What If…We Keep It Sweet

We’re all about 🍰dessert at our house. We’ve had dessert and called it dinner many times. True story.😂 We hopped in the car the other night to grab a sweet treat and got something else. The drive-through was crowded. We waited our turn to place our order and waited some more to actually get up to the window. The 🚗vehicle in front of us seemed to have issues. There was a lot of back and forth between the driver of the car and the workers. The person in the passenger seat actually opened the car door- like he was getting out. We didn’t know what was wrong but wished those folks had gone inside to order. 😬We could see our 🍧treats melting while we waited. When we finally got to the window, the cashier apologized for the delay and handed out our melting 🍧treats. Then, there was confusion with our payment. The drama from the other vehicle ended with a ‘dine and dash.’😳 The cashier wasn’t sure how to process our payment because the register didn’t clear the previous order. The manager or owner came to the rescue- at least, that’s what we thought. Instead of helping this teen solve the problem with knowledge of how to handle these situations in the future, the lady opened the window to tell us how the kid screwed up and was going to pay for the past order- scolding the guy right in front of us!😡 We were uncomfortable. 🙁The kid was embarrassed.😔 The manager was out of line.👎🏻

Look- I have no idea what happened with that other 🚗car. I don’t know if the cashier regularly causes problems. 🤷🏻‍♀️I’m not sure if the manager was just having a bad night.🤷🏻‍♀️ None of that mattered. There was no reason to open that window and bring us into their workplace issue. NONE! It didn’t solve the problem. As a matter of fact, it probably created more. The only thing her interaction with us did was humiliate the teen cashier. 🙁

We drove off 🤔wondering what we could have done to help that kid. We thought of things we should have said as we discussed the awkward moment. We felt that we should have done more to stand up for him. 😒We bet he considered quitting his job.

Here’s the point to remember- 🥳praise in public and 😡reprimand in private. Always! No one responds well to public criticism. Managers need to correct employees. Parents should redirect children. Families may have disagreements. Just keep it quiet.👍🏻 Allow the other person to save face and learn when they are receptive to hearing what you have to say, which is NOT the heat of the moment.

Here’s the lesson, and it’s a simple one. What if…we keep it sweet?🥰 And, when it needs to be salty, we make it private.👍🏻 Easy enough!💖