Can I help you?

We were talking at work about how politeness seems to be fading away in society, you don't hear as many please and thank yous as you used to. And the thank you wave when you let someone in when driving is less common too.

Reminded me of an incident that happened to me when I was about 15 or 16. My first job was at McDonalds. Crappy job, but it certainly taught me to work hard. The first manager I had there was a real wanker, by the name of Bruce. He was middle aged, gay, and mean. Many was the time he made some of the girls who worked there cry.

Anyway, one day I was working away at the register, and the place was absolutely packed. I greeted the next customer , "Hi, can I help you?". Bruce the bastard took issue with this. He looked at me and scathingly said "Hi, can I help you please!" He then turned to the customer and said in condescending tones, "Well, you can tell the difference between someone who has been brought up and someone who has been dragged up!" I was totally mortified, I could not believe he said that. There was quite the stunned silence from the crowd in front of me. One of the customers, after the bastard had wandered off, told me not to worry about him. Good advice, but hard to take when you are young and in your first job. Funny thing is, the way he wanted me to say it isn't even grammatically correct.