It wouldn't kill people to be nicer

sonic juice

Everyone especially people working in shops,who are paid to be nice to you,are all discombobulated,maybe I'm just paranoid,it doesn't hurt not to look like your going to kill me when I walk down a street wearing a funny hat or I buy an apple pie in a supermarket!

fillmore jive

if you ever worked in a shop you would realize why clerks are so rude.

sonic juice

I tried to but they said I wasn't disgruntled enough for the job

simu

Well, personally, when I worked in min wage jobs dealing with public (waitressing, sandwich-making, shop assistant), I found it easier to be nice. The whole transaction with a customer just went smoother.

simu

simu wrote:

Well, personally, when I worked in min wage jobs dealing with public (waitressing, sandwich-making, shop assistant), I found it easier to be nice.

I'm 10 years beyond a minimum wage job, and i don't have a clue what its like now. Are most people working in shops, and such on minimum wages or are they actually earning more? I know a few girls waitressing and they make quite a bit. Are there really that many people that we meet in shops, restaurants, pubs etc on minimum wages?

Ruu_Old

simu wrote:

Well, personally, when I worked in min wage jobs dealing with public (waitressing, sandwich-making, shop assistant), I found it easier to be nice. The whole transaction with a customer just went smoother.

I worked in a very busy internet cafe a few years ago and never had any issues, found it easier to be nice. I guess if you like the work you do, which I did, then it makes a difference.

kizzyr

fillmore jive wrote:

if you ever worked in a shop you would realize why clerks are so rude.

So not true. While I was at college like most other students I paid my way through by working in shops, pubs, waitressing etc and was always polite to people. There were some customers who were amazingly rude and unnecessarily so, but you keep the (often fake) smile on your face and use your lunch break to bitch about them. Its part and parcel of your job to be polite to customers, without them you don't have a job.
On Sunday of last week I was in a well known book shop in Dublin city buying a book. I was just at the till when I saw the offered a 10% discount to students. As I have just started an MSc I asked if a USIT card was needed or my new ordinary student ID would do. They guy gave such a long sigh, raised eyes to heaven, said he had no idea what a USIT card was but if I wanted the discount well I could then have it and did I want ANYTHING else. When I pointed out what a ball of fun he was his answer was " Its a Sunday and I'm working what else did I expect?" :eek:

Dimitri

I'm currently working in a min wage job where the emphesis is on customer care, personally i work in the yard area dealing mainly with builders and farmers who are grand though one or two of them do smell and they can be pricks at times! However the poor girls working on the tills get hell altogether. On any given saturday at least one of them will be brought to tears by customers shouting at them be littleing (sp?) them and insulting them in front of ques of other people. Recently i saw a lady (and yes middle aged women are by far the worst at it but everyone is guilty at somestage) call a till operater a stupid fat bitch because the computer froze mid way through the transaction! When dealing with people i generally get minimal amounts of abuse because i do try to be friendly but how can you be nice to the next ten customers when you've just been traeted like that? Sorry sonic juice you must be suffering for the mis deeds of others!

monkey tennis

I reckon everyone should have to work a year in a public-facing service job to give them a bit of perspective on the importance of manners. People's attitude to low-wage workers is incredible. Being on the other side of the counter might give people a better understanding of the mood of the average poor minimum-wage sod.

On the other hand, there's no excusing being rude to one customer because another was rude to you. Also, as pointed out above, generally things go smoother if you are polite in the first place (as you should be regardless of whether you're working or not!) - unless, of course, the customer is an ignorant sh1te who's going to be rude no matter what your attitude to them is. Then you may as well let off some stress.

monkey tennis

I asked this earlier but nobody answered: Perhaps you could tell me are most people working in these areas (cafes, bars, restaraunts, shops etc) on actual minimum wages, or a bit more?

monkey tennis wrote:

I reckon everyone should have to work a year in a public-facing service job to give them a bit of perspective on the importance of manners. People's attitude to low-wage workers is incredible. Being on the other side of the counter might give people a better understanding of the mood of the average poor minimum-wage sod.

It doesn't depend on being on the other side of the counter or having a low paid job though. Thats the thing. I work two positions (in the lickle company I work for) , Credit control and Tech support. Both jobs bring me into contact with people who are ignorant, foul mouthed, and downright cheats. You don't have to be low paid to get those kind of responses from people, and I can certainly say that I'm not able to speak my mind back to them. Without manners, and courtesy I wouldn't be allowed to retain my job for very long.

I can honestly say I've never been rude to a customer regardless of how they've spoken to me. I may rant and rave once off the phone or once they leave the office, but never to them. Pretty good for 7 years in this business.

I can't approve of anyone mistreating a customer. You're paid to deal with the customer, as am I. If you're not hired to deal with them, get your manager. If you are though, take the abuse, scream when they leave, and meet the next customer with a clean slate.

Zombrex

I've worked low paying public facing jobs before and I have to say there is no excuse for being rude to the customer, I never was, even with rude customers.

The reason, in my experience, that people do it is because some people are grumpy ignorant f**kers. You get these people in all work places, you just notice it more in somewhere like a shop.

The worst are the grumpy teenagers who one the one hand want money but on the other really hate the fact that they have to work for it. A rebellious "Don't treat me like a kid" teenager hates the structure of a job, where they have to take orders from a boss, and have to accomadate the customer.

So it turns into a bizzare form of rebellion, being rude to the customers, like doing your detention badly. Its seen as an act of defience to the boss and the job itself. And as we all know nonsense rebellion is very important when you are a dump teenager.

The bizzare thing is that they don't have to be there, they are actually there are of their own choice. But they don't see it like that, because they have to have money. So it becomes like school, they have to be there but they hate it and aren't going to co-operate.

You get this college as well, especially with first and second years. They don't seem to actualy realise they can leave if they wish, so you get the bizzare sight of 1st years (actually it seems to be more 2nd years) talking and laughting at the back of the lecture hall, not listening at all to the lecture. Why are they there at all? Do they not realise they can actually leave and chat somewhere else? Apparently not, because they are trained from school to think this is something they have to do.

mountainyman

I don't agree try working at 4 AM serving a bunch of drunks whi deliberately **** thinks up and fight in the shop.
It isn't my shop, if it was I might give service with a smile.
MM

Zombrex

mountainyman wrote:

I don't agree try working at 4 AM serving a bunch of drunks whi deliberately **** thinks up and fight in the shop.
It isn't my shop, if it was I might give service with a smile.
MM

Its your job. Don't do it if you don't like it. You hating your job, or having trouble say the night before, is not a reason to be rude to other customers.

stovelid

I worked as a waiter and in shops when I was a student and I disagree. You meet cnuts all the time but if anybody showed me respsect they got it back in bucketloads. I have encontered staff that are just taking out their hump/hangover/job hatred on you and its out of order.

I was plaintitively told once by a really rude bar girl (in the old Mean Fidller) that she "hated her job"!!

fillmore jive wrote:

if you ever worked in a shop you would realize why clerks are so rude.