Two minutes silence and refusing to serve customer

[BalugaBelle]

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!

(as is beautifully illustrated by the post above my last post)

I was in work today and although my transaction was done I was still helping the customer get their purchase going (phone) I stopped and I always have stopped. The shopping centre and my employer request we observe the silence and I intend to do just that.

SGB are you really as ignorant as you sound? Did you not get the bit about respecting the dead from every conflict from 1914 to the present day. You don't have to join in if you don't choose to but you do have to respect the choices that other people make. After a!l that is the whole point that we have the freedom to choose.

Rememberance is personal. She obviously does not give a shit, which is her choice but she behaved disrespectfully if she was nattering on during the 2 minutes.
You chose to observe it. That your choice others around you should respect that.

OP YANBU

Your customer was rude and entitled - even if she didn't want to participate in the silence in order to reflect, it is basic courtesy and politeness to not interrupt it either.

It's like with any show of respect - you don't have to participate if it is not something you believe in/agree with/support but that does not give you the right to actively interrupt those who are. In this case the show of respect is a silence, the polite thing to do is not interrupt the silence by purposely making noise.

Should add, if someone doesn't want to observe it I have no problem with that at all (after all they fought for freedom, not observing is freedom is it not) but if someone else is , especially if ordered by their employers/land Lords (which my shopping centre is) that too has to be dealt with personally.

Yabu. Remembrance is politicised. I hate the way that commemorating WWI in particular which was essentially a mandated slaughter of the working class is held up as reason for our continuing acts of brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. There is little to be proud of in what our armed forces have done in my lifetime at least and tacking the needless countless deaths of the past on in some attempt to present killing as heroic is twisted. It wasn't always this way but it certainly is now and buying into that is nothing to be proud of.

MrsDoyle you can't blame the armed forces for Iran and Afghanistan, it's all down to the politicians.

"They promised us homes fit for heroes. Instead they gave us heroes fit for homes"

John Sullivan. Only Fools and Horses.

(the line is spoken by Grandad in the episode where they are trying out the nuclear bunker. )

Not in this case, because I think YWNBU, but generally...

We are getting more and more fascistic and judgmental about poppies and silence. Hope for Heroes and the Invictus games and homes for veterans and on and on. But you know what? Each war is more stupid and irrelevant and kills more children and creates more terrorists and we all blindly wander into it, covered in poppies and observing silence to remember and NEVER forget. But we forget the second this is over, if we every make the connection with meaningless loss of life at all.

You know what would actually show respect and remembrance? Not sending any more young people to fight for irrelevancies.

I don't blame individual soldiers lazyarse but I despise the politicians who put them into completely unjustified and actually illegal theatres of war and then tell us to be silent and respectful. Like I say, it's political and maybe that woman in the shop didn't want to participate in a political act.

Two of my great uncles had their lives stopped at age 24 and 27 respectively in the second world war. No way would l have served her. Besides who cuts it as fine as two minutes to catch a train ffs.

Baahh - someone who has been unexpectedly and urgently called to get somewhere else? Someone who has been stuck in traffic on their way to the station? Loads of people can find themselves in a situation where two minutes make a huge difference - and then they get stuck with some wanker who is being difficult because of an idiot superstition or a bout of virtue signalling.

You were not being at all unreasonable.

Quite frankly, anyone suggesting you were or you should have served her is also being a disrespectful arse.

I work in Retail and have found that the General Public mostly don't respect the 2 mins silence and it's mainly the older generation to whom the rest of us are paying our respects!

This being said, I would've served the Customer- in silence- and revelled in smugness due to the fact that the whole experience would've highlighted her downright rudeness and lack of respect. Shameful!

As a veteran your two minutes silence is greatly appreciated and I’m touched that your store had the courtesy to announce it. Not everybody is interested in Remembrance or even honours the 2 min silence anymore and I respect that people have that right. But personally im pleased you didn’t serve her. It was your right to honour it and your employer allowed it too so I don’t see it being an issue. I hope she missed her train too!!!

Reanimated, were you the customer? If so, shame on you for not respecting another (living) person’s wishes. It’s two minutes, people died not just 100 odd years ago, but recently too. We remember them all
Oh I don’t know why I’m bothering.

Well actually with two minutes to spare if you miss your train it is because you only had two minutes to spare. A whole array of things could happen from a red traffic light to a dithering shopper in front of you to a mother with a toddler walking in front of you which could make the difference between missing it and catching it. Your argument is ridiculous and your name calling of people making a personal choice to follow a tradition says more about you than them.

I work in retail and would do (and have done) the same as you. I find it trickier in our store because we have a lot of non-English speaking customers who have no idea what’s going on and just look generally confused as to why everyone has stopped and why we won’t interact with them. It’s not them being purposefully disrespectful.

I also respect that people have the choice to make a personal decision on whether or not to respect the two minutes silence so I just keep my eyes lowered and don’t acknowledge customers at all during that time.

As a compromise, we silence our self scans but leave them running. Then anyone who does want serving during that time can use those.

If I ever did serve someone during the silence then both management and my other colleagues would 100% have something to say about it (and quite rightfully too!). Plus our manned checkouts can’t be silenced because they’re old and therefore serving her in silence wouldn’t be a possibility.

I don’t think uwbu. You wanted to observe the two minutes silence and so should she have. Like pp, maybe she should have left more than 2 minutes to catch her train. It’s a mark of respect to be silent for just 2 minutes of our busy day, it’s nothing to give up compared to what they gave up!

I can’t believe that someone upthread said that people who don’t do the two minute silence are as bad as holocaust deniers
That is so offensive.

Ok I wasn’t going to do this but I don’t do the two minute silence. I think war is abhorrent and I can’t stand the glorification of it on any level. I hate the way that the poppy has been hijacked by the right wing and become a political symbol and I can’t bare the hypocrisy of our government and monarchy virtue signalling when the lessons of the past have not been learnt and they still use working class (mainly) lads and brown people abroad as pawns.

I do respect our veterans, and I am very aware of the sacrifices made. I show my respect in my own way, I visit war graves and read literature about what happened, I give money to refugees and petition our government to make reform and use our platform on the global stage to promote peace.
I find it disrespectful that we pay ourselves on the back and say ‘remember so never again’ when it’s happening right now. Ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, tyranny and war are all happening right this second, and I know that that if I gave my life I would find that far more repugnant than someone scanning a mars bar at a till.

I don’t care if you do the two minute silence, I appreciate it’s important to you and that’s totally fine, but don’t ever compare me to a holocaust denier because I dont put on a poppy and join in.

You should have served her. You could have really caused her problems by making her miss her train. Presumably you are paid to serve customers so you should have done your job.