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Old 07-20-2014, 07:14 AM
 
Location: North Dakota
10,269 posts, read 13,785,826 times
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People forget pretty quick what it's like being in the trenches. Almost anyone who has worked fast food or retail has probably had that one manager or assistant manager who was on a huge power trip. I had plenty the brief time I worked at a Target in college.
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Old 07-20-2014, 07:37 AM
 
Location: USA
6,230 posts, read 6,896,264 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WyoEagle View Post
People forget pretty quick what it's like being in the trenches. Almost anyone who has worked fast food or retail has probably had that one manager or assistant manager who was on a huge power trip. I had plenty the brief time I worked at a Target in college.
Worst thing about retail/fast food is that nobody cares how hard a worker you are, heck you even get made fun of and belittled for it. It's all about being likable and "socially popular". But these jobs are not meant to be careers so I suppose if you do take it seriously you deserve to get belittled.

Honestly in these jobs the work itself isn't that bad it's the people who make it miserable.
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Old 07-20-2014, 07:41 AM
 
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Almost everyone I know worked in retail and fastfood in their youth but eventually moved on to bigger and better things
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Old 07-20-2014, 08:06 AM
 
Location: NoVA
832 posts, read 1,412,794 times
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I agree. I think everyone should work one year in customer service so they learn what it's like to be treated like crap. Bank tellers, fast food or waiting tables.

It's been a very long time since I've done it, but it taught me how to hate people like nothing else. Even after all these years, I can still go into a grocery store and spot the problematic person who will argue with the manager about why one brand of beans is on sale but not the other.
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Old 07-20-2014, 09:28 AM
 
Location: Way Up North
223 posts, read 299,097 times
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I think working a year in customer service would be a great experience for most people. Actually, many of us did work in customer service as a first job. I do have compassion for those employees, and I understand some of what they are going through. I always treat them kindly. A lot of the things that happen are not their fault. Management has a lot to do with many of the problems that occur...like not enough checkers in Walmart or a grocery store.

I think the lady mentioned by the OP was entirely out of line. She sounds like a very controlling woman. Unfortunately, those people just come along occasionally no matter what type of job you are doing.
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Old 07-20-2014, 10:21 AM
 
Location: Buckeye, AZ
38,936 posts, read 23,765,253 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloopers View Post
I also think that it's entirely up to the individual. I used to work at Disney and surprisingly, the most difficult guests I've dealt with were the employees themselves when they visit the park with family. Working there was the ultimate testing of my patience... I was surprised at how fake I can act in the name of customer service. But back to the point, some people are just pricks in general. These same pricks work in retail and I've met many of them. I honestly think that if you work in retail, at least learn how to put up a front and act like you give 2 shts about your job. On the other hand, good customer service can only take you so far... some people will find a fault in you no matter how hard you try. I think people in general just need to lighten up.
I actually had the same experience by working at Disney World through the Disney College Program and did retail. There were times I had to make tough calls because technically we couldn't do sales over $25.00 if you didn't have the back of your credit card or hotel card signed. I had a few instances of being asked to show ID that got me on the bad sides of guests when it's company policy. I think with the change to RFID that is averted with hotel cards and their magic bands.

I do agree entirely with you and I don't think that no matter how much you work at a retail or fast food jobs, they still wont get it because they just don't care.
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Old 07-20-2014, 10:36 AM
 
Location: Buckeye, AZ
38,936 posts, read 23,765,253 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy View Post
I worked for a bit more than a year in retail and I think it is true that you're likely to be more compassionate toward front-line retail grunts if you yourself have been one for a significant amount of time. However, you won't be more compassionate toward unmitigated bullcrap. For example, when I was a cashier, occasionally I would forget to give the customer his change before closing the cash drawer. If I did that, I could hit the "no sale" button and pop the drawer open to get his change. I was at Wal-Mart two days ago and the cashier forgot to take out my change from the cash drawer before closing it. She actually had to radio a customer service manager and get it remotely approved that she could open her cash drawer to give me my change. Without that approval, it would remain locked. Now, I know that she personally had no control over that system... but it is still incredibly stupid. I have no tolerance for stuff like THAT. But at least I know what these cashiers go through, for what piddly little salaries they make, and I try not to add layers to their crap cake.
I think it depends to an extent. There are times when someone is rushed/hurried and cannot wait for that and would get frustrated. I've had the no sales to get change if I accidentally closed it earlier than I should have. It happens. The issue is in the case of Walmart employees having to radio their floor manager to approve of something. I even had a case last black Friday weekend of an employee complaining that a manager overuled their dismissal of an ad that lasted through 11:59PM Saturday on Saturday. Now that's an employee that really deserves to get complained about. Not the on from the original post who had trouble scanning a vaccum (a really tough thing when they are a new employee.)
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Old 07-20-2014, 10:39 AM
 
384 posts, read 347,922 times
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There's a better solution to these behavioral issues. Everyone should be required to spend 2 years in the military. It will whip people into respectable adults.
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Old 07-20-2014, 10:44 AM
 
50,282 posts, read 35,918,926 times
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I think in general people who have worked in the field are more compassionate - just like waiters and waitresses and others with tip jobs tend to leave bigger tips. However I think those people are MORE critical of what they consider poor service than someone who hasn't done it.
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:14 AM
 
Location: Portsmouth, VA
6,514 posts, read 8,403,015 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mkpunk View Post
This question comes from a conversation that my family had when I was helping my older brother move into a new apartment today. There was an incident at a Target where a customer complained pretty vocally about a new hire and his problems on the cash registers (while there was only three other registers open with lines about three/four people deep.) I heard the woman and my mother and my brother both said she was entirely out of line. (Me I think it was shared blame but still unenviable for the new worker based on my experiences in a new retail environment.) My brother thought that if people had to work retail or fast food for a year people would be more compassionate.

I actually disagreed with this because I think people will either use the logic of their way is the best an doing things otherwise isn't good (even if other companies don't do things the way the person thought) or they will just still be ignorant and want to be right. I do think it is a decent idea but it wouldn't change people acting like all cashiers are mouth-breathering direct decedents of homo-erectus.

I want to know what everyone else thinks about if it's a good idea to mandate working a year in fast food or retail so everyone walks a mile in their shoes and if it will make people appreciate what they do.
It is not a good idea, but it would help address the ignorance.

I had foreign speaking teachers and professors while I attended college. Even department heads. So I became accustomed to knowing how Indians speak, how Africans speak, and how to listen to them. So the anger and hostility I heard from customers on the job when I worked tech support after college, asking if I was in America, was interesting (and annoying). Of course I'm in America; you still have an issue, and you obviously do not know how to use your equipment so what difference does it make whether I am in America or not as long as I know how to address your problem. As you can imagine I didn't keep those positions for very long.

Fast Food is no different, but I do not believe in a mandate. People work fast food because there are no other jobs, or they lack the skills to do other occupations. No one should be forced to work a job they are over educated, or over skilled, for. That is a big part of the problem with the underemployment situation we have in America today. So that would not accomplish anything; it is like forcing people to be in the Peace Corps, might help with sensitivity towards other cultures but compassion and empathy are two entirely different things, and people do not necessarily need both, but one or the other.
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