Oh dear god...

[conuly]

I guess the thought police had to step in and make sure every thing was PC and sympathy. sad world we live in, it really is. someone can act like a lunatic and i am supposed to be nice to them. *gag*

Yes, you really are supposed to be nice to them. Yes, really. Yes, even if they "act like a lunatic". Yes, even if you think they have an actual disorder like OCD. No, I'm not kidding. No, I'm really not. Nope. You're supposed to be people. Period.

Comments

[frogmajick.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, is there a comm along the lines of cashiers_and_retail_workers_suck?

[conuly]

bad_service, I believe.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

You know, we have every right to bitch about customers in our journals. That's what keeps us from going crazy.

*is extremely offended*

Just because we bitch about them, does NOT mean we aren't nice when they come through our lines.

Hmph.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

Sorry, conuly, but this really makes me mad. Not you, personally, but the idea that anyone thinks that we shouldn't have the right to exercise our freedom of speech, especially in our our journals and LiveJournal communities.

I am ALWAYS nice to people that come through my line, even if they're so bad, that I have to come home and bitch about them in my journal. Of course...I explain that in my disclaimer (http://www.pushthelimits.net/ljdisclaimer.html).

I've been working with the public for 16 years, and I'm good at what I do. However, just because I am nice TO them, doesn't mean I don't have the right to bitch about them in my own journal on my own time. Screw that. We need some sort of an outlet, and some of us choose this medium. At least I don't take my aggression out on the customer, like some customers do to us. You wouldn't believe some of the shit I've put up with at work. I just don't post about most of it, because almost every day some customer barks at me for something stupid. As a matter of fact, I actually had a customer CALL me stupid at one time, just because I asked him for money for the groceries he was bagging, and I didn't know he was bagging his son's groceries.

Really, unless you've had a job where you stand in one spot for 8 hours and deal with every kind of person imaginable, you can't understand what it's like. I don't see how the above mentioned person was rude to the customer. The first couple she mentioned hadn't even gone through her line, and the second, she hadn't said anything to. The third, she was just so frustrated, that she explained to the woman that the groceries were packaged. I might not have said anything, but I surely would have thought it. Just as I always do, with the guy who will never put his toothbrush or toothpaste on the belt. I don't believe this cashier was rude in any way. I believe that y'all are in an uproar just because she's bitching about the customer, which she has every right to do here on LiveJournal.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I have met people with OCD.
It is mental, not physical, but it impacts their lives as much.
Maybe the government should be spending serious amounts on therapy and stuff that will help, but they seem to be putting bombs at the top of the shopping list.
I do work with the public, and can sympathise with anyone who has to take care of someone who is ESN, or whatever, and I get a lot of that myself.
My life would be easier if everyone wore a t shirt that said 'autistic', OCD, or whatever, but i feel that that would be demeaning. I work on a Tube station - what the yanks call a subway, and I frequently have to escort a blind person on or of a train.
These people use a white stick, but you would be suprised the number of ignorant assholes who cannot be bothered to notice me and the person next to me, waving a white stick in front of them, coming towards them, and just collide - they don't even take any notice of a call to 'move aside please', oh no. the fact that a blind person is coming thier way in no way obliges them to look up andstop yakking into the mobile clamped to their ear, we have to dodge them.
Actually, I don't. As an ex-rugger player, I can 'fend off' with either hand, and an asswipe that can't be bothered to look where they are going in the vicinity of the less able is going to be fended in no uncertain terms.
I don't think that the blind, the epileptic or the mentally ill choose to be that way. I guess that we who are privileged to have good health, mentally and otherwise, ought to cut them some slack in our dealings...

[conuly]

I'm not preventing her from discussing this customer. However, not only do I maintain that it is very rude to tell people that they're being irrational, but I find the entire tone of her entry offensive - and I *am* allowed to not only find her offensive but to *tell* her that I find her offensive.

I'm not upset that she had a hard day at work. I *am* upset that she feels free to bandy about insults about people, make blanket statements that they should be "medicated or in an institution" and then complain that she shouldn't have to be nice to those people. Another person a few posts down was in a similar situation and got a very different response because that person didn't act like it was wrong that she was expected to still be polite - or that basic common manners was now "too pc".

[conuly]

When it comes to that, I have a summation of the two different posts. The earlier post was here, if you want to compare.

[lilagrubb.livejournal.com]

I've come here from mintogrubb's flist. I agree with you. It would be one thing if this person had just voided the items, then vented on LJ, but it's clear from the post that she did try to persuade a customer who obviously had a problem to accept items that had fallen on the floor. To the extent that the customer told her she was stressing her out. This was, to say the least, poor customer service. And I'm shocked at the level of ignorance in the statement that the customer should be "medicated or in an institution".

[conuly]

The items weren't scanned, I believe she says that in a later comment.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

That made me so angry that I felt sick to my stomach.

I don't think I'd be half as upset if it weren't for the blanket statements and the assumption that the woman obviously knew she had a problem, and had obviously chosen not to seek the miraculous (and cheap) cure that we all know is out there.

People like that are the reason I'm terrified to talk to store employees. And that fear is the main reason I rarely ever go shopping, and never alone.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

When I'm scanning someone's groceries and they act irrational, I get on the defensive, regardless of what I think they may or may not have. As a matter of fact, I don't think anything of that at all, I just will not put up with someone being rude, for whatever reason. If someone is rude to me, I don't assume they're OCD, I assume they're on crack.

Even if the woman is OCD (which we don't even know for sure), OCD does not equal rudeness.

I'm not buying that as an excuse. The woman was rude to the cashier. She could have
A. Asked the cashier if she could get new ones
B. Asked the cashier if they had someone to get her new ones
C. Let her scan the items, then ask if she could get replacements, rather than snapping at her. The woman did snap at the cashier before the cashier had even said anything.

Now...prove to me the woman has OCD, and that OCD causes one to be rude beyond their own control, and I'll show a little sympathy. You're all acting as if you know for sure she has it. I've seen customers pull shit like that just to be rude.

Like I said...standing in one spot for 8 hours dealing with every kind of person imaginable is not easy. How many of you have done it? And for how many years?

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Well, I've worked retail, standing on my feet behind a counter for 8 hours, so perhaps that qualifies me to post a response.

I don't know whether the woman in question had OCD or not, though from the story it certainly sounds as though she does. But that's irrelevant, and already skewed, since it was a story, not something I observed myself.

If she honestly thought, while it was happening, that the woman was obsessive-compulsive, and she still tried to tell the customer that she was acting irrationally and that it was all fine, then I believe she behaved badly. To attempt to make someone with OCD act against their impulses is not something a grocery store clerk should be doing.

OCD doesn't make one rude beyond their control, necessarily; it can come off as rudeness unintentionally, however. If something gets triggered, they can feel helpless to act against it, and that can seem very rude to others--even if the person coming across as rude is secretly despairing that they have to do it.

Having said that, I agree with you that it's not an excuse to act rudely. It's a reason, but not an excuse. However, neither is standing on your feet for 8 hours a day an excuse for being rude.

[conuly]

I don't know if this woman had OCD or not. Neither does the cashier. However, the cashier believes that the customer had OCD and proceeds to say incredibly ignorant things such as "she shouldn't be able to go out without being seriously drugged or institutionalized" and "I shouldn't have to be polite to people whom I suspect of having serious mental problems".

I read the account in the journal. It doesn't sound like the woman snapped at the cashier. As near as I can tell, the exchange went like this: Cashier is working. Somehow, the items fall. The woman stares at them. Cashier points out that there's nothing wrong. UP UNTIL THIS POINT, I DO NOT THINK THE CASHIER DID ANYTHING WRONG OR OFFENSIVE. The woman starts talking to herself about how she'll have to go elsewhere to buy those items now. The cashier, at this point, should have realized that the customer was behaving irrationally and dropped it. I can guarantee you that telling people when they are behaving irrationally never works. Instead, the cashier makes a point of telling her that the items are fine, and then gets upset when, predictably, the woman doesn't calm down.

So far, nobody has been rude.

Then the cashier posts in customers_suck about it (we're still good, okay) and closes with an ignorant and offensive statement. We're not still good. In the comments, the cashier continues to make seriously offensive statements, and calls basic politeness and manners "thought police pcness".

[conuly]

*hugs*

[conuly]

Sorry, correction. The woman did snap at the cashier - but only after the cashier had kept at telling her that she should buy the items she clearly didn't want, several times.

What was the point?

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you. Even if they are intentionally being a bastard, turn the other cheek. If they can't help it, for God's sake, understand!

[frogmajick.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, is there a comm along the lines of cashiers_and_retail_workers_suck?

[conuly]

bad_service, I believe.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

You know, we have every right to bitch about customers in our journals. That's what keeps us from going crazy.

*is extremely offended*

Just because we bitch about them, does NOT mean we aren't nice when they come through our lines.

Hmph.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

Sorry, conuly, but this really makes me mad. Not you, personally, but the idea that anyone thinks that we shouldn't have the right to exercise our freedom of speech, especially in our our journals and LiveJournal communities.

I am ALWAYS nice to people that come through my line, even if they're so bad, that I have to come home and bitch about them in my journal. Of course...I explain that in my disclaimer (http://www.pushthelimits.net/ljdisclaimer.html).

I've been working with the public for 16 years, and I'm good at what I do. However, just because I am nice TO them, doesn't mean I don't have the right to bitch about them in my own journal on my own time. Screw that. We need some sort of an outlet, and some of us choose this medium. At least I don't take my aggression out on the customer, like some customers do to us. You wouldn't believe some of the shit I've put up with at work. I just don't post about most of it, because almost every day some customer barks at me for something stupid. As a matter of fact, I actually had a customer CALL me stupid at one time, just because I asked him for money for the groceries he was bagging, and I didn't know he was bagging his son's groceries.

Really, unless you've had a job where you stand in one spot for 8 hours and deal with every kind of person imaginable, you can't understand what it's like. I don't see how the above mentioned person was rude to the customer. The first couple she mentioned hadn't even gone through her line, and the second, she hadn't said anything to. The third, she was just so frustrated, that she explained to the woman that the groceries were packaged. I might not have said anything, but I surely would have thought it. Just as I always do, with the guy who will never put his toothbrush or toothpaste on the belt. I don't believe this cashier was rude in any way. I believe that y'all are in an uproar just because she's bitching about the customer, which she has every right to do here on LiveJournal.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I have met people with OCD.
It is mental, not physical, but it impacts their lives as much.
Maybe the government should be spending serious amounts on therapy and stuff that will help, but they seem to be putting bombs at the top of the shopping list.
I do work with the public, and can sympathise with anyone who has to take care of someone who is ESN, or whatever, and I get a lot of that myself.
My life would be easier if everyone wore a t shirt that said 'autistic', OCD, or whatever, but i feel that that would be demeaning. I work on a Tube station - what the yanks call a subway, and I frequently have to escort a blind person on or of a train.
These people use a white stick, but you would be suprised the number of ignorant assholes who cannot be bothered to notice me and the person next to me, waving a white stick in front of them, coming towards them, and just collide - they don't even take any notice of a call to 'move aside please', oh no. the fact that a blind person is coming thier way in no way obliges them to look up andstop yakking into the mobile clamped to their ear, we have to dodge them.
Actually, I don't. As an ex-rugger player, I can 'fend off' with either hand, and an asswipe that can't be bothered to look where they are going in the vicinity of the less able is going to be fended in no uncertain terms.
I don't think that the blind, the epileptic or the mentally ill choose to be that way. I guess that we who are privileged to have good health, mentally and otherwise, ought to cut them some slack in our dealings...

[conuly]

I'm not preventing her from discussing this customer. However, not only do I maintain that it is very rude to tell people that they're being irrational, but I find the entire tone of her entry offensive - and I *am* allowed to not only find her offensive but to *tell* her that I find her offensive.

I'm not upset that she had a hard day at work. I *am* upset that she feels free to bandy about insults about people, make blanket statements that they should be "medicated or in an institution" and then complain that she shouldn't have to be nice to those people. Another person a few posts down was in a similar situation and got a very different response because that person didn't act like it was wrong that she was expected to still be polite - or that basic common manners was now "too pc".

[conuly]

When it comes to that, I have a summation of the two different posts. The earlier post was here, if you want to compare.

[lilagrubb.livejournal.com]

I've come here from mintogrubb's flist. I agree with you. It would be one thing if this person had just voided the items, then vented on LJ, but it's clear from the post that she did try to persuade a customer who obviously had a problem to accept items that had fallen on the floor. To the extent that the customer told her she was stressing her out. This was, to say the least, poor customer service. And I'm shocked at the level of ignorance in the statement that the customer should be "medicated or in an institution".

[conuly]

The items weren't scanned, I believe she says that in a later comment.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

That made me so angry that I felt sick to my stomach.

I don't think I'd be half as upset if it weren't for the blanket statements and the assumption that the woman obviously knew she had a problem, and had obviously chosen not to seek the miraculous (and cheap) cure that we all know is out there.

People like that are the reason I'm terrified to talk to store employees. And that fear is the main reason I rarely ever go shopping, and never alone.

[push-the-limits.livejournal.com]

When I'm scanning someone's groceries and they act irrational, I get on the defensive, regardless of what I think they may or may not have. As a matter of fact, I don't think anything of that at all, I just will not put up with someone being rude, for whatever reason. If someone is rude to me, I don't assume they're OCD, I assume they're on crack.

Even if the woman is OCD (which we don't even know for sure), OCD does not equal rudeness.

I'm not buying that as an excuse. The woman was rude to the cashier. She could have
A. Asked the cashier if she could get new ones
B. Asked the cashier if they had someone to get her new ones
C. Let her scan the items, then ask if she could get replacements, rather than snapping at her. The woman did snap at the cashier before the cashier had even said anything.

Now...prove to me the woman has OCD, and that OCD causes one to be rude beyond their own control, and I'll show a little sympathy. You're all acting as if you know for sure she has it. I've seen customers pull shit like that just to be rude.

Like I said...standing in one spot for 8 hours dealing with every kind of person imaginable is not easy. How many of you have done it? And for how many years?

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Well, I've worked retail, standing on my feet behind a counter for 8 hours, so perhaps that qualifies me to post a response.

I don't know whether the woman in question had OCD or not, though from the story it certainly sounds as though she does. But that's irrelevant, and already skewed, since it was a story, not something I observed myself.

If she honestly thought, while it was happening, that the woman was obsessive-compulsive, and she still tried to tell the customer that she was acting irrationally and that it was all fine, then I believe she behaved badly. To attempt to make someone with OCD act against their impulses is not something a grocery store clerk should be doing.

OCD doesn't make one rude beyond their control, necessarily; it can come off as rudeness unintentionally, however. If something gets triggered, they can feel helpless to act against it, and that can seem very rude to others--even if the person coming across as rude is secretly despairing that they have to do it.

Having said that, I agree with you that it's not an excuse to act rudely. It's a reason, but not an excuse. However, neither is standing on your feet for 8 hours a day an excuse for being rude.

[conuly]

I don't know if this woman had OCD or not. Neither does the cashier. However, the cashier believes that the customer had OCD and proceeds to say incredibly ignorant things such as "she shouldn't be able to go out without being seriously drugged or institutionalized" and "I shouldn't have to be polite to people whom I suspect of having serious mental problems".

I read the account in the journal. It doesn't sound like the woman snapped at the cashier. As near as I can tell, the exchange went like this: Cashier is working. Somehow, the items fall. The woman stares at them. Cashier points out that there's nothing wrong. UP UNTIL THIS POINT, I DO NOT THINK THE CASHIER DID ANYTHING WRONG OR OFFENSIVE. The woman starts talking to herself about how she'll have to go elsewhere to buy those items now. The cashier, at this point, should have realized that the customer was behaving irrationally and dropped it. I can guarantee you that telling people when they are behaving irrationally never works. Instead, the cashier makes a point of telling her that the items are fine, and then gets upset when, predictably, the woman doesn't calm down.

So far, nobody has been rude.

Then the cashier posts in customers_suck about it (we're still good, okay) and closes with an ignorant and offensive statement. We're not still good. In the comments, the cashier continues to make seriously offensive statements, and calls basic politeness and manners "thought police pcness".

[conuly]

*hugs*

[conuly]

Sorry, correction. The woman did snap at the cashier - but only after the cashier had kept at telling her that she should buy the items she clearly didn't want, several times.

What was the point?

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you. Even if they are intentionally being a bastard, turn the other cheek. If they can't help it, for God's sake, understand!