Have manners gone by the wayside?

I work in customer service. So many times I speak with people who I just wonder if they had no real upbringing. (Yes, I know a very Southern saying. I’m a Southern chick.) Recently I have had people curse at me, tell me how stupid I am, and just basically offend me every way possible. I have to bite my tongue for the most part. When they curse I can tell them that if they continue using profane language that I will disconnect the call and then follow through.

What I don’t get is why people feel they can treat another human that way to begin with? I would never speak to someone the way I have been spoken to recently. When I was growing up, if I dared to be openly disrespectful there was hell to pay. I was taught well that you show others respect until they have proven themselves unworthy of it. Unfortunately in my line of work, I can’t just tell them off.

It isn’t just people in the workplace. It’s people in general. Many people feel they can jump in  your business and be rude and then jump out again. If you dare to correct them then they act offended. In order to get respect, you have to show respect. It’s a reciprocal type of notion. If you are disrespectful, you could get something you don’t want or aren’t prepared for depending on who you are disrespecting.

And is it really so hard to say something nice rather than being rude and confrontational all the time? It takes the same amount of energy to say one word as it does another. And by being pleasant you might actually progress rather than digress. The old saying “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar” is as true today as it was 200 years ago.