I have a bit of a pet peeve that I’m going to rant a little bit about. This is something that really rubs me the wrong way and makes me feel judgmental about a person. While it isn’t right to be judgmental about a person based on a superficial aspect of a conversation, I think I have some sort of point here buried in this muddy blog post.
The scenario goes like this: “Picture it, a restaurant, anywhere in the present day.”
Server, noticing you have finished up your meal: “Would you like any dessert?”
Customer: “Sure, I’m in the mood for a little something. What do you have?”
Server: “I have a delicious blueberry pie and a chocolate thunder thighs godiva high cake. I also have some scones leftover from yesterday.”
I. The server said “I”. The server personally has blueberry pie, chocolate thunder things godiva high cake and leftover scones. It makes one wonder what the other servers are serving for dessert. Are there desserts better than the desserts being offered by our server, since it seems like every server has their own desserts to offer? Perhaps the server over yonder has something in vanilla. I was in the mood for something vanilla, too.
My point is the “I”. This was something that was hammered into my head as a young lad when I worked at the family business. “Can I help you?” was a no-no. “What can we do for you?” It’s the team you’re dealing with, all of us that work here have banded together to bring you the best experience possible. To say “I” implies that you bring something that others can’t, which doesn’t really foster teamwork.
“I have Guinness and Coors Lite on tap.”
I want to watch when you push the bartender out of the way to get my Guinness from YOUR tap.
“We have Guinness and Coors Lite on tap.”
Much better.
While I am a loner and a bit of an introvert and one that would rather do things in solitude instead of in the middle of a crowd, I still all I can do to make our team look its best. Teamwork: that is what it’s about in most workplaces today and by using the singular, “my team” or “I fixed it”, you’re basically telling me that you can handle it on your own and/or you’re just out for your own good.
I’m not that insecure. I will always use the “we”. Though I may approach it alone, I’m always part of the team.
We do the “we” thing at the studio. It’s funny to see people’s reactions to it. Most people skip over it without a thought. Others look… befuddled. Like we’re Borg.
See, I’m so used to “we” that “I” sounds really weird to me. I’m hypersensitive to it, I guess, but I would say that folks use “we” around here about 65% of the time. One time, when a waitress said she had a 1000 Islands Dressing, I asked her if I could see it. She was confused.