I think everyone should work a service job once, not as punishment, but as education. There is no faster way to learn how much work goes into a smooth experience, and how little patience some people have for the person providing it. A service job teaches you things a classroom cannot, and it tends to stay with you long after you leave it.
The first lesson is that the customer is not always right, but the customer is always a person. Some are kind, patient, and grateful for small help. Others are tired, rushed, or angry about something that has nothing to do with you. You learn to stay calm, to listen, and to solve a problem without taking every sharp word personally. That skill is useful in every job that follows, because every job involves people.
The second lesson is about the work behind the counter. In a hotel, a restaurant, or a shop, the visible job is only part of it. Someone cleaned, stocked, prepped, checked, and reset before you arrived. Someone will do it again after you leave. When you have done that work yourself, you stop assuming a room, a table, or a shelf just appears ready. You notice the details, and you treat the people doing them with more respect.
Critics of this idea sometimes say a service job is not for everyone, or that it does not teach much beyond following orders. I understand that concern. Not every service job is well run, and some are exhausting, low-paid, and poorly managed. But even a bad service job teaches you something useful: what good management looks like, what a fair schedule feels like, and how a small kindness from a customer can change a hard shift. The lesson is not that the job is perfect. The lesson is that the work is real.
There is also a fairness point here. Service workers are often judged by people who have never done the job. A guest who snaps at a front desk worker, a diner who blames a server for a kitchen delay, or a shopper who leaves a mess for someone else to clean may not mean to be cruel. They may just be in a hurry. But once you have been on the other side, you see how quickly a small act of patience can make a shift easier, and how quickly rudeness can make it harder.
I am not saying everyone must stay in service work, or that service work is the only honest work. I am saying it gives a person a useful lens. It teaches humility without humiliation, if it is done right. It teaches teamwork, because a busy shift fails when one person stops helping. It teaches you to read people, to manage your time, and to keep going when you are tired and the line is still long.
The best part is that the lesson lasts. Years later, you are more likely to be the customer who says please and thank you, who cleans up after yourself, who tips fairly, and who speaks to a worker like a person, not a machine. You are also more likely to notice when a business treats its staff well, and when it does not.
My practical takeaway is simple. If you get the chance, take a service job, even for a season. Show up on time, do the unglamorous work well, and watch how a team handles pressure. If you have already done it, carry the lesson forward: be patient, be clear about what you need, and remember that the person helping you is doing a job, not existing for your convenience. We would all be a little kinder, and a little more realistic, if we had stood on that side of the counter at least once.