Yesterday, I was traveling home from a ~2 week vacation in Florida. We had spent the first week alternating days in Disney World and staying at the resort. The second week we had done the resort's activities as it was a vacation club.
I'd assume it was probably among his job description, but there were 2 regular faces we saw whilst attending various activities. Whenever they provided something, even if it was "scripted" in the sense it was part of the activity (i.e. serving the beers for the beer tasting, pouring paint for the "ceramics & canvases" art time, etc) I just instinctively/unconsciously just said "thank you". And as we departed from the activity, we would smile, chatter and banter with the employees, and wish them a good day or to "take care" as we walked off.
With that being said, as we had to check out of the room before noon and we had our flight at 7:50 p.m., we had many an hour to idle. It would be better to be outside and relaxing elsewhere rather than to sit 7+ hours in a hot, muggy airport where they require masks, social distancing, etc. At some point while sitting there, we saw one of employees, Gared, and he asked what we were doing and assumed we were leaving. When we confirmed we were leaving he had that slightly emphasized lean back and said, "aw no, you guys are the greatest! You're all so kind and saying 'thank you'. Some of these people we interact with are rude and not so fun to talk to, so thank you for your kindness."
Now at first you might wonder: why would an employee say something like this about the people who stay at the resort? But then you start wondering maybe people aren't nice and are rude. Being someone who works in foodservice and deals with customers, I have seen my fair share of how rude some people can be and they do it all because they think they can do whatever they want as the customer. They take the phrase (well technically partial phrase) of "the customer is always right" to an extreme that it has 0 application. The full phrase (to my knowledge) is "the customer is always right in taste" meaning that if you're a business owner, ultimately the customer will dictate what you will sell as they just prefer something and would buy one thing more than another. Nowhere does it mean that the customer can do as they please.
I suppose that really there isn't some supreme weight that my actions of just saying a phrase of gratitude or acknowledgement or even just being a decent human to just talk for a moment. But maybe it was enough to leave a good impression on the employees. And it makes me partially sad that just being decent is all it takes to garner appreciation. But it also enlightens me to know that it doesn't take a supreme act of heroism or greatness to make someone's day.
All in all, I guess I should keep this all in mind and try my best to be kind to those around me. Have conversations, say please and thank you, ask how someone's doing, etc. Who knows what it will take to make someone happy, but if it doesn't cost me anything aside from just being conscious of the world around me, then by all means I should be kind.
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