Monday, August 14, 2006

Fake Nice or Real Mean?

*To those who wanted a recap of my favorite posts, I think I am going to spend the rest of the week picking them out and post it closer to the weekend*

The title of this post refers to the stereotype (that is pretty true) that southerners are nice, but fake and people outside of the South tend to be more truthful, but less polite. This is where I stand: generally, I like fake nice. This is not in reference to my friends or family, but for aquaintances and strangers. It may be a cliche, but you get more flies with honey than vinegar. You wanna get what you want? Be nice, even if it makes you grit your teeth. Treating people rudely will get you only so far, but once you get there your food will probably have spit in it, people will glare daggers at your back, make your life more difficult and subtly let you know that you have pissed them off. I bring this up because a young woman came into the place where I work and asked me if one manager in particular was available. I told her that she was in and the woman told me to "get her to the front desk." No explanation, no thank you, just a demand and she went along to browse through our merchandise. She was from a city up north (not to be named) and clearly expected to me to grant her wishes and believed that she was more competent than I (based on another interaction we had a few minutes later). I took all I had, but I was nice - even though I didn't mean it. What do you think (and what part of the country were you born in), fake nice or real mean?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

First of all, you have to be nice to the gatekeepers-- those who have access to the manager you want to talk to! Just a bit of wisdom I picked up from my boss. :)

I was born in the South and I will always default to Fake Nice. It's in my bones.

Doe said...

I skimmed thru ur blog and I think it’s cool...i’m half English and have been always brought up to sound "nice", even if I didn’t mean it.. Being nice is the best policy, do check mi blog out if you’ve time!

peace

Katy C. said...

Fake nice. I can't help myself. Although, when pushed I can easily slip into real mean.

Peyton said...

I used to really like the fake nice, but I think I have been jaded since living in Chicago (where brutal honesty dwells)... when we were vacationing "down south" we were a bit overwhelmed by all of the niceness... after a while, it just became annoying. I believe the value of kindness increases when it is genuine.

katie g. said...

good point