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Maybe the economic pressures of the recession are affecting people's behavior.
I have noticed a decline in the kindness and manners of customer service personnel. It used to be rare to encounter gruff service here anywhere but at a government office, but one recent night at the local Walmart it seemed like everybody was hostile. Of course, this is not universal - the young guy working at the convenience store by my work is always friendly to everybody, including myself (it's practically the neighborhood hub). Last winter, one high-school aged grocery store cashier, upon finding that we were unable to get change for an EBT Cash transaction, ran out of the store and gave us around $10 out of his own pocket to buy needed heating fuel. God bless his generous heart. We were really in the deepest of lurches and my mother cried while I shed a few tears too at his kindness.
Being in the workforce a long time, I have seen employees that ranged from having the most modest professional behavior to the unstable to the just plain nuts. Sometimes when a company needs to fill a position or positions they will take on paper what seems the best of the lot and regardless of work history one can not always predict how someone will handle the job, any stress that comes with it or what is going on with the employee outside of work. I used to see this when in retail, esp as a higher level manager myself years ago when the economy was stable.
Employers today have more screening pre hiring then ever, yet these are conductive toward the person being hired. It can not predict exactly how the pers will perform or what may be going on with them. The person doing the face to face interview might pick something up based on their overall life and work experience. I will agree somewhat with the financial strains today and the lower salaries having an influence.
Oh my gosh, I have definitely noticed this. I'm remote, but the nearest office has deteriorated to the point that I wouldn't step foot in there. Sooooo unprofessional, lots of in-fighting, just awful.
This sounds like my office, and I work for the State of Hawaii. I've never seen or heard or been subjected to
such ignorance in my life, from 'new hires' all the way up the ladder. CEO can't even speak proper english.
Koale
At my last employer, it did not matter how unprofessional or how much of a slacker the person was-they would hire anyone willing to walk in the door, and fire anyone who complained if that person was to be found loitering in dark corners and hallways texting or going on facebook while the few dedicated workers were slaving away, picking up the slack. We were told publicly at a meeting 'Complain about the work ethic of your partner, you'll be fired. Either suck it up or move on, we aren't here to babysit grown adults!'. So I guess the supervisors were just there to collect a check and hang out with their supervisor homies, not to actually supervise anything!!
!!! This sounds horrible. !!! It's another step toward Idiocracy.
Low wages do not justify this bad behavior. You don't have to love your job to merely act decently. I worked plenty of crappy low wage jobs with abusive bosses, still had to be polite and be held to a standard.
Once I had a job in the bad part of town with rough people, it was awful, but that was not an office job and it was a mistake to apply there. If I saw this kind of thing in an office I would be very unhappy.
Maybe the economic pressures of the recession are affecting people's behavior.
I have noticed a decline in the kindness and manners of customer service personnel. It used to be rare to encounter gruff service here anywhere but at a government office, but one recent night at the local Walmart it seemed like everybody was hostile. Of course, this is not universal - the young guy working at the convenience store by my work is always friendly to everybody, including myself (it's practically the neighborhood hub). Last winter, one high-school aged grocery store cashier, upon finding that we were unable to get change for an EBT Cash transaction, ran out of the store and gave us around $10 out of his own pocket to buy needed heating fuel. God bless his generous heart. We were really in the deepest of lurches and my mother cried while I shed a few tears too at his kindness.
Inflation going up, paychecks going down for many... Time to invest in a gated community
What I have noticed is the biggest screw ups I know seem to have no problem finding jobs. They also seem happy to work for south of $10/hr as long as they don't have to work very hard.
Part of it might be leadership; if a company doesn't police it's employees AND lacks good advancement why would they expect office behavior to be professional?!?
Employees reflect they're employer.....ones who don't usually get the can or move on unless they're protected.
At my last employer, it did not matter how unprofessional or how much of a slacker the person was-they would hire anyone willing to walk in the door, and fire anyone who complained if that person was to be found loitering in dark corners and hallways texting or going on facebook while the few dedicated workers were slaving away, picking up the slack. We were told publicly at a meeting 'Complain about the work ethic of your partner, you'll be fired. Either suck it up or move on, we aren't here to babysit grown adults!'. So I guess the supervisors were just there to collect a check and hang out with their supervisor homies, not to actually supervise anything!!
This seems to be true in quite a few places, no real mentoring or teambuilding and employees are expected to resolve conflicts between themselves.
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