Twitter Thread: Server sparks debate and discussion around the life lessons and experience that comes with working in the Service Industry

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Oct 28, 2022 1:30 PM EDT

Your first job in the service industry (or retail, I'd argue) is a formative experience. For most of us, it comes at that time in our life when earning some cash is a necessity: Maybe you've just graduated high school or college and need a job; maybe you're still in high school; maybe the career you thought you were going to have as an Olympic level athlete didn't quite work out, and now you have no idea what you're doing with your life. Ignoring the fact that the last example is oddly specific, the point is that you usually enter into the service industry when you lack life experience or are otherwise in a weird place. This, combined with stressful working conditions and constant abuse and maltreatment from managers and customers, all boils down to a hotbed of experiences and shiitake sandwiches that will help you in whatever you do for the rest of your life.

Have I mentioned one of my first service industry managers was fired for having a three-way with two staff members in the backroom? Sh*t can get wild.

As bad as it can get, it's not all bad. The experiences and lessons you learn working these jobs change you for the better and sometimes can put your life on a course that it might otherwise have taken. I should know — I met my partner seven years ago while working a job in the service industry amidst a very dark part of my life; things have gotten better since in a way I could have never possibly imagined, and it's hard to imagine how things would have gone if we hadn't met.

That's the essence of this Twitter thread, and there's some powerful truth amongst all the jokes and hot takes in the responses. Working in service and retail is unlike most anything else and, as others have said, should be a rite of passage everyone has to go through to better understand others.

For more from this space, check out this industry worker's impassioned rant about customers trying to push inside while they're still setting up.