This concept has been bugging me for a while.
I was gonna go with "Leave your bad attitude at home" but Nah. Why should the people you live with have to suffer?
I'll start by edging in to the part that has been bugging me because it has become really apparent with the way people talk about Social Media. I'm probably gonna try and break a few of these down but in terms of Social Media, and this also helps with Feedback Sites such as TripAdvisor. In an odd way.
Trust me it is relevant
I'll start with the Social Media examples just to draw more attention to the point that people have always been missing.
"TikTok is for kids"
"Snapchat is for Sexting"
"I don't use Instagram because I don't care what peoples food looks like"
"TikTok is practically porn"
"My Facebook is full of Racists"
"Every story I see online is Political"
Point being, The World is reactionary.
There are 3 Factors that influence these opinions;
Your Friends (Digital or Otherwise)
Your Ignorance
Your output
Let's use the 1st one as an example;
Over the last 12 Months TikTok Demographics have balanced out to just over 50% of users under 34. Making it an even playing field. Which you were Ignorant to. Even though the same thing happened to Instagram and Facebook already.
As it is factually incorrect it now comes down to one of the 3 points.
Your friends told you it was for kids
You haven't used it or read up on it so you're ignorant to the facts
This one is my personal favourite; the way that YOU interact with the algorithm. The videos you engage with by viewing, liking or commenting on will dictate what videos you see. So these comments like "Tiktok is practically porn" is because they're the videos you engage with 😅. "My Facebook is full of Racists", that's people that you chose to follow or be friends plus, whatever the Algorithm dictates you will mosy likely engage. Positively or Negatively. Engagement is Engagement. The same as cookies, the same as Big Data and targeted advertising. The majority will be due to your interactions in with the Internet.
The reason I bring this up is because these systems mirror reality. Once again, this is a Case Study of my experiences.
My point is that I have worked shifts on small bars with other Bartenders serving the same customers as them, with the same equipment and stock and I've loved it. Been living the dream, having great craic, ideally a bit of flirting, making bare tips. Yet, the person less than a metre away from me, (Pre-Covid, Chill out), can do nothing but bitch and moan about shitty customers. We had the same customers. Yes, some customers are shitty. If they're not shitty enough to warrant being kicked out, then you grin and bare it, move on and focus on the nice customers. Where as these moany bastards will use this an excuse to be moody for the rest of the night and not enjoy the rest of their shift and project this negative outlook onto other staff. For some reason it is so much harder to point out the positives and go against the curve of looking at how horrible the industry can be. And if you genuinely can't see any positives, then it is not for you.
This negative energy can snowball through the team and the customers. Keeping a happy, positive atmosphere is so unbelievably important for all aspects of the business.
This also ties in with why Self Awareness is so important because occasionally YOU are the problem. Most Managers go with "Leave your issues at the door" but it should be becoming more and more obvious that Mental Health is not on and off switch so it is important that you create an environment for your team in which they feel comfortable to confide with someone else there and you can discuss roles that are less front facing or stressful to accommodate them when needed. I am always more than happy to accommodate people that are struggling provided I know that they are honestly trying to do something about and are not using it an excuse to be lazy. That, I have 0 time for.
I have always been a very private person and become more private when I am struggling but in that I have always thrown myself into my work as a form of escapism. This worked for me, to an extent but I'll go into that later. It does not work for everyone.
Once again for the people in the back.
Mental Health is the priority.
your opinion
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