Patience is key

Stuck in traffic moments before your shift starts, stressed and overwhelmed that you won’t make it in time. Stressed and an overwhelming feeling takes over your mood, as you sit there and think to yourself, “Today is going to be a bad day.” When this almost bad day is quickly changed, as a cool summer breeze hits you with your windows down on the way to work, stuck in that traffic. The feeling of this calm air relaxes your mind reminding you to have patience with the world around you.

What is patience? I often use patience to calm down my mind and body. Mostly in the workplace. Although I’ve only been working for a few years, one thing I’ve learned is how to have patience. Even when I don’t have it deep down. Keeping myself calm and resilient during difficult times in my life, especially in the workplace. In a situation where you have a customer who is struggling to find something and you just sit there and wonder, “What is taking so long”. I’ve noticed over the last few years I’ve been working in customer service that your customers can sense an impatience. Allowing people to move around in their time frame seems to relax them. As customers filter in and out of the meat shop I often like to provide a sense of security. Introducing myself as they enter, “Hello! My name is K. Hollar at me if you need anything. No rush!” It even makes people’s days better. When they notice you are there for them and show you respect their timing.

Patience is needed in more parts of the workforce than others, when working in customer service for a company it is key to have really good patience, but when working for a landscaping company you don’t have to tolerate customers other them your job. At the shop, I have to be patient all day. I have to wait for customers all day because I work at a meat shop. Working at a place where you are consistently talking to customers, the main thing you need is patience because it’s good to have when working any job. When I am being patient I feel like I’m on my tippy toes, I just want to know what someone is going to say, or the action they are going to do. At my work, I need to wait for customers to pick out what they are going to buy and sometimes they are unsure of what they are going to buy so you have to sit there and wait being as polite as you can. Most people go into the store window shopping so they just go up to the glass and they like to see instead of having a list and knowing what they are going to buy. Instead of rushing them to buy something I tell them “take their time”. I’ve noticed all my customers appreciate this. Allowing customers to know that I am not rushing them is important when working in customer service. Some people just a patient employers to look out for them when they are doing their shopping around the store. Patience plays a key role in my job because without it I wouldn’t be able to speak to my customers well and would make me look bad. This makes the customers happy because they are being treated right and they don’t feel so bad for taking up your time. Being patient is about the emotions you express to the customer, not the ones you don’t express, you could be showing a smile and may look joyful, but you may be irritated on the inside, patience is the emotions you can hang on to. Patience plays a key role in everyone’s life having the ability to stay calm and persistent even when times get tough.

“Lulu learns patience..” by WasabiDoobie is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.