The last few months I’ve been traveling quite a bit for work and have enjoyed many people-watching opportunities at various airports. As a person who loves to observe human behavior, it’s been most fascinating watching how fellow air travelers and airline personnel act….sometimes under stress, sometimes in a hurry and sometimes just because it’s interesting to watch.
What has become quite apparent, however, is that what WE ALL KNOW about treating people with common courtesy has become somewhat of an endangered species, a dying breed. Frankly, I find the lack of common courtesy to be so COMMON lately that when someone does behave in a courteous manner, it seems almost shocking. Pretty sad, wouldn’t you agree?
Perhaps I’m becoming more and more like my parents. As a child, I remember hearing them say quite often, “What IS this world coming to?” I find myself asking that same question as it simply amazes me how discourteous people can be, certainly not an appropriate setting to encourage good networking. I’ll site a few examples of what I’ve recently observed repeatedly in airports and on airplanes, and I welcome any examples of discourteous behavior you’d care to share whether it occurred in an airport, restaurant, retail store, post office, school, church, concert or any public venue.
My observations of how common courtesy is disappearing:
* When a food merchant at the airport, whose livelihood depends on food sales, acts as if he or she is “doing you a favor” when they take your order and never even say “Thank You”
* When people take off their shoes in an airplane and expose everyone else to that sweaty foot odor just before they start rubbing their feet with the same hands and fingers with which they’ll eat their complimentary peanuts
* When someone bumps their carry-on luggage or backpack into another person already seated on the plane and never even acknowledges that they may have bruised that person or even apologizes for their insensitivity
* When someone gets up from a table where they have eaten in the airport food court, and they leave their trash all over the table
* When the airline loses everyone’s luggage and the airline personnel demonstrate ZERO customer service and are down right RUDE to the passengers who are missing their bags
What are some behaviors you’ve observed that demonstrate the concept of common courtesy becoming an endangered species?
