I’ve spent the better part of the day traveling back from an amazing trip to Barbados with my coworkers. And apparently, what is rare about my trip is that at no point on my long and harrowing experience did I feel the need to yell at the people working around me.

And by “people working around me” I mean the people who literally work in an airport or on an airplane.

Waiting an hour for your bags sucks. There’s no way around that. But there is also literally nothing that any single airport or TSA agent can do to remedy the situation. Especially when its due to mechanical failure like mine was.

The next time you feel the need to talk shit about the service workers around you, remember that while your experience at that airport is over usually within hours, they are literally there every day. They put up with someone like you probably every hour. And you know what you’re doing? You are unnecessarily making their day shit.

The very minimum of decency is not expecting special treatment.  Yeah, your life is hard. So is everyone else’s. No one likes going through airport security and customs. Your huffing and puffing doesn’t help anyone.

At the very least, realize that the people who you have access to, the people who you are able to yell at, are in most cases the least capable of changing anything. They have no control over the rules and procedures handed down to them, and they probably have no ability to pass on any “suggestions” you’ve now screamed in their face.

So the next time you get red in the face because you didn’t cruise through security like you thought you would, or you’re pissed off because someone caught you trying to break the 3-ounces rule, sit your ass down, shut the fuck up, and remember that you’re not the only god damn person on the plane.