In a recent team project, we were suppose to talk about “emotional labor.” I got stuck with “courtesy.” I had the hardest time coming up with a way to describe courtesy. I was suppose to talk about courtesy and the hotel industry but I felt it wasn’t something that should be explained because my thought was “we all know what it means to be courteous, the real problem is are we practicing everyday?” So I decided to begin the conversation asking if everyone was courteous in the train stations. This opened up such a huge conversation that got a little out of control. Many of my fellow classmates didn’t feel the need to get up and offer their seat to an elderly or pregnant women. They felt that it was a first come first serve situation. I was left in shock and I had to talk about my disappointment. Here we are hospitality students ready to graduate and giving up a seat was just not an option. My opinion was that if you are to be courteous it doesn’t just begin and end at work because you get paid and its required of you. This is our life. Always thinking of others and always finding ways to create a memorable experience is our life so yes, I was heart broken.
After our presentation the class graded us and the professor gave us our scores from our classmates, all anonymous, and we read this one review that stated the following: “Member participated, welcome to New York where nobody care if you polite we are known for bad attitude” I was in shock! I couldn’t believe this person felt that way. First of all, as far as I know New York is not known for its “bad attitude.” Known for having crazy taxi drivers maybe but not attitude. When I worked at a hotel as a Front Desk agent all I heard were happy, excited comments about guest hearing wonderful things about New York and that they couldn’t wait to start seeing it. Second if we were known for having bad attitudes why wouldn’t you want to do something to change that? Why would you want the city that you live in to be known for being a horrible place filled with rude people? Third, people care about politeness. Everyone wants to be treated with respect.
