Do you ever think about the way that you treat people who work in the service industry? Do you really treat them with the same degree of respect that you believe you deserve?
Maybe dealing with rude customers all day who think that they're much better than anyone who works in the service industry (retail, food...etc) is getting to people.
It isn't right that customers feel that they can treat the employees like sh!t and still expect that the same employees will bend over backwards to kiss the customer's a$s! Yes, the money that you're spending does contribute to my paycheck. However, I do not get paid enough to be treated as poorly as I do. I work in one department, so you should be grateful that I point you in the general direction of the product that you're looking for! Be greatful for the effort that I DID put into helping you!
I've been snapped at by rude customers, after I had gone out of my way to help, coming in on days when we are not open, and offering to help when asked by the customer, in ways that we already clearly do not do. Then afterwords, when the company heads (as I only work at a drop center) decide on there own that its not possible for me to help her in the way that I would have liked, and that they must do things a certain way, I've been told that I'm rude, and that i've "wasted the customers time" because the company will not do something the customers way, the way they wanted, and I should not have offered my help, How is that rude? then you have the gall (yes the GALL) to say you will not be coming back here to do business with me again? Listen, That's just fine! because no where in your pissy pants rant did I hear a "thank you for trying" I do not need to come in on days when I am not required to, or come in earlier then I need to be in, or offer to help you because it would make things easier for you if its "a waste of your time" when things don't go as planned and your way!
Nor do I need a customer who will stand next to me, talking on her (i'm sorry "their" phone) to some friend (one of very few by your attitude and behaviour) with snide remarks about how long you've been there, while you clearly see that tech support is working on the system error (over the network, not even there!) and I am scrambling and filling out forms FOR YOU, that you should have been able to fill out on our your own, all because you wanted to save money and use a cheaper method that wasn't actually possible to use, but to help you save during this economic turmoil we're going through this effort, we actually went through the effort to get into the system deeper and find a way to do it...if you were so worried about the time it would take, and wanted to be out faster, you should pay the regular price like all customers do, you'd be in and out in less then 2 minutes!
Rudeness is everywhere, unfortunately it is becoming a societal norm. The culture we live in currently is a very self centered "me, me, me" place. Customers throw things on the floor, take things off one rack, hang it back on another rack when they decided they don't want it, run them over with a cart or spill things on them, with no care or regard at all. Nothing makes me more frustrated than watching someone pick through a table of folded clothes and drop the ones they don't want onto the floor - HELLO? There is a table directly in front of you! Kids knock things on the ground, play "hide and seek" between the merchandise, jump all over the displays (including running into the window displays..what the...??) their parents laugh... how is that teaching them manners? Children are rude, and go unpunished and untaught by their parents because Junior can do no wrong in Mommy's eyes... even if he did steal, lie, or physically hurt people. Something definitely needs to change. How would you feel if it were you working that job? How would you feel knowing that people had no respect for you? Maybe you'd get some manners. I know many people who have said that after working in the service industry they realized how much of an ass they'd been before.
It does not just happen in lower end stores, either. The most rude people of all, in my personal experience are people with money. I've actually witness people that worked there treated like crap by women and men who were extremely well off. They'd bark at us, expect us to bend over backwards and make products appear out of thin air. Then they would have unreasonable demands. One even demanded that my manager drive to a different store to get her a free promotional product that we had run out of. You can't tell me that I can't tell who is and who isn't wealthy. I'm sorry but if you're carrying a brand new Coach bag, with the matching heels and scarf, from that season along with high end jeans and jacket... I'm not blind. I know it is the exact same thing I saw on the magazine stands.
I'm reminded of the heckler episode of Seinfeld, the woman was fine yelling out at Jerry Seinfeld, but she couldn't take it when he came over to her work place and started heckling her... well if I were to come to where you worked, and treated you in the same way that you treat me, how would you feel then? your day would definitely take a down swing wouldn't it?
Think of that the next time you decide to be deliberately rude to someone who works in the service industry.
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