Sometimes, lately, we are not ourselves.   

Angry Americans, we reported last week, are taking out their frustrations on servers, flight attendants, hotel clerks, and all kinds of frontline workers. 

Tammy Stirk Ramsey saw the face of rage on July 5 at the Union Bluff Hotel in York, Maine. After waiting more than an hour to be seated for dinner, a man blew up, swore at the host, and stomped out. 

But what he did next is noteworthy: He sent a letter of apology and included a $100 bill.

“I feel bad. This coming from a guy who tells people to be kind to service staff and tip big post-pandemic – how hypocritical,” he wrote, in part. “You never want to be ‘that guy’ and that day I was ‘that guy’ – sincerely sorry.”  Signed: “An embarrassed customer.”

“Kudos to him for saying I had a bad day,” Ms. Ramsey told News Center Maine. 

She’s worked at the hotel for 25 years. She’s got a thick skin, she says. But this has been a difficult period. “I really just want people to know that we’re working our hardest, we’re working long hours, we’re understaffed,” Ms. Ramsey told WBZ-TV in Boston. For the first time during the busy summer months, the restaurant is closed Wednesday and Thursday nights this week to “give staff a break,” says manager Tracy Knowles.

Ms. Ramsey asks patrons: “Just be patient, be kind, be understanding, and smile.”

It doesn’t hurt to also be generous. Ms. Ramsey split the $100 with the servers at the hotel.