That One Person...

I know it's a bit of a cliche, but it's worthy talking about: people are more likely to remember (and talk about) a bad experience than a good one.

Just as importantly, one bad experience can completely undo the effects of many good experiences. All it takes is that one person who screws up.

There are, of course, the obvious examples like getting great help from a salesperson, low prices, and a friendly checkout person at a store only to have the experience ruined by a grumpy delivery person.

But it goes far further than getting lousy service from "that one person".
Who hasn't been in a meeting or sat on a committee with someone who just doesn't get it? You know - the person who interrupts, changes subjects, whispers to the person next to them, and asks endless stupid questions.
Or when you walk out of a restaurant and see a member of the kitchen staff leaning against the garbage cans, smoking a cigarette?
Or how about watching a TV show and have the experience ruined by one wooden actor (or that one person on the laugh-track who's laughing a little too hard)?

Okay, maybe "ruined" is going a little far. But you get the point. One little detail harms the overall impression.

And it usually seems to be the person least-vital to the experience who ruins things. In meetings, it's the person who doesn't really contribute much. At the restaurant, it's a dishwasher or deep-fryer operator. In the TV show, it's the background character who just has to mutter a couple of lines.

Not always, of course. But it certainly seems to be normal.

So why don't we do something about it? These aren't exactly power players who we need to fear. Meeting organizers should be daring enough to ask the disruptors to leave. Managers at restaurants, retailers, and other businesses serving the public should be laying down the law with (especially) their junior staff. Directors should be furious if anyone on their set just can't act.