Soul Proprietor - The Hired Help

I’ll never forget that day, sitting in the airport restaurant. My husband and I needed to kill a bit of time on a layover so we decided to get something to eat.

A well-dressed man sat at the table next to me. The waiter came over to him with a glass of water and tried to engage in a little polite chit-chat. The man glared and snapped back: “Don’t talk to me – just bring me my food.”

The waiter hung his head and quietly said “no problem, sir.”

For a brief moment, I locked eyes with the well-dressed man. He dropped his sneer and for a brief moment, I saw a flicker of something. Not quite shame but perhaps that feeling you get when you know you’ve been an unreasonable asshole.

People who behave like that – especially to someone who is providing a service – are often unaware of how crappy they are.

I’ve worked as a waitress back in the day so I remember those types too well.

One would think that when you start your own business that you’d never have to deal with this again.

Not true.

When you provide a service – even a heart-centered one – there will always be those who treat you like a lackey. It’s one of the reasons I stopped doing tarot parties. I got sick of boundary issues and those occasions where I felt more like some hired help to boss around and demean than a respected tarot expert.

Even though I no longer do those parties, there are still times where a rude person shows up in my work world. Like a recent encounter with a woman who wanted advice about her failing business. I pointed her to my two options: business mentoring or a tarot reading. She chose the mentoring option.

I delivered my thoughts within 48 hours like I always do.

But a few hours later, I got a nasty email back. She didn’t want my business advice – she wanted a tarot reading on her situation.

It didn’t matter that I had clearly stated on my site that the biz mentoring is straight-up biz advice or that I offered her the option of a tarot reading.

She was mad and she wanted to give me a piece of her mind, even though she was in the wrong. She also thought I should be grateful for this “feedback.” (Not.) If this is how she operates with me, one can only imagine why her business is tanking.

I’m a firm believer that how you treat the people you hire reflects back on you. If you cannot treat your hired help with dignity and respect, people won’t respect you.

You can be demanding without being demeaning. Period.

If you hire someone, for any purpose, treat them well. Speak to them with respect and honor their boundaries. Make them feel happy to work with you. If you do that, you’ll see that they will make a point to do a great job. Because people naturally want to do their best when they are being treated like they are the best.

On the other hand, if someone hires you but they treat you like garbage, you don’t have to take that or work with that person ever again. Set boundaries and don’t be afraid to walk. You are not in the business of being abused.

Frankly, no one is.

After we finished our meal at the airport, we left the waiter a large tip. He smiled and thanked us for being so nice. We smiled back and went on our way while the busy business man continued to shuffle his papers and look important.

Moral of the story: it doesn’t take much effort to be kind and decent.

Be that in your business and only work with people who are the same.

Blessings,

Theresa