I believe that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness.

A man is shouting at a member of staff about a delayed order, and the person opposite him is nineteen and had nothing to do with any of it. Somewhere behind his behaviour is a week you cannot see.

Deserving is the trap. If kindness has to be earned, somebody has to run the assessment, and it will always be run by whoever is currently less tired and less afraid.

Treating it as unconditional is not softness. It is an admission that none of us can judge accurately from where we happen to be standing.

You can be firm with the man and still take no pleasure in his humiliation. Those go together more easily than people expect.