This story starts with me being out to dinner with a colleague. Everything was going swimmingly until the waitress came out. As she took our drink order (the very beginning of dinner), he was rude.
Maybe I was being overly sensitive, I thought, so I let it go. But when she came back to take our order for dinner, he did it again. I can’t really even remember what he did. But it’s just like your mom said, “It’s not what you say but HOW you say it.”
When she walked away, I asked him, “What was that?” He didn’t even know he was doing it. And maybe that’s the problem. He was being rude because she didn’t matter.
Everyone is nice to his or her boss (they have to be). Most people are nice to their peers. But if you REALLY want to know the integrity of a person, watch how they treat people they don’t HAVE to be nice too.
If you are a jerk to the waitress, you are probably a jerk.
