Taking Steps To Be Helpful

I work at a museum that also has a movie theater. Since the building is quite old, we have a separate entrance for guests who cannot use the stairs; it enters at the top of the theater while the main entrance is at the bottom. I am ushering in an older woman. We reach the theater.

Me: “All right, now all the seating is general admission so you can sit wherever you’d like.”

Guest: “Oh, I want to sit with the rest of my group. I see them; they’re just coming in down there.”

Me: “Okay. They can come sit up here with you, or, if you’re okay going down a few steps, you can meet them in the middle.”

Guest: “But I want to sit with them!”

Me: *Pauses* “You can. They just have to come up, or you can go further down.”

The guest stares but does nothing.

Me: “Do you want me to go down and let them know you’re up here?”

Still nothing.

Me: “Or maybe I can help you down a few steps to them?”

She continues to just stand there, muttering quietly about wanting to sit with her group. Eventually, a younger woman, who I assume is most likely her daughter, comes up to us.

Daughter: “There you are! Come down and sit with us!”

Guest: “Oh, thank you! This usher isn’t very helpful!”

And she walked down no more than a dozen steps to sit with her party.