I was talking to someone who works in a service role similar to mine but in a different area, and he told me he never likes to give people too much or do too much for them because then they always expect it. He works off doing the bare minimum he can do to keep expectations as low as possible.

As he was telling me this, I thought about how unfortunate it is that I have to rely on this guy for stuff. That mindset just isn’t a good one to have in service work. I operate off the opposite premise. I always try to go above and beyond for my users and to take care of my clients. Unless they give me a very specific reason not to, I always try to give them more and make them happy.

Now some people can be difficult and they can cause you problems. With folks like that you try to minimize the amount of time you spend with them. You go in, do what you have to do, and you get out. A lot of the time with people like that, giving them more actually ends up being detrimental to you. So you have to know when and where to show that extra care and effort. But as a rule in general, I tend to be someone who goes above and beyond. I do my best to keep people happy, to make them remember their interaction with me, to make them feel like I was helpful and that I care. This is how I operate.

So hearing that from this guy wasn’t surprising, but it was disappointing all the same. I would expect that you would at least try to do a good job and take care of your people. That’s just the way I came up. That’s the world I come from. In service work your job is to service people and take care of them. If you’re not happy or comfortable with that, maybe you should find a different line of work.