A thing that feels incredibly bleak to me is how many places I’ve seen put up a sign saying “we do not tolerate abuse towards our employees” that I know didn’t need to put up the sign a few years ago
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I'm noticing this way too much as well, when an employee sees I'm not going to yell at them and I'm being patient and friendly, some of them sound like they're about to cry. :( it's depressing man.
YES. I treat a customer-facing employee with basic fucking respect and they are visibly touched. Like I just said please, thank you, no worries I can wait. Things are so bad out there.
I feel kinda bad when they offer me things too just for being normal to them, like someone I spoke to on the phone when some clothes I ordered vanished in the mail gave me free priority shipping on my replacements for being nice?? like that's really sweet of them but it shouldn't be this way 😭
I worked retail for a month in 2020. Previously, I had worked retail for years in the 2000s. It is WAY worse. These fucking entitled fucking nightmare people. Can't even imagine what it is like now.
Back when I was a short cook, if someone abused the staff the entire back of the house would take turns punching that person on the side of the head until they fell asleep... smdh
Sexual comments towards/about me at my public facing jobs have increased since November because people feel entitled to say whatever they want due to the election results
I really hate that as soon as anything goes wrong, a worker will start to tense; I can't think of much that would make me yell at a worker. People are crazy, why do our cashiers have PTSD
There is no excuse for abuse. The problem at pharmacies is since Trump was elected medication prices are doubling then tripling in price.
People are shocked then realize that can’t afford the drugs they need
This happened is 2016 as well. I work in an industry that is tangential to retail/service and the increase I personally witness in antisocial behavior after Trump election in 2016 and 2024 is identical.
Some Trump voters take the election as permission to be abusive. And, that's fucking weird.
I think they elect someone who is abusive to justify their own shitty thoughts and behavior. They can't possibly be bad for degrading others if the president of the USA does the same thing! 😐
It's the result of a sickness that has been simmering in society for decades.
It’s part of living in a low trust society: The public sphere is degrading and working in public is getting harder. My hunch is that this is an under-appreciated contribution to unfilled retail jobs post-COVID
Libraries have to make this a prominent part of their building use policies. The amount of abuse lobbed at library workers on a daily basis even before TFG took office the first time is unbelievable.
And it’s not the unhoused folks most the time. It’s the tantrum-throwing grown men, the rotten old women, the meddling, busybody, entitled asses who have everything they need but demand MORE, BETTER, FREE, NOW.
Because “my taxes pay your salary!” Here’s $0.25, you can have a few years back.
Had a doctor appt today, and that same sign is on the door. What kind of shiitty world do we live in that it’s necessary to have a sign like that on a building dedicated to health and healing?
i feel like this was a big shift after covid. it used to be that a customer's dollars were the most important thing, but the way schedules have been pared down to survive 2020 and then left in place means that finding a good employee is harder than finding someone who wants to order dinner for three
that’s a great illustration
of how this phenomenon isn’t just people getting meaner and angrier. it’s also (largely?) corporations making the retail shopping experience more and more unpleasant and staffing their stores with fewer and fewer workers.
Hi, I agree, abuse and violence in workplaces seems to be on the rise. Often employers focus on bandaid 'solutions', like surveillance, and seem to ignore the structural issues that result in abuse and violence, such as underfunding, understaffing, training, and their inhumane policies.
I was thanked in advance by an automated system for "treating our advisers with kindness and respect". Like, that's a basic expectation. You shouldn't have to ask me to do it, never mind thank me.
(Although the 5 mins I had to spend navigating the system to get to the advisor was... frustrating.)
This country has always had a history of customers abusing low income workers, but I definitely think it has ramped up significantly. Especially during COVID.
No, customers have always been shit. "The customer is always right" attitude that the US had developed justified a lot of people acting like awful human beings in a professional setting well before Trump.
I worked in retail from 1990 - 2002, 2005 - 2009.
Customer facing clerical for a few years after.
I never dealt with the kind of bullshit that folks deal with on the regular now.
They thought they were right, but they weren't violent or downright abusive.
He flipped a switch.
We have these signs all over the place in the UK as well. I don’t know when they started because I moved here only in 2023, but I suspect it’s post-pandemic like in the US.
the last day i tended bar was march 15 2020 and i talked to one of my old bartenders on the phone in 2022 and asked how it’s been and he just started crying.
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And, I'm 57 and not cute
People are shocked then realize that can’t afford the drugs they need
Some Trump voters take the election as permission to be abusive. And, that's fucking weird.
It's the result of a sickness that has been simmering in society for decades.
Because “my taxes pay your salary!” Here’s $0.25, you can have a few years back.
customers have always abused front facing employees; there is always an unofficial crying room
so how fucking bad has it gotten
of how this phenomenon isn’t just people getting meaner and angrier. it’s also (largely?) corporations making the retail shopping experience more and more unpleasant and staffing their stores with fewer and fewer workers.
(Although the 5 mins I had to spend navigating the system to get to the advisor was... frustrating.)
Customer facing clerical for a few years after.
I never dealt with the kind of bullshit that folks deal with on the regular now.
They thought they were right, but they weren't violent or downright abusive.
He flipped a switch.