I'm with you Mitz. Choose your friends carefully and ignore anyone who seems intent on spoiling things.

It must be nice to have that option...

Ahhh ... of course ... I guess you have to be nice to everyone. You must have to bite your tongue sometimes

Yeah, for a business it can be very hard at times. We were lucky. We had a lot of customers all paying us a comparatively small amount of money, and the loss of a couple wouldn't kill us.

I only ever said to a couple 'I'm sorry, but you don't reach the standards we require from our customers.'

Being this side of the bar has been quite an eye-opener. I never realised that people talk complete bollocks when they are pissed but they do you know - utter rubbish (not that I ever did as a customer.)

It's actually quite disappointing - usually I like people and people like me but I see the worst in some people when I'm doing this job.

Some come in with the quite deliberate aim of winding me up - I'm not being paranoid here - other people have seen it happen. It doesn't bother me overmuch but I find it disappointing that some people think that to try to upset people is their night's entertainment.

Luckily there are far more nice people than nasty.

I actually love what I am doing. It was a good move.

Drunks are less amusing than they think.

We had far, far more decent ones than idiots.

Some people are nice others are not. I try to spend time with those who I can get along with and try to ignore those who I don't.

Most people I meet in business are fine , both Spanish and English , you do seem to get the same ratio of ***kers in all nationalities .

If you start thinking everyone is a ***ker then its time to get yourself checked out

When you're in business you've got to be nice to people, whether you like it or not. I've got the choice of many supermarkets where I live and I now shop at a branch of Mercadona where everybody is friendly and polite (they've all been on a course), and I seldom use Carrefour where the assistants badly need to go on a course.

I seldom go in English bars, but I walk past two next to each other on a regular basis. One has a surly owner and a For Sale sign, the one next door has a friendly owner and gets packed.

I think one of the main secrets is to find time to give everyone a warm friendly welcome ASAP after they walk through the door.

Another is to try to agree with punters opinions as far as possible or at the very least least humour them, no matter how stupid or ill-mannered they seem to be.

I had a lady friend used to run a bar in the Canaries and some punters were a right pain in the ass.
Everyone once in a while she'd disappear out the back out of earshot and let rip with a stream of Fs and Bs before returning behind the bar with her usual cheerful smile.

Very very true.

MY OH uses that technique whilst working as a Funcionario - it works so well that many people will wait an extra hour or two just be dealt with by him.

A friendly smile and the ability to make everyone feel important and special makes his job much easier.

People can be so angry when they arrive, with all that pent up energy, ready to attack. He dis-arms them very effetively.

Some interesting remarks from his customers...........
A man from Sth America, almost in tears, saying that it was the first time he's been treated like a human, whilst in Spain.
An old woman asks.......Why are u so happy ?........you're always smiling.....don't you have problems.



Goes to show that the public like to be treated with respect and kindness, even if they do not always get what they came for.

People deserve politeness and a degree of respect. It works wonders.

We hate going into Dia because almost without exception the staff are miserable skanky bitches who couldn't smile if their lives depended on it.

At our local Consum it was get down on your knees and be grateful that we "serve" you. In came a new manager and low and behold he turned the place around, I do not know whether he used the carrot or the stick or both but it certainly worked. One particular person who works the till started to say bon dia to everyone, the management should really have had medical staff on site to look after the locals who could not believe it.
Our nearest Mercadona has the happiest staff of any supermarket I have ever been in they chatter away, laugh and joke with us customers, I would love some of what the manager puts in their morning coffee.

Graham

Does it cost that much to smile and say hello? Other supermarkets manage it, but not Dia.

As my old man always used to say, "It costs nothing to be civil".

I have on the odd occasion or two, seen similar attitudes in Lidl.

Not sure if it's the case, but I get the impression that their staff are under pressure to fly around all day like blue-assed flees and possibly not for the best pay packet in the World.