Why do people feel the need to be so rude?

[username678889]

Mainly to retail / customer facing .
My dd is at uni but has a weekend job at Macdonalds . She quite often comes home to say rude staff she usually works on the drive through.
It's usually no big deal comments and she laughs them off such as sarky comments about it's supposed to be fast food if they have had to wait 30 seconds for food .
Last week some woman scowled at her my dd said was perfectly pleasant and gave her change the woman said a bit of personality wouldn't go amiss and drove off .
This morning she came home from night shift in tears to say she wants to quit wouldn't say what happened just had enough of customers shouting for various reasons waiting / ran out of McFlurrys/ stop serving breakfast crap reasons like that .
What is wrong with people that they think they buy a bloody Big Mac meal and can shout at a young girl ffs .

It is a fact that retail is shit. You need a hide of leather to deal with some customers and a god given ability not to laugh in the face of some of the utter nutters you meet. A woman once came out of a changing room with her toddler and handed my colleague an Oasis bottle of warm pee to dispose of. She was genuinely furious when none of us would touch it. There was a bin and public toilet opposite the shop!!!!

I worked in similar jobs in my teens. It's always been the same. Why, people do it, I cant answer.

I can say that I am overly nice to people in customer facing roles and call centres (my career is call centre based and I started on the phones).

Even when I am complaining, I insist in being nice about it. I feel awful if i wall away and think i was being rude.

Cannot stand rude people. I worked as a receptionist in a solicitors and the only moment I enjoyed was hanging up on rude abusive people. She should quit. No point wasting precious time in a job that makes you miserable.

YABU for calling it MacDonalds.

And some people are just arseholes and will find anything to complain about. Theres really no need at all.

People have no class and no idea.

I worked in a bakery and cafe once. The bakery owner who owned a chain of such business and used to regularly work behind the counter clean tables and serve, despite being a man of huge means, very down to earth.

Customers used to come in and treat him like the shit of their shoe just because he was serving them behind the counter. They were common as muck and rude as hell to him for no reason.

A small minority of British people are like this. It's a peculiarly British affliction. They feel retail workers or people in the hospitality are beneath them.

They have a weird attitude to service and being served. They feel they are buying the right to treat people like shit.

It's hard but you just need to roll your eyes and move on.

I don't think she should quit as it is character building unless she could find something else? I have worked in retail when younger and there are always rude, ignorant people.

Maybe give it a little longer and try not to take it personally.

People are very entitled, and I do think there is still some (wrong) snobbery about staff who work in fast food so they feel they can be blunt. I’m sorry your DD is having such difficulty with it.

Until you do a customer facing role you have no idea how hideous many people are.

I have a teenage daughter also working at McDonalds part time whilst at college.
There isn't a shift goes by when she didn't come home with a tale of something happening, someone screaming at her, fights breaking out, the police being called, kids trashing the place etc.
The way she gets spoken to by customers is horrible and the abuse she gets when the milkshake machine is broken is crazy.
I get it's annoying if you wanted a milkshake but jeez you're a grown up deal with it, there's other drinks, swearing at the 17 year old behind the counter won't change it.

I've no idea but you're right OP, there's absolutely no need for it.

I can't abide rudeness that isn't called for.

YABU for describing her as a "young girl". Last time I checked McDonald's wouldn't employ anyone younger than 16. 6 is a "young girl" not 16.

There is a special kind of arsehole that believes they are better than MacDonalds’ employees, not realising that MacDonalds is the biggest undergrad and graduate employer in the world. Help your dd understand that the problem is them not her and that most graduate employers will love the direct customer experience she’s gaining there.

Although I do agree that many of the general public are incredibly and unnecessarily rude to retail staff.

Some people are only happy making other people unhappy.
My advice to your DD is to give them a BIG smile and say thanks.
That will take the flight out of her wings, the bully that she is.

If you work in retail or fast food, the assumption is that you are too thick to do anything else. I regularly get people coming into the shop where I work and condescending to me. I generally just shrug it off, but sometimes I want to tell them how rude they are. The worse offenders are usually young or elderly.

Thanks for your replies, I agree some people do look down on them which is disgusting. I take my hat off to customer facing staff , I couldn't do it .
She also does probably the worst shifts a Friday night after people have been to the pub so some people are particularly nasty after a drink . I think it's a bad day and it's got her down . She has been looking for something else .

YABU for calling it MacDonalds.

Why?

People are just arseholes. If it’s any consolation, DH won’t employ anyone unless they’ve been in a customer facing role, like retail/catering/bar work. The skills/resilience you pick up are valuable.

I, and many of my colleagues in retail, think that everyone should be forced to do a job in retail for at least a year - like National Service.

It might make people a little more sympathetic to the plight of the poor bugger behind the counter who can't do a bloody thing about your complain but just has to stand there and take it.

I work in customer care in the fast food chain and I get it all
I’ve been threatened with a knife
Had to deal with needles/drugs
Been sexually assaulted
Dealt with being spoken to like I’m scum
Been screamed at
Broken up endless fights
Dealt with drunks

Many more
You name it-I’ve had it

But the lovely ones/kids make it worthwhile

I really don’t understand why some do what they do

The people being fasetious about the spelling of McDonald’s/MacDonalds and saying a 16 year old isn’t a “young girl” are probably the types who make rude, unnecessary and unreasonable requests to the fast food/retail workers.

That thought crossed my mind too riverside85

Lol at the irony of some people being pinnicky dickheads on this thread 😂
That’s the issue - people never think it’s them that are the rude or snarky ones

@Riverside85 yes I did laugh at the irony of the comment .

I spoke to a guy once when I was working in a contact centre. He was SO rude. Kept asking what qualifications I had and wouldn't let it go and then went "I bet you don't even have any GCSEs, do you? Go on, what did you fail? What's your qualifications?"

Me "10 GCSEs, 4 AS levels, a National diploma, a foundation degree and a BA hons in business management"

He hung up on me

Harrumph! I am most definitely not one of those rude types! But surely a "young girl" is primary school aged or younger? It just seemed like an odd way to describe someone in their late teens?