Life Lessons

Saw this on Phil’s site:

I’d add:

• Not only should you not abandon your cart in the middle of an aisle, you should put it back or in the cart return area when you leave. It shouldn’t be left in the parking lot or bus stop.
• Not only should you acknowledge staff, you should do so without music playing in your earbuds or on a call. That’s rude AF.

And I wouldn’t say no one teaches you. Most of these should be told to you, or shown to you by your parents. And if you don’t do them, those around you should correct you. Sadly, we can’t do that these days. Especially to an entitled class. I find a large amount of strangers I run into daily to be low watt bulbs, utterly self centered and indifferent to any others around them.

Right on the heals of that, Vox had a post for the working stiffs on his SigmaGame substack:

1. Answer the fucking question.
2. Do not explain anything to anyone unless asked for an explanation.
3. Always. Do. Your. Job.
4. Never forget that your job is not the sole purpose of the organization.
5. Only give one instruction at a time, in person, on the phone, or via email.
6. Always answer the question that was actually asked, not the question you anticipated, the question you think should have been asked, or the question you suspect the answer will provoke.
7. Management consists of managing the schedules of those who report to you.
8. Never hide information from those with decision-making authority. If they make a fully-informed mistake, it’s on them. If they make a mistake because you hid information from them, it’s on you.
9. No one cares about your opinion.
10. Don’t expect pats on the back or praise, and remember that your main reason for being there because they give you money for it.

Those are the type of things that would’ve been super useful to know when I was starting out. Nearly all of these I’ve had to learn the hard way, usually by a greybeard correcting me. I’d modify #6 by adding that if the question that was asked makes no sense, or isn’t what they really want to know, ask them to qualify it so they ask the question you are anticipating.

It’s really a sad commentary on today’s society that these things have to be thought up and written down.