A week ago I went to some remote part of the North West for work. After a long drive with hideous stop-and-gos we finally made it there only for me and another lady to be told we had worn the wrong shoes for the expedition and would be required to stay behind.
Out of frustration and bewilderment the lady, I now know as Mildred, and I started talking, a conversation that quickly went everywhere and touched on everything. I always find it such a profound experience when I am able to do that with a complete stranger; that you and someone you do not know can find a connection that alters and shifts your way of thinking .
As we unpacked our lives for each other, she was telling me about a hotel they had recently stayed at on their way back from a holiday in Witbank. It wasn’t so much the hotel that had stayed with her but the level of joy she had experienced from the service she received from one of the staff members. She speaks of her by name which falls out of her mouth but is caught by the adoration she still clearly feels when she mentions her.
The coronavirus pandemic has turned a lot of lives upside down, especially for people who work not only in the hospitality industry; some of whom didn’t earn much to begin with. In many places, the fortunate people who are still employed are having to take on more work for much less pay. So this woman who was running both reception and housekeeping that day was somehow still able to bring the best of herself to the job and show up to serve in a way that left a lasting impression on someone else. We really could learn a lot from her.
Our economy, coupled with the wrath of capitalism, places a majority of the people in this country in a horrible place of hard labour that comes with very little rewards. The ability to show up as the best version of yourself under those circumstances must be a difficult and tedious task.
As someone who falls apart at the first sign of something going wrong. I admire the quality in others of disregarding everything that may be falling apart in their life to do the work that they need to do .
A few days later, I was still mulling over this when I saw a video on social media of a man at a petrol station. He starts asking the attendant questions that felt dull but invasive to me. No one has the right to ask another person how much money they earn, especially when you know it can’t be much. The attendant gives him measured answers but delivers them with undeserved grace; I am sure I would have said voetsek. Also please don’t film people especially where power dynamics are in your favour.
At the end of that conversation, to his redemption, he tipped the man with so many R100 notes that I stopped counting.
The joy on the petrol pump attendant's face left me tearing up. All he had done on that day was show up as the best version of himself even in an environment that did not offer him that in return.
People whose work includes serving others owe it to themselves to be the best version of themselves, but the rest of us owe it to them to show up as the best versions of ourselves for them.
We need to bring hearts full of gratitude, say "thank you". Treat and speak to them in a way that leaves their dignity intact. And tip, where you can’t monetarily make it your mission to make their jobs as easy as possible while you get your money’s worth.
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