With all the fake people (co-workers, cashiers, etc) we have to deal with and all the fake news that is force-fed to us on a daily basis, I like to keep myself grounded. For me, that grounding process primarily consists of honesty – with myself and others. Sometimes though, burying my head in the sand is the best option (to ignore fake news in some cases, for example).
Anyway...
Living in Los Angeles, I deal with a lot of apathetic, flat out rude people when I go out into the world every day. To be honest, I’d rather place my order with a robot than with some person who glares at me and won’t even say “hi” when I walk up to a counter – even when I say “hi” first. I understand there might be a whole slew of valid reasons minimum wage workers usually have bad attitudes, but that bad attitude is being forced onto every person who walks up to said counter, which in turn, will probably be passed on to everyone else the newly-infected customer encounters for the rest of his or her day. It takes a strong, spiritually purposeful person to be able to deflect the bad attitude of everyone he or she interacts with every day; not everyone is bullet-proof every single day and it’s not fair to expect that of everyone.
Photo source: pixabay.com
Would robots help combat this issue that probably stems from the employer to begin with because employees are underpaid? Would bad attitudes become a non-issue in the case of deploying a staff of customer-facing robots in retail stores and restaurants? The employees would be out of a job, but would they be better off eventually? Maybe they would then be able to find their passions and pursue them for better monetary gain than being stuck behind a counter at a fast food restaurant for a wage that is below the poverty line. Out of necessity, they would figure things out and start using their brains for once. Maybe, just maybe?
If the title of this post is Steemit Honesty, why am I talking about disgruntled minimum wage workers and their bad attitudes? They have nothing to do with each other, right?
Well, I’m glad you asked.
They have everything to do with each other.
At this point, on Steemit, I feel as though I am one of those disgruntled minimum wage workers that has whales and dolphins occasionally throwing fractions of a penny at me here and there. With this approach, I'd do better scouring my neighborhood for recyclables. I’m taking their order (providing content) and glaring back in response to what I perceive as their lack of response.
Is that fair to them?
Is that fair to myself?
I didn’t say “hi” to them first, did I?
No wonder they act the way they do.
...
I’d say I need to step out from behind that counter and make my own way. What I mean is, as a “have-not” I have to continue pursuing my passions and writing about them here, regardless of the response I get from the “haves”. I have to figure things out and start using my brain.
BTW, for the record, since I’m being honest in this post -- I like robots here on Steemit. By the grace of whoever runs the @kpine bot, I often get more than pennies. I don't know what I did to gain the attention of kpine, but it's most certainly appreciated. Admittedly, he’s one of the reasons I continue to write original content here.
If more bots like that amp up their support for newer people who consistently put out stellar content and have proven themselves to be reliable, more of those quality people will stick around. We can all manually curate great content every day until we're blue in the face, but for those who deserve consistent support for their consistent quality posts, this approach will only help them once in a blue moon, and therefore, they won't stick around our community for long. I think the bots help with this, at least from my perspective.
This is easier said than done, and I realize that my perspective is that of a minnow. But, regardless, I am a minnow who has stuck around because of a bot and is being honest about it.
Just saying…
Gif source: giphy.com
I hear you... and pondered your words for a bit.
Maybe we just need to get back to basics-- WHY are we here? Why are YOU here? "Money" alone is a crappy reason... just like YouTube or conventional blogging, you have to be "1-in-5000" to make anything that resembles a living being here.
So let's look beyond. I wanted to support art and artists... and share art and build a following around that. Maybe we could find some new artistic talent for our art gallery. Maybe make a few hundred $$ to help support art events.
So what does THAT mean? Build and support a core group of people with specific interests... and perhaps build mutual support for each other. NOT "try to be something to everyone" nor hope for a "whale drive-by vote."
As you said... go out, be seen, be the first to say "hello." Be prepared to say "hello" several times before anyone says hello back. Stick to-- and support-- those who DO say "hello" pack. Be focused. Stop dabbling.
Had one post make it to "trending" once... still not sure why; but it threw $260 our way. Can't plan for that; can only hope for it.
Yeah, I guess this post was a continuation of our conversation on your post.
What you say here in this comment is true. As a sort of case study, if you will, I have looked at some of the food bloggers on here and they actively support each other. All these people, if you look at their posts, they don't dabble, they don't meander and they don't screw around. I think a similar strategy is employed with geographic areas/tags (i.e. #teamsouthafrica) and works well.
Maybe there are others in your area and you can start a tag yourself? #teamwashingtonstate or whatever?
Or what about a tag for all of us so we can find each other? #idontpostcrap :D
Only if people are nice, and not all.day
There are good and bad bots though you are fine if you still with the good bots, the bad bots drain your VP and hurt you and doesn't help anyone but the bot owner. It can be frustrating as a new person but as Dory says Just keep Swimming and you will get to where you are going
I agree. I'm not an advocate for any sort of malicious bots. Really, all I'm getting at is that a bot is the reason I've been more persistent and willing to continue here, in case that info is useful to someone.
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Right now, Steemit is still in the building stage; there are so many people vying for attention that it is hard to get votes.
It is going to take time here to build a network or a community of readers.
Good luck, and keep plugging at it!
Oh yes, you are most definitely correct.
Even with all the noise, I do believe the cream always rises to the top. :)
Real World
I see a lot of “bad attitude” issues that are out there are an endless circle. There are just a lot of nasty or unhappy people out there who take it out on everything.
When you are in the service industry you deal with a lot of nasty people. If you treat people back nasty then it just compounds on the issue. I know people who hate waking up every single day to go drag themselves in front of bunch of people who just abuse them and are very rude even when asking for help.
While I can’t fault people for ever time wearing down and just turning into nasty people themselves at some point I wonder if they are just unable to find better sources of work. You also get a lot of people who believe they just don’t belong in a minimum wage working job. So that can lead them to being awful as well.
Steemit
Same happens here. A lot of the whales also been around the block more then they like with certain types of behavior and are just done playing nice.
Me personally I’m just here to have some fun and learn things. Increase my writing skill. I see many other things then just monetary value.
It’s like working a low wage job to get experience and get higher paying one later on. Their are many other benefits to doing something then monetary ones.
Anyone in customer service should be friendly to customers or they should find another type of job. It's rude and makes me not want to go back to a place where the service was rude.
I don't think they should be replaced with robots though because, there are people who are friendly with customers so they might lose their job too. I do though think when someone is rude to a customer, they should be fired or at least be written up. There are too many other people who are looking for work who would be glad to treat customers with respect and get paid for it.
There are some bad bots on here too like the ones who like to tell you what to do. And the bots who flag post and take away your earnings.
Thank you for your honesty in your post. Personally, I often feel like that one has to "act" in a certain way (always happy, nice, positive) that people like you in here. That doesn't resonate with me. I'm more like a bit philosophical and thinking about like. Sometimes a bit melancholic. That's not what gets you many upvotes. But yeah, as @reddragonfly said: maybe that's the wrong reason for being here. Making friends with people interested in the same thing as you, would be an intrinsic motivation, whereas money/upvotes are only an extrinsic motivation.
Anyhow, I've created my account as an experiment. I promised myself to stay away from trying to please others . I will just post some pictures and write a couple of lines about me life. And I will see where this will bring me in a year. Will I make some friends? Will I earn some $? We'll see.
Good luck to you!