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Original poster

Two minutes silence and refusing to serve customer

805 replies

BalugaBelle · 11/11/2017 23:06

At work today I was on the checkout (large retail store) and the silence was announced over a tannoy.

A woman (on the phone) came up to the checkout during the silence, so I shushed her. Motioned to poppies next to till!

She then said, "I'm going to miss my train, please continue serving me!"

I refused, shook my head and sat silently for the two minutes.

At the end I put her items through, she moaned at me and called me rude and petty and then went on her merry way.

So was I being unreasonable to respect the two minutes silence, even if it meant a customer was unhappy at me doing so?

I know good customer service is needed but surely the two minutes silence takes priority? She clearly had no respect!

Quite frankly I didn't give a damn about her train, I was paying my respects as was everyone else in the shop. It was literally almost silent apart from young children (understandable) and general noise, i.e., heating making noises!

OP posts:
spiney · 13/11/2017 09:32

Phone lady is the person with the phone is going off in front of you in the cinema, who is leaving her bag on the train seat, who is not moving when the tube door opens.

She’s not making a political gesture against enforced observation of Remberence.

She’s just very rude.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 13/11/2017 15:25

spiney, Yes, I think we do pretty much agree on this. I just think that, for a 2 minute silence, I wouldn't be shush-ing anybody because it's equally disruptive and it breaks what would be a time of thinking for me.

I wouldn't think well of anybody who disrupted the silence and perhaps I'll be mown down now by posters rushing in to say that they just had to do x, y, z in that period.

It's just so officious, both the interrupters and the shush-ers - in a short period of SILENCE.

Shushing in church or the cinema is different. Everybody can shut up for 2 minutes or at least be considerate whether they're observing or not.

BlurryFace · 13/11/2017 15:35

YWNBU. I have worked retail in shops that observed the silence, in fact I think ONLY in shops that observed the silence and protocol was to stop whatever you were doing. I once asked a manager "what if a customer insists on being served" and his response was "we don't want their custom then".

It was probably quite odd looking as all the staff would freeze and so would the customers (with the exception of young children) so you would have stackers stood next to half-empty cages, cashiers and customers halfway through a transaction, customers stood with their trolleys.

No one ever kicked off and I certainly would not have served them during the silence.

karriecreamer · 13/11/2017 15:39

Everybody can shut up for 2 minutes or at least be considerate whether they're observing or not.

If a few thousand blokes in football stadiums all over the UK can manage to shut up for 2 minutes and show respect in absolute silence, then some woman in a supermarket can too!

karriecreamer · 13/11/2017 15:42

Lass, I would bet my bottom dollar that retail outlets at stations or airports do NOT stop serving for 2 minutes to observe the silence. There would probably be mutiny if they did. Sometimes connecting services are late so people who cut it fine for the train are not necessarily 'idiots'.

I was once in Manchester Airport at 11am on remembrance Sunday, and yes, there was a tannoy announcement, and yes, everyone did stop and observe the 2 minute silence.

PortiaCastis · 13/11/2017 15:46

I was at Exeter airport a couple of years ago and yes everyone showed respect and observed the 2mins silence including the retail and security staff

karriecreamer · 13/11/2017 15:48

Gatwick Airport 2 minute silence on youtube:-

wrenika · 13/11/2017 16:23

Personally, I think you should have served her. It's up to individuals to make a decision over whether they observe the silence. You could have served her, in silence.
In my opinion, the two minutes of silence is a farce. I don't see the point. Most of the time it goes by without me realising. When I worked in a cafe, we didn't stop for it, and now I work in an office environment and we don't have any formal pause either. I've not done a 2 minute silence since I was in school and that was a waste of time too...it was just two minutes to let your mind wander. I do my thinking and remembering...but not at the beck and call of some daft symbol.

Paddington68 · 13/11/2017 16:30

You were right not to serve her.
If people think it is a farce that's up to them.
If people can't take two minutes a year to remember those who died, they have a problem.
I work in an office and we pause. It is about respect.

Mittens1969 · 13/11/2017 16:34

Really, someone would have complained if she had served the customer. In such a scenario you can’t win, I suspect. Hmm

Peachy92 · 13/11/2017 16:42

No her train would have also waited for the 2 minutes. It’s never BU to have respect :)

Itsgonnabeacoldone · 13/11/2017 19:01

I don't think it's disrespectful to carry on as you are.

I was driving on the motorway and it would have been ridiculous and dangerous for everyone to come to a stop. The radio wasn't even silent, they played some rain.

Itsgonnabeacoldone · 13/11/2017 19:01

I don't think it's disrespectful to carry on as you are.

I was driving on the motorway and it would have been ridiculous and dangerous for everyone to come to a stop. The radio wasn't even silent, they played some rain.

MaisyPops · 13/11/2017 19:21

Itsgonnabeacoldone
If someone wishes to continue their business during the 2 minute silence then i wouldn't object, after all people fought for our freedom (even though I find it odd that people wouldn't do the silence).

What I have an issue with is people who talk through it, continue phonecalls, try to interrupt the silence etc when the poibt of the silence is quiet reflection.

So in the case of a shop
Most people stop what they are doing and do the silence. - fine
Some want to continue shopping but do so quietly (as in almost silence) - fine even if I don't get it because it's only taking 120 seconds a year to demonstrate remembrance so hardly a big ask
A couple of individuals being noisy through it - just plain rude

Peregrina · 14/11/2017 07:14

I am curious - does everyone who says it's only two minutes a year completely ignore Remembrance Sunday - which usually has some sort of Parade, wreath laying at the local war memorial, followed by a Church service? Remembrance Sunday has been commemorated since the 1920s. If those who served in WW1 were happy with this, and genuinely remembered the horrors of that war, I don't really understand why it's not sufficient now, when few of us remember war, and just how many are really working for peace?

karriecreamer · 14/11/2017 08:02

The shop worker also has the right to 2 minutes to remember and pay respect. Why is the shopper's "right" to ignore it more important that the staff's right to respect it? For all we know the shop worker may have lost loved ones in a war, and certainly wouldn't want to have to ring someone's shopping through when they want to stand in silence and remember.

StrangeLookingParasite · 14/11/2017 08:24

Why are you connecting this with racism and British values?

I've been wondering that as well. In my posts on this thread,I've tried to express how it has a personal dimension for me, and I'm absolutely certain I am one of many, many others (at one point I think ti was reanimated saying that it was out of living memory). I refuse to allow the right-wingers to hijack this day. It isn't, and was never supposed to be a jingoistic thing. My family were never remotely celebratory about it.
And as far as I remember, there has always been a silence - one or two minutes - at eleven o'clock, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the guns finally fell silent, after all that (mostly pointless) slaughter.

I don't agree AT ALL with reanimated's very limited and negative interpretation.

PenguinDi · 14/11/2017 08:43

OP you were right NOT to serve her. I have been in that situation and refused to serve a customer during the 2 minutes silence, luckily the customer was alright with it.

This is a matter of respect, respect for the fallen and for the day.

Bicyclethief · 14/11/2017 09:09

Perigrina that's what the point is, lots of us have no idea what war is like this is why we need to have events like this. To learn the lessons. What about you, what are you doing for peace?

I know what our grandparents generation did. They wanted peace, all over Europe, this is why we had the EU which has led to one of the longest periods of peace in our history.

ReanimatedSGB · 14/11/2017 09:11

The point is that some people think it's a pointless wank, some think it's a glorification of war, and some people think it's an important and solemn ceremony. They are all entitled to their opinions.
The problem is those who insist that everyone be impacted by this ritual, rather than keeping it to the Sunday and designated places. Those who get their undies in a bundle about the fact that many either dislike it or simply don't give a toss are, quite often, arseholes, and the vast majority of those who whine either via the facist-leaning press or the dumber corners of social media about a lack of 'respect' generally are the Little Englanders, the racists, the malevolent morons - all those hysterical screamers who keep insisting that Brexit Must Happen. It's the same mindset.

Bicyclethief · 14/11/2017 09:18

Wow, just wow! Really?

Itsgonnabeacoldone · 14/11/2017 09:20

The problem is those who insist that everyone be impacted by this ritual, rather than keeping it to the Sunday and designated places. Those who get their undies in a bundle about the fact that many either dislike it or simply don't give a toss are, quite often, arseholes, and the vast majority of those who whine either via the facist-leaning press or the dumber corners of social media about a lack of 'respect' generally are the Little Englanders

Exactly, the kind of person that would make sure they are working and on the till at the right time to inforce their view on others and would spend their whole two minutes reflecting on how superior they are.

Peregrina · 14/11/2017 09:26

To learn the lessons. What about you, what are you doing for peace?

Remembrance Sunday fine, where if you are actively involved you are committing a significant amount of time. 2 minutes in the middle of shopping? Maybe. Hypocritical lying politicians parading with poppies on their lapels - unlikely.

I have spent a lot of time trying to promote peace in my life, as the daughter of a CO during WW2, who risked a prison sentence, and the granddaughter of a WW1 veteran, who refused to talk about the war.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 14/11/2017 09:29

I can hardly believe my eyes that there is a Youtube video of the silent at Gatwick Airport. How utterly vacuous and disrespectful that is.

I'm sure the person filming and uploading it felt very worthy but what an absolute knob they must be.

crazyforpiggies · 14/11/2017 09:55

I think you were in the right. I work in a restaurant and we all stop what we are doing. Tapping away at a till however silently feels disrespectful

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