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pseydtonneI woke up from a very good nap and my watch said it was 9. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal. However one part of my mind didn't know whether this meant morning or evening. Another part just didn't believe it was 9 and wanted to know what time it would be back home. This fight lasted a couple minutes or until I could hit the bathroom and change my shirt.
I reset my watch to Sydney time while we were still taxiing in San Francisco Airport. I didn't want my brain to think about Pacific time or Eastern Daylight. I wanted to get myself beyond what I saw as the final limit to jet lag. I had reset my watch to Pacific time about two hours into the previous flight and that helped me get beyond a lot of problems while I was in San Francisco.
When I checked my seat assignments on Sunday, I had a seatmate in my two-seat row. When they closed the doors fifteen minutes before the scheduled take-off, I still had the bench to myself as did the gentleman behind me. Great, I figured: I can put my legs up and sleep almost humanely.
Unfortunately my arm console wasn't working. First that just meant I could not turn on the light over my seat, a problem if I wanted to read. After all, they turned off all the ambient lights early into takeoff so that the normal people could begin their sleep regimens. Then the first movie started, which looked very appealing to me. I plugged in my headphones and found I was stuck on sound channel zero at full volume. If I tried to change any settings, the 0 on the LCD changed to an E.
When it was just the lights not working, they announced they were working on the problem. I was the first person to report the sound did not work either. I raised my hand as if I were in school.
I was lucky to get one of the team leads, Annette. I wasn't angry but I really wanted to disengage my brain as quickly as possible. Thus I stayed in work mode and explained which things were not working. She let me know I could go to any of the other empty seats. I then mentioned this meant I could no longer stretch out and I'd likely wake someone. She mentioned they'd probably have to reboot the entire plane's entertainment system to fix it because they other diagnostics had failed. She walked away to get other details.
I was still standing near my seat, figuring out what to do next. She then said "follow me". I grabbed my headphones and she pointed me at an empty three-chair bench in Economy Plus.
Sound? Worked. View of the screen? Fabulous. Lights? Gorgeous. Something like 54 inches of cushion to myself? That moved it to ideal.
I asked one of the other stewards her name. When that movie finished, I had already set up my pillows and curled up to sleep. Two and a half hours later, I awoke and pulled up a Jackson from my wallet. I then went to her, let her know what a great job of diplomacy she had done and how much it meant for me. I then duked her.
This is not something I learned to do from my parents. In fact I think a lot of us geeks need to learn this trick because we can piss people off when we're trying to be friendly. A lot of people find our ability to tear apart problems a threat to their sense of propriety or domain. Thus I will teach you how to duke and thus how to solve a lot of little problems in a quiet, potent way.
First the technique: you fold a dollar bill in half, then half again in the same direction. Then fold it once more in the other direction so that you have a little square. The point is that the square will hide in your hand wedged between your middle and rings fingers at the delta where the fingers split inside the palm.
Now close your hand and walk up to the person that gave you extra service. Explain that you really appreciate the work done or however you like to craft it. I've worked phones for so long that I just slip into my top business mode. Then shake the person's hand and loosen your grip on the wedged bill square.
The only problem with duking is that the other person may not be familiar with this process. That's why it's vital to have a canned patter to play it off.
Typically what will happen when you duke and the other person doesn't understand is that they'll drop the square or say "umm, what's this?" The best answer is "oh, it must be yours" or "perhaps you dropped something. Not to worry...". Never mention that money dropped, as the whole point is not to draw any attention to this bribe-like action in the social situation. All you're doing is suggesting the fairies left a magic ten or twenty for this person.
Oh, and never duke less than a saw buck or its equivalent. Even in the UK it would be uncouth to duke with a fiver as it's the smallest note in circulation. Never duke with a coin. Never make too much of a show of the hand shake. Never talk too much afterward.
More important than all those caveats is understanding the real value of an action. If you say "well, that's what she should have done anyway" or "shouldn't I expect good service? Why do I have to go through this speakeasy crap?" then you have yet to understand service. We in the service trades like helping people but sometimes have to handle difficult situations. When it really makes the difference, then that can keep a customer. That's worth money because it was worth the time and skill to solve the problem. The person solving the problem is on the clock and has given you something better than a shrug. That person took initiative. Let that person know how much that means.
Getting my own three-person bench on a plane is worth far more than $20. The check-in at United offered to upgrade me to business class for $796, the same price as the existing tickets for the trip from Boston to Sydney. I can't see that as worth the money for several reasons, not least of which that it's more than I hope to pay for a couple weeks in hostels let alone half a day in a frickin' chair. I got a smaller upgrade for free when I barely deserved more than "pick another seat". Now I feel like it's 11 in the evening instead of 9 in the morning because I could reset my brain for a while. A nice heaping of sanity is worth far more.
I reset my watch to Sydney time while we were still taxiing in San Francisco Airport. I didn't want my brain to think about Pacific time or Eastern Daylight. I wanted to get myself beyond what I saw as the final limit to jet lag. I had reset my watch to Pacific time about two hours into the previous flight and that helped me get beyond a lot of problems while I was in San Francisco.
When I checked my seat assignments on Sunday, I had a seatmate in my two-seat row. When they closed the doors fifteen minutes before the scheduled take-off, I still had the bench to myself as did the gentleman behind me. Great, I figured: I can put my legs up and sleep almost humanely.
Unfortunately my arm console wasn't working. First that just meant I could not turn on the light over my seat, a problem if I wanted to read. After all, they turned off all the ambient lights early into takeoff so that the normal people could begin their sleep regimens. Then the first movie started, which looked very appealing to me. I plugged in my headphones and found I was stuck on sound channel zero at full volume. If I tried to change any settings, the 0 on the LCD changed to an E.
When it was just the lights not working, they announced they were working on the problem. I was the first person to report the sound did not work either. I raised my hand as if I were in school.
I was lucky to get one of the team leads, Annette. I wasn't angry but I really wanted to disengage my brain as quickly as possible. Thus I stayed in work mode and explained which things were not working. She let me know I could go to any of the other empty seats. I then mentioned this meant I could no longer stretch out and I'd likely wake someone. She mentioned they'd probably have to reboot the entire plane's entertainment system to fix it because they other diagnostics had failed. She walked away to get other details.
I was still standing near my seat, figuring out what to do next. She then said "follow me". I grabbed my headphones and she pointed me at an empty three-chair bench in Economy Plus.
Sound? Worked. View of the screen? Fabulous. Lights? Gorgeous. Something like 54 inches of cushion to myself? That moved it to ideal.
I asked one of the other stewards her name. When that movie finished, I had already set up my pillows and curled up to sleep. Two and a half hours later, I awoke and pulled up a Jackson from my wallet. I then went to her, let her know what a great job of diplomacy she had done and how much it meant for me. I then duked her.
This is not something I learned to do from my parents. In fact I think a lot of us geeks need to learn this trick because we can piss people off when we're trying to be friendly. A lot of people find our ability to tear apart problems a threat to their sense of propriety or domain. Thus I will teach you how to duke and thus how to solve a lot of little problems in a quiet, potent way.
First the technique: you fold a dollar bill in half, then half again in the same direction. Then fold it once more in the other direction so that you have a little square. The point is that the square will hide in your hand wedged between your middle and rings fingers at the delta where the fingers split inside the palm.
Now close your hand and walk up to the person that gave you extra service. Explain that you really appreciate the work done or however you like to craft it. I've worked phones for so long that I just slip into my top business mode. Then shake the person's hand and loosen your grip on the wedged bill square.
The only problem with duking is that the other person may not be familiar with this process. That's why it's vital to have a canned patter to play it off.
Typically what will happen when you duke and the other person doesn't understand is that they'll drop the square or say "umm, what's this?" The best answer is "oh, it must be yours" or "perhaps you dropped something. Not to worry...". Never mention that money dropped, as the whole point is not to draw any attention to this bribe-like action in the social situation. All you're doing is suggesting the fairies left a magic ten or twenty for this person.
Oh, and never duke less than a saw buck or its equivalent. Even in the UK it would be uncouth to duke with a fiver as it's the smallest note in circulation. Never duke with a coin. Never make too much of a show of the hand shake. Never talk too much afterward.
More important than all those caveats is understanding the real value of an action. If you say "well, that's what she should have done anyway" or "shouldn't I expect good service? Why do I have to go through this speakeasy crap?" then you have yet to understand service. We in the service trades like helping people but sometimes have to handle difficult situations. When it really makes the difference, then that can keep a customer. That's worth money because it was worth the time and skill to solve the problem. The person solving the problem is on the clock and has given you something better than a shrug. That person took initiative. Let that person know how much that means.
Getting my own three-person bench on a plane is worth far more than $20. The check-in at United offered to upgrade me to business class for $796, the same price as the existing tickets for the trip from Boston to Sydney. I can't see that as worth the money for several reasons, not least of which that it's more than I hope to pay for a couple weeks in hostels let alone half a day in a frickin' chair. I got a smaller upgrade for free when I barely deserved more than "pick another seat". Now I feel like it's 11 in the evening instead of 9 in the morning because I could reset my brain for a while. A nice heaping of sanity is worth far more.
