Here’s a little thing I do: when I’m working the drive-thru window and taking people’s money, I make it a point to say at least a couple of words to them and look them in the face at some point.

This might not sound like that big a deal, except that I’m also supposed to be taking an order from the customer behind them at the same time, because the job was originally meant for two people.

It would be more efficient to silently move customers along the way like cattle through a chute, and that may well be what corporate had in mind when they merged those two jobs… but that kind of dehumanization is what I’m trying to avoid.