Everyone has their breaking point...

 

 

 

Today whilst working I was starkly reminded why I started this blog, what I hoped to achieve from it and felt the pang of frustration, anger and (if I´m totally honest) tears that I bet every worker or employer has felt at some stage during this Covid19 pandemic.  

For the majority of people living and working here in Spain the pressures of Covid have hit home in many ways. For both the self employed and contracted staff the fears of not being able to work, pay their bills and put food on the table during lockdown has since be replaced with the fear of going to work and getting sick, the exhausting responsibility of not only keeping themselves but also their customers safe and the mind boggling, brain numbing responsibility of keeping up with, and adapting, to the ever changing rules and regulations. 

Businesses and their owners are having to operate with reduced staffing numbers and in many cases the guilt of past employees not being able to put food on their tables, the never ending efforts of keeping their business afloat and employing the staff they can and all whilst bending over backwards to keep everyone safe and operate within ever increasingly strict laws and guidelines.

So, why am I pointing out these obvious challenging times, that all workers are facing? Well let me tell you...

Whether you are brave enough to go out to a bar or restaurant, doing an essential shop at the supermarket or farmacia, communicating with a medical or other key worker or engaging with any services provider during these horrendous times have a little compassion!

I have witnessed (and experienced myself) some awful acts of aggression, frustration and damn right rudeness across all industry sectors where people are perhaps not being served as quickly or in the same way as before, where people are perhaps being asked to do things differently and make appointments for services they didn´t have to before, where they are being asked to be mindful of restrictions not bought in by the business themselves but by the government (regionally or nationally) and where people generally are so concerned with getting what they want, when they want it that they are completely disregarding the person doing their best to provide it. 

We all have a responsibility to not only protect ourselves, and each other, from the virus but also to protect our communities, local businesses and service providers from this kind of behaviour! Just step back from a situation for one minute and imagine how you might feel...

Imagine wearing a mask for 8 hours at a time, doing a job that previously 2 people were doing, satanising your hands and cleaning your working area 10, 12 or 50 times a day, having back to back scheduled meetings whilst your inbox, messenger, whatapps fills up with yet more appointments, inquiries or bookings, taking measure to ensure the safety of yourself, your colleagues and your customers and then ask yourself if you would be tolerant of being spoken to badly or sworn at, told that your best wasn´t good enough or bad mouthed on social media?!

My guess is, like most of us, you would put up with it for maybe the first 50 odd times but eventually everyone has a breaking point. Whilst the majority of people are good, kind individuals who will probably find reading this a bit of a shock or appalling that one human being could treat another in this way, I hope that there is just one person reading this that is honest enough to say they could of handled a situation differently, that they will be more compassionate in the future or perhaps just remind everyone to be just a little bit kinder. 

Lets support and celebrate all local businesses and workers, lets be proud of what we have around us and not break people just because things aren´t going totally our way.

Un Saludo

Chica de Mazarron xx