Thank you to the other heroes that serve

Last week my opinion piece was thanking those who serve or have served in the military, medical field, or law enforcement. This week I want to thank another group of individuals that answer the other call to help; the group I'm talking about is customer service.

The term customer service is a large umbrella that covers many different parts of the job market. A few of those include call center representatives, fast-food and restaurant workers, gas station attendants, and retail workers. These unsung heroes help the rest of us move on with our daily lives and deserve to be thanked and treated with respect. Too often, these people don't get the holidays off or miss important life events as they have to be on standby to ensure the rest of us can make it through the day.

I often see too many of us customers treat these workers like absolute trash. We yell at them for something out of their control, like a large bill, scream and throw things when our orders are wrong, or make jokes on social media about their intelligence and how "The customer is always right."

When I see how we treat these workers, I can't help but wonder how they would feel if they were on the other side of that or if their loved one was the one they were shouting at.

Whenever we get offended or treated poorly, we love to use the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would like them to do to you." But many don't practice what we preach. These people that work in customer service try to help us. They are just like you and me. They have feelings and are going through the same struggles as the rest of us, but because they work in customer service, we can treat them like dirt, and that's okay. Really?

I would encourage everyone that the next time you encounter one of those customer service workers and you get upset before you start getting angry and want to lash out at their "incompetence" or plan to post about your worst experience ever, ask yourself, "What if this was me? Would I want that?"

Again, thank those who work in customer service. You put up with a lot, and if it weren't for you, we would have a lot of difficulty navigating life.

Thank you for reading. Try to have a good rest of your shift.