3 ms·

> rude customers Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. The stuff around internal politics though - little pecking order shit, where the managers and

> rude customers Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. The stuff around internal politics though - little pecking order shit, where the managers and other coworkers can and often do make working unbearable causes many exits and often violence.

lsiebert 5y ago
> Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. No, it's not, many workers I know face repeated and regular stressful abuse, which is almost always worse if they are visibly part of a marginalized group of people, who also get racial and misogynistic slurs thrown in their face. There are dramatic differences in treatment, and many managers don't step in to protect their employees. That's not to say the other stuff you mention doesn't also occur. It's not even necessarily retail, I know a really sweet Latina woman, she manages and runs multiple bicycle rental places in SF. People will be incredibly rude to her, but when she says, "Hold on, let me get someone else to help you" and gets a white male employee of hers, they are suddenly all smiles and apologetic and understanding. I honestly would encourage folks here to remember to be good customers, to treat workers as you would want people to treat you, because workers in the US are almost always underpaid and dealing with work related stress. Try to know what you want by looking online, understand that workers don't owe you happy smiles and social interaction beyond the goods and services you pay for, listen to and ask for suggestions and consider them as expert advice if you are having trouble making a decision, and if possible be polite and say thank you.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  If she is the manager and has a staff why is she working the front counter? I've never seen a manager hand off a difficult customer to a lower employee. As a customer I would ask to speak to the manager if I wasn't getting service never does the manager ask the co-op student to handle this difficult customer they can't. Something about your story doesn't add up. You say she is the nicest person but is she good at customer service because those are two different skills.
  - lsiebert 5y ago
    Ah, you are reasoning from your own anecdotal experience to say that something is unlikely because you haven't yourself observed it. Maybe you should try an experiment? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happened-when-a-man-signed-work-emails-using-a-female-name-for-a-week_n_58c2ce53e4b054a0ea6a4066 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happened-when-a-man-sign...
    - lsiebert 5y ago
      That experiment from her perspective. https://nickyknacks.medium.com/working-while-female-59a5de3ad266#.ginj3xk30 https://nickyknacks.medium.com/working-while-female-59a5de3a...
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      I do post under various genders / ages / races and the advantages of being part of each identity are not shared between groups. There are advantages to being female or black or old or young or male depending on who you are talking to. It is eye opening.
AussieWog93 5y ago
>Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. >The stuff around internal politics though... can and often do make working unbearable I'll go out on a limb here and say you have never worked in a retail job before, dealing with the general public. A small percentage of the public are simply fucking awful people who will do absolute anything they can to try and get what they want. Surprise surprise, dealing with this form of abuse (and more importantly, never knowing when it's coming) on a daily basis destroys your mental health - just as dealing with abusive behaviours from a spouse or parent does. Businesses should not tolerate this, but they do, because it increases their revenue by a couple of percentage points.
- youeseh 5y ago
  I've worked several customer service jobs and helped many people navigate dealing with customers on a frontline. It can be learned and taught. I'm not saying, "the customer is always right", but negotiation - even on the fly negotiation is a skill that anyone can learn.

lsiebert 5y ago

> Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. No, it's not, many workers I know face repeated and regular stressful abuse, which is almost always worse if they are visibly part of a marginalized group of people, who also get racial and misogynistic slurs thrown in their face. There are dramatic differences in treatment, and many managers don't step in to protect their employees. That's not to say the other stuff you mention doesn't also occur. It's not even necessarily retail, I know a really sweet Latina woman, she manages and runs multiple bicycle rental places in SF. People will be incredibly rude to her, but when she says, "Hold on, let me get someone else to help you" and gets a white male employee of hers, they are suddenly all smiles and apologetic and understanding. I honestly would encourage folks here to remember to be good customers, to treat workers as you would want people to treat you, because workers in the US are almost always underpaid and dealing with work related stress. Try to know what you want by looking online, understand that workers don't owe you happy smiles and social interaction beyond the goods and services you pay for, listen to and ask for suggestions and consider them as expert advice if you are having trouble making a decision, and if possible be polite and say thank you.

ipaddr 5y ago
If she is the manager and has a staff why is she working the front counter? I've never seen a manager hand off a difficult customer to a lower employee. As a customer I would ask to speak to the manager if I wasn't getting service never does the manager ask the co-op student to handle this difficult customer they can't. Something about your story doesn't add up. You say she is the nicest person but is she good at customer service because those are two different skills.
- lsiebert 5y ago
  Ah, you are reasoning from your own anecdotal experience to say that something is unlikely because you haven't yourself observed it. Maybe you should try an experiment? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happened-when-a-man-signed-work-emails-using-a-female-name-for-a-week_n_58c2ce53e4b054a0ea6a4066 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happened-when-a-man-sign...
  - lsiebert 5y ago
    That experiment from her perspective. https://nickyknacks.medium.com/working-while-female-59a5de3ad266#.ginj3xk30 https://nickyknacks.medium.com/working-while-female-59a5de3a...
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    I do post under various genders / ages / races and the advantages of being part of each identity are not shared between groups. There are advantages to being female or black or old or young or male depending on who you are talking to. It is eye opening.

AussieWog93 5y ago

>Dealing with rude customers is quickly learned. >The stuff around internal politics though... can and often do make working unbearable I'll go out on a limb here and say you have never worked in a retail job before, dealing with the general public. A small percentage of the public are simply fucking awful people who will do absolute anything they can to try and get what they want. Surprise surprise, dealing with this form of abuse (and more importantly, never knowing when it's coming) on a daily basis destroys your mental health - just as dealing with abusive behaviours from a spouse or parent does. Businesses should not tolerate this, but they do, because it increases their revenue by a couple of percentage points.

youeseh 5y ago
I've worked several customer service jobs and helped many people navigate dealing with customers on a frontline. It can be learned and taught. I'm not saying, "the customer is always right", but negotiation - even on the fly negotiation is a skill that anyone can learn.