DR. WALLACE: I am a 20-year-old female and very much immersed in and in control of all of the modern technology. I have a nice older aunt who has a tremendously good heart, but she tells her stories in a syrupy and overly detailed manner.

I truly appreciate her Midwestern values. A lot of my family members call me an "old soul" because in their eyes, I have retained my Midwestern roots, even though I live in a big city on the coast these days. Whenever I go back to my former hometown, I immediately notice how long it takes my aunt to tell a story that could be delivered within 30 seconds or so. She typically spends four or five minutes, sharing every single detail, even though many of them are truly irrelevant to the point of her story.

She also has a habit of sending out family letters and emails, which are similarly beyond voluminous in terms of their size, run-on sentences and overly described details. I'll be traveling soon to visit my family in my original home state and my question is, should I offer to sit down with my aunt and show her how modern technology can help her edit at least the writing she does online? Or do you think it would be better to just leave her be, enjoy the socializing and go on back to my busy life on the coast? — Should I Make an Offer? Via email.

SHOULD I MAKE AN OFFER?: I feel that you should, by all means, volunteer to help your aunt with your burgeoning skills in properly handling technology. By at least making the effort and volunteering to sit down with her to show her what you've learned, at the very least, you'll have a nice discussion with your aunt, even if she's not necessarily receptive to what you have to offer in terms of technological advances.

But, on the other hand, if she is receptive, you could give her a little mini seminar to show her several tricks and shortcuts to help her writing be much more efficient and concise. You could even tell her, as you're describing the situation, that you'd be more than happy to call her occasionally even after you're gone and spend a few minutes on the phone with her in front of her computer, coaching her to brush up on the early lessons and to learn new ideas on an intermittent basis.

No matter how it turns out, I think making her this offer is the way to go, even if it's not going to change the nature of her verbal stories at all!

THE PRESSURE IS ENORMOUS AND UNCOMFORTABLE

DR. WALLACE: I have a great summer job as a server in a nice restaurant in our town. Sometimes we have dinner specials that don't sell well and the restaurant owner and chef put tremendous pressure on us to push them during the last two hours we are open in the evening.

It's truly out of control, because every time one of us servers returns to the kitchen when we are in a situation of having a lot of unsold specials, both the head chef and the owner will immediately ask us if any specials were sold. And if the customers selected something else, the look on their faces is a blend of disgust and frustration.

What should I do in the future when situations like this arise? I feel I do a conscientious job both for my customers and for the restaurant, and I truly don't like the pressure I get put under in situations like this. — Specials Are Not Special to Me, via email

SPECIALS ARE NOT SPECIAL TO ME: Understandably, a head chef or restaurant owner would want to be sure their servers present customers with every opportunity to order the special for the evening. However, management needs to realize that customers make their own decisions; therefore, you have no control despite your nice presentation. The management's behavior towards you and your coworkers is absolutely unacceptable.

Your first responsibility is to your customers, as long as you are acting professionally, ethically and respectfully toward the restaurant you're employed by. A restaurant customer deserves not only good service but a comfortable atmosphere to order whatever they prefer to eat, irrespective of whether the establishment has specials available that evening or not.

In the future, be sure you do a good job of explaining the specials accurately and completely, but don't feel any extra pressure to push your customers to order them. A customer must make a voluntary decision at all times.

Most restaurants only prepare a moderate number of specials each evening with the intention of running out of them at some point. Perhaps your kitchen and ownership should ease back on the volume of how many specials they offer each evening until they can find an adequate equilibrium that can keep their behavior copacetic and professional.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preez ???????? at Unsplash