, the order was for ‘2 cold barley’. If she heard it properly the first time round, she should just ask – ‘2 cold barley?’ She obviously didn’t register ‘2’ or ‘cold’ at all – which is why she had to ask whether hot or cold was wanted, and whether it’s just 1 serving. :straight:
To help her register “2”, try raising your 2 fingers as you give your order next time. See if she still asks about the quantity again. 😉
Ok will try that… but how do I physically communicate ‘cold’? Maybe I’ll order in a shivering tone with a ‘victory’ (2) gesture… ‘Twwoooo Coooold Baaaaarley!’ The deliberate dragginess should give ample time for the order to sink in! haha 😆
Alternatively, try using a different language. Some people register information better in their preferred language. If you have been using English, try Mandarin, Malay or even Hokkien next round. 👿
I used Chinese since she’s Chinese – Liang (two) Pei (cups) leng (cold) Ba-Li (barley)! Sigh… don’t think I could be more clear than that 😮
Many of these staff have to process countess variations of orders daily. Due to fatigue and the problem of wrong order, they probably came up with their own systematic way to ensure customers order are correct while taking care of wrong orders due to fatigue – kind of like robots.
I can understand your frustrations as i also face similar staff before.
I used to get upset and actually told them off before.
Subsequently, i realised that the poor staff is just trying their best to do their job and that i could also use such a opportunity to practice my own patience.
I also realised that usually we are the problem rather than the situation as it is our inner restlessnees that we perceive the problem to be coming from outside.
In those times when we are in good mood, we will probably try to cooperate with them. We may actually pity them for their lack of mindfulness and wish that if they could only come into contact with the Buddhadharma and have a chance to practice and appreciate mindfulness.
I think thats probably why it is important to spread the BuddhaDharma to as many people as possible so that they may also benefit from it.
Just sharing a thought. Hope you don’t mind.
Amituofo! 🙂
Perhaps it does not matter how mindful the drink seller is, but how patience the buyer is. As practising Buddhist, we can’t always go around pinpointing others’ lack of this and that. And if we have enough patience and if our practice of patience is good enough, we would not even think she or he is unmindful, slow or etc. :angel:
Was surprised I was relatively patient, despite the repeated experience (on three different occasions by same staff). Then again, the repetitions taught and prepared me to be patient. (As above, ‘This is essentially not a complaint about bad service – but more of a ‘cautionary tale’ of how our minds are able to habitually filter out relevant information at times.’) Many years ago, the dialogue might have been this –
Customer: Two cold barley.
Staff: Barley – hot or cold?
Customer: Two COLD barley!
Staff: One?
Customer: TWO cold barley!
In this world, it consists of many different types of people … If we fully understand this, things will be different.
I used to volunteer at Metta Home – teaching craft to Intellectually disabled clients. From there, it makes me learns a lot. There is this guy who look very normal but he belongs to the longer IQ. If I have not met him there but outside, I would really get frustrated in communicating … Because I know his condition, we get along quite well and I have no expectation from him, sometimes even get surprises that bring a smile on my face …
There is special education in Singapore – Metta school is one of them, they provide people with special needs and hopefully they can support themselves. So, wont’d be surprise if I meet them in the service line. What can I expect from them?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying all people working in services lines are low IQ (I don’t want to be kill by this :p) There are people really have attitude problems that need fixing, again if we probe further there are lots of hidden problems … but to what extend can we help? If we can’t really help, what expectations can we have?