[Commentary] This shouldn’t bear reminding: Every service worker deserves respect

We honestly can’t believe this has to be said when this should be ingrained to everyone’s minds. But, seeing how some people lack proper manners and most likely missed out on their GMRC lessons in elementary school, well.

We’re absolutely sure you’ve all seen the infamous viral birthday video of a certain Filipino media personality smearing chocolate icing on the waiter’s forehead. It’s practically been plastered and posted on every single part of different social media platforms that you’ve must have seen it at some point.

People left and right have been posting their negative reactions to the disrespect that the waiter had received from a Filipino celebrity. Others who have worked with them have also posted their unsavory experiences with the media personality, with some going viral.

People who work in the same industry and role as the waiter in the video also raised their concerns and woes on the issue. The bottom-line: she was absolutely disrespectful to the waiter, and it takes a lot of guts to endure that humiliation in front of a lot of people.

See, if that was done by a friend to another friend, then it would be okay. But, since it was done to someone who was doing their job of serving cake, then that’s just wrong. There is absolutely no excuse for the behavior displayed by that certain personality towards the service worker.

At the same time, there are just too many words to describe this unfortunate situation. Disrespect, bullying, “power play”, lack of manners, etc. What makes this whole thing painstakingly frustrating is that it’s not so hard to give respect to the people around us. No matter what a person’s status in life is, their occupation, or whatnot, everyone deserves to be respected.

That isn’t so hard to understand, right? Ever since we were all children, our parents and teachers have been teaching us good manners and right conduct, to the point that it was an actual subject in school. People working in the service industry work hard to make the society work as smoothly as it can—these people are the cashiers, grocery baggers, waiters/waitresses, cooks, janitors, medics, etc.

These people are there to make our lives easier, and yet some people just treat them as if they’re less of a person than they are. Just because you have access to more opportunities than these people, doesn’t make you a better person. A person’s personality and values definitely have more value than how a person looks and dresses.

Service workers are paid for the services that they offer in their specific sectors, not to be humiliated in front of many people with chocolate icing on their forehead. Kuya waiter, you did not deserve that treatment at all. May mga tao talaga na napaka-sama ng ugali.

In the case of little miss “nepo sister”, she’s got a famous sister, a politician husband, lots of connections in the media, and yet most of the stories surrounding her are about how terrible her work ethic is, her dreadful personality, and her sub-par jokes. No wonder people don’t like her as much as she thinks they do.

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