Consideration

I am a chronic migraine sufferer. Sometimes I can take medicine and work through the pain, and sometimes I can't. It helps, though, if my co-workers are considerate. Last night, I worked my first weekend closing shift, and I did it with a migraine. I medicated myself, and luckily, my co-workers were both amazingly supportive.

And to make things even better, the customer flow was light, and most of the customers were really quite considerate. I never said anything about how I felt, but it's impossible to hide how awful I feel when I'm having a migraine. And it slows me down, makes it harder for me to do simple tasks, etc. And almost none of the customers were snarky or rude or impatient. I was really very grateful.

So if you are ever a customer at a coffee shop, and your barista looks a bit green around the gills....the best thing you can do for him or her is just be considerate. Odds are, they don't want to talk about it. They probably don't want to talk, period! But having nicer than average customers really helps.