Having a shower is a wonderful thing. Why, you may ask? Well apart from supplying a platform for us all to scrub up on our personal hygiene, making sure it’s in pristine condition, it provides us with an opportunity for some quality thinking time.
I’ve always wondered why showering sometimes seems to be the best time for contemplating things or coming up with crazy ideas. Maybe it’s the fact that having a shower in the morning symbolises a new start, a new beginning. Or it’s possibly because that washing yourself in the morning is such an easy process, it frees up your mind for other things. Even the simple idea that you’re usually on your own with no distractions is plausible, but no one really has a definite answer as to why showering improves thought.
Not even Einstein himself drafted a thesis entitled “Showering= Better Concentration + Thought²”, but what he did do was promote similar habits as ways of dreaming up inventions, tactics, plans or even this article topic. He claimed that some of his scientific ideas came about while shaving, and word has it he only shaved with a razor and water, so maybe it’s about time we all ditched the shaving cream. Maybe then we’d have more groundbreaking equations to accompany “E=MC²”, but also a smaller fanbase for “Movember” too. Whatever possesses these activities to lead us deep into thought is dumbfounding, but what I do know is that a shower a couple of days ago supplied me with the topic of this article.
While I was exfoliating, I began to think of places that I had been recently, a restaurant, the cinema and even the local supermarket. Even though in the majority of these places we get pleasant, or on the odd occasion, outstanding service, my recollection of these trips led me to ask myself that if the situation arose, would I prefer rude service, or slow service?
My quick assumption at the time was that it depends on where you are. I guess what I’m trying to say is that who would want slow service in a taxi? Even though rude service is dreadful at the best of times, I think I’d rather have a cab driver say how my striped shirt makes me look fatter than miss my appointment at the dentist, or worse still, free entry to Liquid. Okay, so maybe some stranger commenting on how your girlfriend’s skirt should be shorter isn’t the most ideal of situations, but I figure that the less time you spend in the car then the less remarks you’ll have to put up with. I’m not saying taxi services hire people such as these, but taxi companies hardly pride themselves on travelling slowly, yet brand themselves as “we’re the fastest in the business”.
The same cannot be said for restaurants, however. Think about it, you reach the age-old predicament of having a fly in your soup, so you call over the waiter, expecting him to resolve the issue. What really happens though is he turns to you with a face of thunder and says “So what?”, and prompts you to carry on sipping, as if it’s a standard bushtucker trial. I think I speak for most people when I say I’d rather wait longer for my meal than potentially experience what I just described.
Slower service at food outlets can have obvious benefits too, such as spending longer to get to know someone on a first date, or if you’re particularly indecisive, having more time to choose what you want to eat. Maybe you won’t ever get a fly in your soup, but snappiness is a common trait found in rude staff. Even staff who simply just left their manners at home and forgot their “P’s and Q’s” are not appreciated and not welcomed by diners. Unless you’re waiting into the next morning for your bruschetta topped with tomato and basil, slower service is normally not noticeable and so in comparison with rude service, it would not be frowned upon.
Paying at a till in a supermarket was where I came a bit unstuck. I found it a bit of a grey area as to what I’d prefer to the obvious good service if for some reason it went missing. I thought about it and drew the conclusion that if I was in the queue waiting to be served I’d rather rude service was given and not slow service. Then again I wouldn’t want to be a victim of the rude service itself while I was packing away my potato smiley faces and pink toilet roll. So maybe we could all sacrifice a little extra time to spare us from being abused for not having our loyalty card or bringing a few bags to reuse. All in all, I found choosing between rude or slow service in a supermarket pretty difficult. However I think slow service would come out on top, as rude service with someone who has friendly assistance drilled into them would be shocking, if not despicable.
There are many more occasions where we could all become casualties of rude or slow service, and while we all kid ourselves into thinking the next meal or next week’s shop will go as smoothly as we plan it, the reality is that it might well not. Tomorrow morning’s train conductor might spend an eternity figuring out whether you’re eligible for young person’s discount, or the lady in the cinema might laugh at you when you order two tickets for you and your mother to see the next instalment of Camp Rock. Okay, so if you’re an 18 year old male the last example may just about be deserved but I know I wouldn’t like to be told “tough luck” to my favourite channel not being available on the new Sky package, especially if their reputation is based on “believing in better”.
This little insight into poor service has just made me appreciate good service a little more, but distinguish that it depends on the situation as to whether you’d rather be treated with rudeness or slowness, if it came to it. It’s a question I feel I wanted to answer, because I think if you haven’t experienced bad service in any form then you will, because everyone does. Obviously there isn’t a little button where you can switch between different types of bad service, or even to good service, but as long as you’re not expecting impeccable assistance then at least you’re prepared for some slackness.
Anyway, I feel I’ve waited long enough for the water to warm up, it’s time to get ready for another shower of ideas...
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