I believe everyone should work in a retail or fast food job at least once in their life.
I think this because it would drastically increase the amount of compassion, patience and understanding of the average person ordering from fast-food restaurants or shopping at any retail store. On top of that, it also will teach also young people extremely useful life lessons and skills.
This in turn could increase positive perception around fast food and retail workers, which could lead to much needed pay increases and hopefully, a decrease in number of “Karen” and “Ken’’ customers.
A Karen or Ken is a customer who is overly demanding, impatient and rude to fast-food or retail workers. They are most often found at fast food establishments or shopping in retail stores and demanding managers. Since these customers are prone to arguments, situations may arise where tensions are high, and it could become dangerous for both parties.
I think that most these types of people have likely never worked in a fast food or retail environment in their lives, so their perception of the difficulty of working in those environments can be inexact.
If they worked in one of those environments before, it could create a sense of understanding since they have been there and experienced it for themselves, increasing their patience for others. This would result in a better experience for both parties as they can relate to the workers with increased compassion, patience and understanding.
For many people, working in fast-food or retail creates some of the most memorable moments in their lives, whether those memories were good or bad; it leaves you appreciating every worker a little bit more than you did before.
Having a job in retail or fast-food earlier in life would also teach you many life skills. For example, how to work in a busy fast paced environment, time management skills, patience and important communication skills.
Being able to complete tasks in stressful situations while staying calm and handling time-based tasks are important life skills that many people lack, and working in retail or fast-food is a perfect environment to build those skills.
In my opinion, working at a retail store or fast-food restaurant is not only a good first job, but an important one.
You will learn many of the ins and outs of what to do and not to do in a variety of situations, and in most cases, it will create a drive within yourself to achieve more and find a better paying job with far better conditions.
I can attest to these claims since I have worked at several fast-food restaurants and retail businesses over the years, I have gained so much experience and knowledge because I have worked at those types of places. These experiences have led me to be more patient any time I’m at a restaurant and the service is slow, because I know what the workers are going through.
If you don’t know what workers are going through, you don’t really care enough to have patience with them. That is why I believe everyone should work at a fast-food restaurant or at a retail store at least once in their lives.