To feel sorry for people who have to work with the public?

[SomeoneStoleMySausageRoll]

Last week I was in a cafe and I was queuing up for the hot drinks and to pay. There was a woman in front of me who seemed to be in a bit of a bad mood anyway as she kept tutting and sighing.

When the woman got to the till she asked for just a black coffee. The lass at the till charged her £2 for it and this is when she got a bit stroppy and pointed out the sign in front of her and snapped "it says it's £1.50 there for an espresso, are you trying to rip me off?" The cashier then explained nicely that an espresso was just a tiny shot of coffee and if she wanted a full coffee it was an americano and that was £2. At which point she started raving and ranting away at the cashier telling her "it was a bloody rip off!" and "you should make it clear!". Still the cashier remained polite and cheerful throughout.

Then when she got her coffee she snapped "where's the bloody sugar?" and again the person at the till pointed out politley where it was (it was right in front of her) but instead the woman picked up her tray and went to the other till to look for the sugar. And again when she couldn't find any (there was more sugar on that side, again right it front of her) she again snapped "where's the bloody sugar?" only this time she sounded much more aggressive.

Then when again the girl pointed out nicely where it was, the woman then stormed back over to her, picked a handful of sugar up and threw them in her face before storming off to sit down with her coffee. The poor girl was like this and so was I.

She did tell me though that this wasn't the worst she'd had to put up with either.

My sister used to work in retail and the amount of abuse she had to put up with was astounding.

Seriously, how do you cope with all the idiots?

My 'public' are tiny poorly prem babies, they are no problem, ........
the parents on the other hand
most are lovely but some demand to take their 1LB babies home as though we are keeping them in icu for fun!

I have had several customer facing roles and really enjoyed them. I woln't tolerate abuse or swearing- that would end the interaction. Yes customers get irate but remaining cool polite yet firm is needed. Never take it personally- that's when you end up hurt. It's the public figure of the company you work for that the customer is annoyed with, not you personally- so don't involve your own emotions.

If I'd read this thread a couple of years ago I would have been shocked, never having worked in a customer facing role. I still haven't, but Ds1 and dd have and some of the stories they've told me have been jaw dropping. It's so depressing to realise the sheer number of arses there are out there.

The worst story which springs to mind just now is when dd was working in a shoe shop. She has psoriasis and at this particular time it had flared up on her hands. A woman bought some shoes, and as dd was packing them she (the woman) said "What's that on your hands?" Dd told her and the woman said "Well take your hands of my goods, I've paid for those and don't want you touching them. Dd was mortified (she held it together in the shop, but came home very upset). Fortunately her manager had overheard, came over and said "please leave and feel free to never return".

Try working in a airport!

I worked in job centres and dole offices for 8 years.

Was threatened on a regular basis, sworn at, spat at, had a plant thrown at me and had a baby dumped on me (when the father had spent his giro and I refused him another).

I had to move offices due to threats from one individual claimant threatening me.

Not once did I ever lose my temper or retaliate in any sort of rude way. I would have to remind people sometimes that I was there to help and couldn't do that if they were shouting and swearing.

I have to admit that I would never want to work there again.

I hate conflict but if somebody is being stroppy and unreasonable about something trivial (to me, anyway) that isn't my fault, it affects me not a jot. The ruder and more unreasonable they are, however, the more likely it is I'm working on my impression of them in my head while they're still speaking it's mostly over the phone though, which helps. Not sure I'd cope too well with stuff thrown in my face. I'm astonished by how many people haven't realised that they get much further by being nice.

Nhs....my door was shut and i was treating someone. (Notice on door saying room was occupied) man opened door and shouted to me that he needed an appointment. Informed him i was busy at present and could he close the door and wait outside please. He shouted back that my patient can wait as it only take a minute and he was a busy man. Worse one was again a man who came barging into my clinic shouting its his turn scary my elderly patient out of the chair. He screamed at me, and my elderly patient departed quickly without dressing herself into the waiting room. He screamed for about five minutes that i was 1 minute late. Managed to calm him down before checking my previous patient was ok. He did get a letter from my boss about his behaviour. Luckily my previous patient was a lovely lady who was worried about me but how dare someone make someone else leave a room without fully dressing (luckily she was 98% dressed). Im glad ive never worked in retail...

Being nice doesn't mean flirting though - I'm not that shallow!

Most of my customers are nice, but i have had some real dicks come in as well. Keeping calm is the hardest part and luckily i have always been able to vanish off the shop floor and fall apart in private afterwards. Some people are so rude. Most are lovely.

Can i add 99.9% of my patients are lovely.

Completely agree that everyone should do a customer facing role at some point in their life. Have variously manned tills, helpline call centres, and waitressing and bar work. It makes me much more aware of how to make staff's jobs easier when eating out for example.

My worst was a man who shouted at me in a packed pub, because it started raining between him choosing his outside table, ordering at the bar, and then getting his food. Everyone else in then pub had noticed the fuck-off black clouds and gone inside, so the other tables were taken. He seemed genuinely surprised I couldn't make the rain stop.

But it has also made me quite intolerant of really crap can't-be-arsed customer service, especially in restaurants. I know there are crap customers, crap bosses, crap chefs, and generally crap days, but if I'm spending money on a treat I do want to be able to enjoy it, not feel like an imposition.

I had someone on Christmas Eve ask me for my name so they could put it on their suicide note because I couldn't get anyone at 3pm to go and mend their gas fire.

They had central heating, but liked to sit by the fire and look at it....

Back when I was training to be a Nurse I had a PT job in a supermarket petrol station. The company, my line manager, and the team were fabulous to me. Really supportive, if I went on late shift having done a hospital shift earlier I was given extra long breaks etc.
anyway because of this I stayed on their 'only in an emergency' cover list after I qualified. There certain hoops you have to jump through to sell petrol so anyone can't just jump in.

Anyway one winter, a virus has flattened 75% of the staff all that was left to run the station was a trainee. The manager ,called me from her sickbed, begging as otherwise they would have had to close, I was free and God knows owed them, so of course said yes.

Had a total and utter twat come in wanting a fan belt, at ten at night, in a supermarket petrol station. Trainee says sorry, we don't stock them, sorry but we're a petrol station, not a garage. He loses the plot, starts screaming and threatening him, I step in and get full blast including threats to wait and rape me, if I was so stupid as to be working on a petrol station I deserved what I got, I was scum, actually the scum remark was the nicest thing he said.

As he was blasting at me trainee called the police, he heard this, and did a runner.

His face fell on the Monday, when he walked in to his interview for a Staff Nurse post and saw me as one of his interviewers, fell further when I informed him that the CCTV footage of his threats had been passed to the police and now I would be passing the same to the NMC.

Sadly the CPS didn't follow it through.

Wellnow that may be one of the best stories I've ever read on MN.

Thanks Blue, but because CPS didn't follow through there wasn't a lot the NMC could do, or so they said.

So there is a strong possibility that he's working with vulnerable people right now, scares the fuck out of me.

wellnow I've had similar in reverse. Obnoxious drunk in A&E, calls the nurse trying to suture his head a cunt - so rude he stood out in an inner city A&E on Saturday night, which takes some doing . A few days later, we get a letter of complaint from him, saying that the nurse was unprofessional, that he wasn't examined by a doctor (presumably I didn't count - no Y chromosome) and that he deserved better because he was a member of hospital staff.

Composing my response letter was the highlight of my week....

Omg op that's assault ....I'd have rang the police if I'd have been that cashier

Vile vile person

I worked in a bookies once when I was 18 and was abused daily, mostly by grown men. And just smiled and took it until one day I flipped as was racially abused and called a slag by a customer once. So I called him a fucking cunt and just grabbed my bag and walked out. To this day I'm still proud of that moment

I own a beauty salon and the amount of weirdos out there is astonishing! I've had clients snatch my professional tools out of mine and my employee's hands, people swearing at us and shouting abuse down the phone, booking long appointments and not turning up, despite a reminder the night before, or cancelling with 5mins to go, blaming us for getting their appointment day/time wrong, dropping in to compare prices with another beauty salon, and all manner of rude, inimtimidating behaviour! We just have a laugh about them now but it does make you a little bit jaded especially when you give your business everything youve got and get treated like crap by some people.

I used to work in Airport Security. Obviously I was just there to cause an inconvenience to people going on holiday... Actually I was trying to help prevent your airplane from falling out of the sky. The abuse from passengers was terrible, and became expected!

Everyone who works with the public needs this website,

wellnow that is of course extremely disappointing but the symmetry of it is pleasing though.

I bet he just about wet his pants when he saw you. I hope it shocked him into mending his ways.

People are shit. Been threatened with getting my face smashed in, had to remind men it's not acceptable to get their penises out on the premises, leered at, and was last week loudly called a 'fucking cunt'.

Libraries ain't what they used to be.

I worked in retail throughout my studies and after I'd graduated took a job in a higher-end high street fashion retail store. No career move, I just wanted to wear their clothes every day and take advantage of a substantial staff discount while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.
All that changed the day someone spat in my face because I wouldn't give her a refund (after having explained to her when she bought it that it was a non-refundable item).
I quit that day.

The superiority complex of many customers is hilarious. Thinking they are above the retail staff. As for those who bang on about their statutory rights. Cock off with your babble that you clearly know nothing about. Plus we area mega huge corporation do you really think that little old me makes up the policy? If i did I wouldn't have to deal with the bloody public. Luckily I don't take any of it to heart and I'm always right. Mostly it makes for Good anecdotes.

Many years ago I worked in a shop whilst I was qualifying for other stuff. A man came in pushed passed a large line of people waiting and demanded a packet of cigars, I refused to serve him because I was already serving someone else my words were "I'm sorry sir I'm serving this lady now I can get to you as soon as I can" he screamed you fucking cunt at me then threw a can of pop at my head. It was a full can smashed me straight in the face caused quite a bit of damage and knocked me out.

The police got called as well as an ambulance nothing happened to the man.

The thing that used to really bug me was the sheer volume of people who when you put your hand out for the money would put the coins down on the counter I have dodgy fingers and sometimes struggle to grip things and they would see me having problems trying to pick up the coins and still keep putting them down, until the day I snapped and yelled "you ignorant fuck face festering wanker,every fucking day you bastard well do this every fucking day you watch me struggle,get the fuck out and never fucking come back" I then chucked his change on the floor went to grab my bag because I figured I was probably sacked to find my boss almost wetting himself laughing. That day is imprinted on my memory.

Just last week I was in a small local shop run by a woman with quite significant mobility issues and watched a man look at her and growl "get that for me now" at an item on a shelf she clearly would struggle to get to.

It made me glad I stopped years ago. Nowadays I get followed about by men who beat their wives lots and often get referred to as the cunt who made my wife leave or told I'm going to get raped or beaten but many decades of dealing with it had given me a very thick skin so I'm not bothered by it.