Boo and I were in the Charlotte airport recently and made a beeline towards the restroom before we caught our flight out. There was a woman working in the restroom cleaning up the counter, offering personal items and checking each stall as it was exited. As each person entered the restroom she cheerfully said:
Hello ma’am, welcome to clean bathroom, have a blessed day.
We said hello and looked for an empty stall. She said her little line to each and every person who entered the bathroom. I had to hold back giggling every time she said “clean bathroom” because it sounded like we were at a very special event….the greatest show on earth. There must have been close to 30 people who entered and exited while Boo and I were in there. And guess how many people said hi back to her?
Two.
I know it was two because I counted. I started counting after the first three or four people completely ignored her and walked right past.
Of course four or five people were probably in a frantic hurry and not paying attention. Maybe a few thought she wasn’t talking to them. Maybe one or two visitors were deaf. But what about the other people?
Sure that woman was being paid to keep up the restroom….but how hard would it be to acknowledge her and say hello back? Imagine how great that would make her feel! Imagine how great it would make everyone feel…..
I managed to stack all our luggage up so only the smallest possible surface area was touching the ground. Boo walked into the (very clean) stall and the first thing she said was “OH GREAT…it’s the toilets that flush by themselves.” She’s had some traumatic events with those…..something about taking the time to cover the seat with paper triggers the flush mechanism a little too early. You should see how fast she jumps off when she’s done.
I gave her a dollar to go and put into the tip jar and Boo says really loud “but why would we give her a dollar?” And I explained that it was a grateful way to tell the woman that we felt really super welcome in Clean Bathroom. She dropped the dollar in and told the woman thank you…I couldn’t hear what the woman said back to her but they had a little moment. Then Boo proceeded to make a complete mess of the counter with soap and water (she’s a very thorough hand washer)….enough of a mess that I was thinking I should tip a second time. But the woman walked over with her towel and cleaned up the 6 square feet of surface area affected by Boo’s splashing….almost as if Boo was a royal visitor…..and said in a cheerful boom:
“YOU, MY CHILD…..have a blessed day.”
And I’m convinced that one woman set the tone for our long trip. Her nice words carried right over the not-so-nice demeanor of the lady working at Bojangles. Airports can be the worst places on earth sometimes. And the sometimes the best. It’s a chaotic crossroad of so many different types of people going all different directions. And then it gets shaken up and stirred when you add in some weather or mechanical issues. The pages of my journal tend to fill up when I’m waiting for a plane…especially when people are boarding. That’s when they really seem to get testy. I actually write down my pilot’s name too. You never know when you might want to thank your pilot for landing the plane safely. It’s the one reason I’m never in a hurry when I travel.
*****
P.S. I did the calculations quickly in my head and figured out that if the woman in the bathroom says her “hello ma’am, welcome to clean bathroom, have a blessed day” at least 5 times a minute for eight hours…she’s repeated that line about 2,400 times a day. And if you take my small sample size of 30….she gets a reply only 10% of the time. That means that lady gives out 2,400 nice words and only gets 240 back. That takes a lot of energy. Could you imagine if she got a reply 100% of the time?
