It’s not usually my style to go off, but today is a bit of a rant. So take your seats friends (not mine). This should be good! WHY on earth do people expect YOU to accommodate them when they didn’t plan ahead, were running late, didn’t want to spend the money or figured the waters would part for them on demand at your expense? Especially people that don’t know you. People that made a mistake or misjudged time, price or generosity expect you to make it right for them? Umm. Yeah. For me this is a hard and unequivocal no.
Take our first victim casually flying in Comfort Plus happily situated in a coveted aisle seat. Suddenly the celebrating half of an anniversarying couple asked “Can you JUST switch to a (dreaded) middle seat so that we could fly side by side?” Check out the reply and thinking from this scholarly flyer. Good for you, Aisle. Don’t you dare move.
So if you think that’s crazy, you’re not going to believe this one. A student saved and scraped so that she could fly business class on schmancy Qatar Airways. Good for her, right? And then an I’m Better Than You Mom asked that she give up her bought and paid for seat so that the snooty woman’s daughter could fly business. Honey, what kind of Mom are you?? You fly biz and your kid is stuck back in coach alone? (Cue the abandonment issues!!!) Umm, another no way, friend. How about you just f off instead?
Can you just is a hilarious way to start a sentence. I use it all the time at home, especially when I ask outrageously funny things. Like, “Michael, can you just pop into the kitchen and whip me up some loaded nachos and have them piping hot with every chip having full coverage of cheese, salsa, meat sauce, tomatoes, and sour cream?” (I’m very funny at home!) But what about companies that employ CEOs that must never be customers of their own brand. (Hesitant mini bite of a Big Arch Burger from Mickey D’s anyone??) I think the following four requests are so spot on that I wish I’d written them myself. I think my favorite is the IKEA one. What’s yours??
The thing about communication, especially in a short term conflict with a stranger, is to keep a healthy sense of humor about the interaction. You’re never going to see this person again. But chances are they will never forget you!
In closing, I’d like to thank you for listening to this early morning rant. I think it’s nervy for folks to ask us to do things they failed to do. I’m not betting that your act of defiance when asked to correct their problem inspires them to examine their own behavior and leave open the option for change. But it could. So until then, when someone asks can you just… it’s a yeah. No.
