The treatment of service workers seems to be worse these days

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Fred was a tough, rough, old-school type of a guy. Fred treated people bruskly, and roughly too. Fred expected a service worker to do their job well for him, no matter how he treated them. Fred saw them as just being a cog in the system, rather than as their actually being a real live human being, with real feelings and emotions too. And so one day, Fred found himself in a large hospital, looking for his wife, who had been admitted, a few days earlier, for a minor procedural operation to remove her gallstones. Fred stormed around the floors, yelling at the staff there, about how the Hospital was set up like a rabbit warren, and how bad the Hospital management was. "Where is my wife? Where the blazes, is ward 7 south? Where are the staff, when I need them? Does anyone work here at all?" And so he ranted, and raved, and raged, on and on, as he went from ward to ward trying to spot his wife, on the floor somewhere. Most staff now had learnt to avoid him. It had been the same a few days ago, when Fred had visited his wife too. Fred had made a spectacle of himself then too. He expected instant attention from staff members to serve him at his beck and call, and to immediately drop whatever else they were doing at the time. Becky, Fred's wife, had now been moved to a recovery ward, and of course, this was the reason, why Fred was having trouble locating her today in the Hospital. Now, Fred was wrong here of course, but where the staff also wrong to avoid him? If the staff members are really professional and doing their job fully, should they still be kind and courteous to someone who is rude and abusive to them, or not? Where should a line be drawn? The staff should be respected by Fred, but should they also still serve his needs. It is a bit like a surgeon refusing to transplant a new liver into an alcoholic. He would rather choose someone who needs it more, through no fault of their own, but has the surgeon the right to make this call, or not? What do you think? Somebody who is nasty and shabbily treats a Doctor's receptionist, telling them to find him an appointment now, right now, will often, for example, be told that there are no more appointments for that day, even if one was available, just come up, because of a recent cancelation. Photo Credit: The photo used here was freely sourced from the free media site: pixabay.com Do we treat service workers as being real people, or not?