Example Of Work As A Cashier In A Coffee Shop Essay

Working as a cashier in a coffee shop became one of my furthermost experiences in this industry. Love and passion in this field enables me to keep on working in the coffee shop. The reason behind this is that there is a possibility of meeting different types of people. Some treat us with a lot of respect while others undermine us. Malevolence always can be seen in the faces of some customers as we serve them. This has become the order of the day in my day to day duties in the coffee shop. A lot of things happen during my work schedule each day. Several of these situations have vanished from my memory, but a number have failed to do so. I once worked as a cashier in a coffee shop in downtown. It was a day I had reported to work being quite enthusiastic. This essay concentrates on my experience as a cashier in a coffee shop. I had the desire to work and serve the clients with a lot of respect as I always did. At around noon, a well- groomed young lady entered the shop. From the look of things she appeared confused and sad in that matter. She sat down in a corner where she thought that nobody easily recognized her presence.
As usual, the waiter approached the lady to enquire on what she wanted to be served. The lady took that as an insult. She went ahead to accused the waiter as being ill mannered. The waiter tried to put up with the lady by explaining to her that whatever he had done amounted to part of his responsibilities to check to approach the customers. The lady could not listen to the statements the waiter was giving. It did not seem to make any difference whatsoever. The waiter did not know what to do next. The whole scenario became chaotic, and other customers had started to concentrate in to the angry discourse where the waiter did not talk much. The voice of the customer had become extremely loud. It required an intervention from a sober mind, but I had my worries. I did not know whether the customer would have listened to me. Nevertheless I decided to take a bold step and approached the lady customer. The first thing to do was to excuse myself. I informed the waiter to serve another customer who had been waiting for sometime, but the situation within the shop made him relax to observe the noisy customer.
I let the customer realize that as a business entity we valued her and that anybody is subject to making a mistake. After hearing this, the customer relaxed, and avoided further complaining. The waiter, on that day, became a victim of circumstances because he had not committed any crime resulting amounting to such insults. From the look of things the customer had other disturbing issues. The big question, however, was the reason why he decided to pass over the pains to the waiter. Before joining the hotel industry, a friend always remarked that it required a lot of patience to work in a coffee shop. Such remarks appeared to be unrealistic especially since it was my third year working as a cashier in the coffee shop. On that day I came face to face with the reality of those remarks.
The most fortunate part was that I had seen the condition of the customer as she entered the shop. I knew without doubt that the waiter had not committed any crime, and if somebody needed to be blamed, common sense allowed the blame to be on the side of the customer. On my part as the mediator in that occasion, the problem needed a different approach and not apportioning blame on anybody. This meant that the customer had other issues which disturbed her before she came to our shop. She only used the waiter as an excuse to upload her frustrations.
After the customer had been served by another waiter, I made it upon myself to talk to her. She was flabbergasted that I had observed her condition the moment she entered the shop. We commenced a conversation in which I understood that her condition had been as a result of her health issues. She had just come from the hospital where she had been diagnosed with cancer. The situation made change the perspective on several issues in this industry. The customer needed somebody to identify with. The fact could not have come out if there was nobody to listen to her. The encouragement I gave her enabled her to understand that the fact that she had cancer did not mean she had come to the end of her life. She apologized to the waiter, made sure the waiter understood her situation. I did not let her go without making her understand the dangers of passing frustrations to other people who may not necessarily understand what one is going through. The waiter as well empathized with her and this made her leave our shop feeling relieved.
One year after that experience the lady came to the coffee shop. Whatever amazed us was the fact that she had changed drastically. She reported to us that she had gone through treatment and that her body had become free from cancer. The remarks which stood out for me were clearly the fact that she attributed her recovery from the discussion we had on the day she caused a scene in the shop. My take on this experience is that sometime we miss the opportunity to change people’s lives due to the knowledge of the world. The truth is that it is not only waiters alone who normally feel experience frustrations from the clients. Other people also undergo similar situations, but the moment we learn to turn crisis moments into opportunities, then we can enjoy our work, together with adding value to people’s lives. These make up some of the lessons I learnt form this experience.