I have been in frigid Santa Cruz, California, for about 48 hours now. During that time, I have encountered four people who apparently typify the attitude of locals in service jobs. I only met one person, a convenience store clerk who gave me clear and correct directions, who does not subscribe to the same attitude of service that the other four showed. These are their stories . . .
(Names have been changed to protect the poorly served from legal action.)
Dotty
The night I arrived in Santa Cruz, I went out with my two travel companions to get a late dinner. We ended up at a diner that was almost packed at midnight. After waiting a few minutes, we were seated at a table with menus. The menu selection was impressive, and luckily we had plenty of time to make up our minds. Then, 10 minutes later, Dotty walked up to our table slouching and, without a word, slowly flipped over the top page of her receipt pad and readied her pen to take an order. She didn't say anything. Each of us ordered without any verbal response from our server. We asked for water, and she acknowledged with a sound. She let out a silent breath as if she had just completed a very difficult task, and walked away, barely lifting her feet off the ground. The first plate arrived 20 minutes later. Dotty delivered it, dropped it really, without making eye contact or asking who it belonged to. The next two plates came out in a similar fashion, and we were told, "pancakes on way." Pancakes was definitely not capitalized. We saw Dotty once more during our meal, and I think she started opening up to us more. After each encounter she returned more of our communication with actual verbal sounds. From the looks of it, I'd guess that this 24-hour diner was actually so called because their staff works in 24 hour shifts. What a miserable job.
Chris
Being a liquor store clerk has its advantages and disadvantages if your goal at a job is to do as little work as possible like Chris. On the one hand, you generally don't have to bag as many items as grocery clerks and you're less likely to have a gun pointed at you than a convenience store clerk. But on the other hand, you have to not only take money and give change but also check IDs, which is yet another delay in the next window of time during which you have nothing to do but stand there. Chris knows that he is not paid to make eye contact, show any sort of expression on his face, or say anything to the customer but a single number (the amount due).
Kate
Kate is a bartender. She works hard for the money. She serves her customers well and expects to be rewarded for that service. Your beer costs $4? She'll take the five you give her and say "Thanks" while scrunching her nose in such a way as to add "I'll just take my tip from your change." I'm pretty sure this violates some sort of bartender code, but Kate doesn't care.
Josh
Josh's job requires him to stand outside in the miserable cold for hours. After a couple of hours a hoodie and baseball cap just don't keep you warm, and it makes Josh start to lose the will to move. When people show up to the bar to enter, Josh has to check their ID. It doesn't say anywhere that he has to stand by the door. If he happens to be standing 10 ft from the door, Josh expects that the patrons will see him standing under that tree over there and walk over to him to get their wrist stamped. Sometimes this will cause minor confusion, but at least Josh didn't have to move.