If you have been an avid follower of MiddleMe, you’ll know that my stories are often inspired either by reading one of my follower’s post or by experiencing life itself. And you’ll know I’ve just returned from China not so long ago.
What spark this article or should I say who, is the counter check-in lady from Air Asia Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia is a budget airline operating out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is an airline I often take because of its fabulous flight prices. To be honest, I had never had a bad service from them, mediocre service sometimes but never bad. I’m fine with mediocre service since I am very much aware the price I paid for I shouldn’t ask for sky-high service. But I didn’t pay for someone to judge me.
The counter check-in lady did not have a long day at work because she just clocked in for work and took over handling the queue a few folks in front of me. When it is my turn to check in, she took my passport, flipped it open and look at it for a good 5 minutes before asking for my visa. The thing is that I am holding a Singapore passport and Singaporeans are exempted from China visa for the first 15 days (yay!). I smiled and promptly informed her. In reply, she insisted that I need a return ticket to Malaysia. That is still not applicable to me as I again, nicely pointed out because I am not a Malaysian and I can choose to extend my stay in China easily just by walking into one of the police station and ask for an extension up to 90 days.
She refused to print out my boarding me pass if I don’t have a return ticket and advice me to go and purchase one over their counter. Strange and kinda ridiculous to me. I mean I have flew out from Singapore before without a return ticket and no one has stopped me. But lucky for her and for me as well, I actually do have a return ticket and I don’t wish to waste time by insisting on my grounds that I am right.
I left the counter with a distaste in my mouth, no smiles, no apologies, nothing more than a frozen face who passed me my boarding pass. I have written article about how to be a good customer. I am a good customer, in fact, it is not my duty to provide information to you but I did so quickly. All I asked for is a smile.
While I understand that being a frontline warrior is tough life, but since this is a career choice you have made, show respect to the profession you have chosen, show pride in your work and show responsibility to the customers. If you struggle to do so, you’re in the wrong profession, switch jobs before you damage your reputation and your company’s.
It does amazed me at times when I see people not taking pride in the work they do and continue to time and time produce trash. It’s not that they lacked in skills or they are having a bad day (I can discount that), it is just simply they do not care. If one does not care enough of their job, they are suffering every single day for at least 8 hours each day, 40 hours each week, 160 hours each month, 1920 hours each year and is plenty of hours wasted away on something that you don’t care about.
Think about it, you spend 8 hours in bed, 8 hours at work and you are left with 8 hours of personal time. This have not included in the journey to work as well as time we used to get ready for work. So technically speaking, you are spending more that 1/3 of your daily life, wouldn’t you want to make it enjoyable?
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