Wait staff and flight attendant c/o customers

Nurses Relations

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There are plenty of FB groups and communities dedicated to wait staff and airline staff, where they can vent about customers. Most of the time, I don't quite understand what they are so on about. For example, there is a meme about an airline passenger being unable to get into the bathroom with a pic of a flight attendant laughing. Huh?

I read these things, and my first thought is, "You ARE customer service--no doubt about it--so why are you complaining??" It's not like you've just finished up a rapid response on someone, and you are getting yelled at because you didn't bring fresh water to someone fast enough.

I just don't get it. Everyone is entitled to vent about demanding people in customer service, but my compassion meter is broken when someone in customer service is having a fit over a passenger or customer asking for a glass of water.

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
The OP has clearly never felt subhuman/had trouble paying their bills because of a forgotten side of ranch.

Which makes me think the OP is that customer.

Quick! Fetch me my ranch NOW! I am a nurse and must hurry to give my life-saving 2100 dose of senna to the patient in room 9!

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Thinking about this more, to an extent yes your job is customer service and it's a bit silly to complain about performing your job. I am thinking if they're taking the time to rant online, they probably aren't bothering with stories of people that ask for water. Ice cold water with one slice of lemon and one of lime, repeatedly and on demand? Maybe.

However, I used to host at Applebee's. My job was to seat people to the best of my ability and I don't mind doing so. Do I think you're silly if you expect to instantly be sat with your twelve friends on a Friday night at 6 pm? YES.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
People don't become magically well-behaved when they leave the hospital and hop on a plane. I've flown quite a bit and I've seen LOTS of reasons for airline staff to feel annoyed.

I took a flight the weekend before Thanksgiving. I was recovering from a bilateral mastectomy and the flight had a connector thusly checked my baggage.

While the BWI to ATL was mellow, it seems that the ATL to Orlando was the last flight to FL for the evening and number of flights had been cancelled/late. So there was what looked to 30 or more people on standby. Worse yet, it was a toxic mix: no nonsense business men that check nothing, families with small tired iritable children, and kissy adorable couples.

At least 8 times, the flight desk explained that the room for carryons was limited. At least 8 times, they announced clearly that one small bag and one personal item (including briefcase, purses, laptop bags) was the absolute limit.

And at 11 times (prior to my getting on the plane) did boarding get halted because some moron pair tried to get on board with 6-8 bags between the two of them. One couple were arguing that their bags from duty free were exempt.

I was probably as irritable as the small children by this point, when I got stuck seated by one of the prime offenders. She nearly had a meltdown over the fact that there was no alcohol on the flight (which if they announced , would have cleared many of the business flyers from the flight. Meantime I am seated in pain, trying to keep my elbows from straying into her airspace.

I envied none of the flight personnel on that trip

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
The OP has clearly never felt subhuman/had trouble paying their bills because of a forgotten side of ranch.

Which makes me think the OP is that customer.

A server's number one job is to create a great dining experience. That mean getting cold water on time, bringing ranch, making sure the steak is cooked properly, etc. In other words, their job is all about customer service.

I think the OP was expressing the dissatisfaction that a nurse feels when he/she is criticized for a customer service matter (like water not being cold enough) because they were busy in a code saving a life.

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We recently had a confused fall risk patient sitting in the hallway, facing a window, for babysitting purposes. As I was passing by her with my cart, she said "So where's this plane landing, anyway?" I laughed (hard) to myself, but then as I thought about it, I could see how she could easily be confused about that... she was kinda stuck in her chair with a tray table over her, with a mini can of soda and a small snack, looking out over the tree tops. And then here comes someone with a cart, delivering beverages and such when summoned by call lights.

I'm probably in the minority, but I generally don't mind the customer service aspect of nursing. It's usually something that's easily taken care of, and I guess I have a talent for smoothing over upset "customers". I've had some pretty ridiculous demands, like the patient's wife who insisted her husband must have Mott's brand applesauce and "not that generic crap". (Dietary actually caved and bought it). I've also had some crazies who have gone above and beyond to make my life miserable when they don't get what they want... Like the type I diabetic who used her insulin pump to plummet her blood sugar when I was busy in a code and missed her Q2 hour PRN IV dilaudid by 15 minutes. I definitely didn't get into nursing to wait on people, but in general it's one of the easiest aspects of the job. I have little sympathy for bad waiters at restaurants.

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It doesn't cease to amaze me how many people want a bloody "window seat" in the hospital.

Its like we're an airliner.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
A server's number one job is to create a great dining experience. That mean getting cold water on time, bringing ranch, making sure the steak is cooked properly, etc. In other words, their job is all about customer service.

But, like in nursing, sometimes things happen when you are a server that you have no control over. If the steak's overdone, that is the chef's fault. (You don't want me sticking my finger in your steak to test it.) Or sometimes the hostess seats your entire section at once. Or what should have been a quick order turns into a patron quizzing you over the menu, so now you're massively behind. Customers with absolutely outrageous demands that cannot be met. Folks trying to bluster and scam their way into a free meal. And your paycheck depends on making everyone happy.

And how much of nursing is actually saving lives? Even when I worked ICU, the amount of time I spent acutely saving someone's life paled in comparison to all the mundane tasks that nurses do. Few nurses spend shift after shift running from code to rapid response to code unless they are part of the code/rapid team.

Customer service is a part of nursing. I imagine there would be an uproar if a MD came here and said "why do you complain so much about your patients? You knew that you would be spending 12 hour shifts caring for people when you signed on."

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So, nurses sometimes participating in codes somehow equates to service workers should never complain?

This attitude is one reason some people dislike nurses. Lord knows there's some nurses who love to tell anyone who'll listen that "my job is so much harder and more important than yours". Or nursing students who go on and on about how their nursing program is so much harder than your criminal justice or business program. It is incredibly annoying. No one wants to hear that.

I think wait staff and flight attendants have at least as much a right to vent as nurses. Anyone who works with the public has a right to vent. The public is the worst.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

This attitude is one reason some people dislike nurses. Lord knows there's some nurses who love to tell anyone who'll listen that "my job is so much harder and more important than yours". Or nursing students who go on and on about how their nursing program is so much harder than your criminal justice or business program. It is incredibly annoying. No one wants to hear that.

I think wait staff and flight attendants have at least as much a right to vent as nurses. Anyone who works with the public has a right to vent. The public is the worst.

This.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
This attitude is one reason some people dislike nurses. Lord knows there's some nurses who love to tell anyone who'll listen that "my job is so much harder and more important than yours". Or nursing students who go on and on about how their nursing program is so much harder than your criminal justice or business program. It is incredibly annoying. No one wants to hear that.

It is just a bit annoying when you get an email asking for a statement because Mrs. Smith entered a formal complaint that she didn't get the lunch box she asked for as all the staff was running to a respiratory arrest. If the public wants to hate me since I am annoyed by that…let them hate me.

For the record, I never tried to pretend nursing school is more difficult than a criminal justice program--I'm sure both are difficult. Then again, what does that have to do with customer service??

By the way, where did I say that servers, flight attendants, etc. can't complain/vent?

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It is just a bit annoying when you get an email asking for a statement because Mrs. Smith entered a formal complaint that she didn't get the lunch box she asked for as all the staff was running to a respiratory arrest. If the public wants to hate me since I am annoyed by that…let them hate me.

For the record, I never tried to pretend nursing school is more difficult than a criminal justice program--I'm sure both are difficult. Then again, what does that have to do with customer service??

By the way, where did I say that servers, flight attendants, etc. can't complain/vent?

I don't know, where did I say you said anything? I was making a general response to the theme of the thread.

Nurses and nursing students do have a tendency to play the one-upmanship game when it comes to comparing nursing to other professions. All professions tend to enjoy implying that they​ have it so much harder than others, but nurses tend to play that card more than others. At least that's been my observation.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's 100% fine for that to annoy you, it would annoy me too!

I just don't think it's fair to negate the work frustrations of non-nurses. Nurses do tend to have a certain attitude (being a martyr, thinking our role is more important than another, resenting those who don't have to "put up" with what we have to put up with, etc ...) and it's not okay. A nurse's role is important, but it's not okay for us to think that we are more important than others.

I'm not saying you're putting yourself up on the pedestal I'm referring to, or that you think you're more important than the non-nurse. I just really enjoyed what BrandonLPN said because his post could be a reply in so many AN threads.

Also, just to put it out there, the public IS mean, impatient and entitled. We allllllll need to vent!! :)

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