To dislike the general public

[Munchickle38]

Customers - be that in a supermarket, in a restaurant, purchasers of goods/holidays/services are so rude these days. It's moved beyond acceptable behavior. Expectations are too high, everyone wants everything yesterday and service staff are subject to nothing short of abuse from some individuals who don't care a jot how they treat others.

An example; My local Sainsbury's staff have to wear little cameras now, as there have been so many assaults upon them by the general public (verbal abuse and physical abuse) that for their own wellbeing and in order to bring these individuals to book evidence is required. It's shameful, it really is. Have people lost the ability to behave decently or do they simply not care at all? It makes me angry and sad in equal measure I'm afraid to say.

I have a friend who has worked all his life in the hospitality industry. His father built up the restaurant business that he had hoped to pass over to his son (my friend.) But my friend has purposefully taken a step back from the family business, partly because he worked such long hours but also partly because he had enough of dealing with customers and their rude, entitled attitudes. He had customers swear at him, racially abuse him if orders were wrong or something went amiss, and the pressure of working under such heavy criticism and high expectation nearly drove him to have a nervous breakdown.

What is the matter with the general public nowadays? Manners cost you nothing. By all means complain if something is at fault but the way things are now it more often falls into the category of open abuse. And it's not ok to hide behind a diagnosis of anxiety. We're all anxious, each one of us in our own ways. I'm anxious - but I don't go to my local food-store and hit a member of staff with a walking cane or racially abuse someone who's trying their best to help me.

Every time I experience this behavior from people who quite frankly, should know better, I call it out and involve the police. They can then be convicted for their offences. There are repercussions for members of the general public treating staff like a piece of sh*t on the bottom of their shoe and quite rightly.

So to anyone reading this - if you're a considerate member of the general public good on you. Keep it up. If, on the other hand, you fancy abusing someone else because you're anxious/entitled/bored/selfish/impatient or just a complete cunt, know that you will be held to account.

There. All done.

@the80sweregreat I agree. It's a shame that people don't show their appreciation as much, yet are so quick to criticise.
Yes we pay for a service, but if it is done well why not say thank you/well done etc.
Make someone's day nicer & go home with a smile. There's enough awful stuff going on without adding to it.

CoffeeBeans - exactly! It's nice to be nice.

And it costs you nowt.

I hoped that key workers would be more appreciated during this crisis , but it seems not :(

I wish I loved the human Race,
I wish I loved its silly face,
I wish I liked the way it walks,
I wish I liked the way it talks,
And when I'm introduced to one,
I wish I thought "what jolly fun"!

Ds used to work in a call centre for our local bin collection company.

He used to get called a ‘fucking cunt ’ several times a day because a bin hadn’t been collected. He used to get idiots screaming and raving on the phone all the time.

He was young and laid back but it got him down.

I have worked in shops, pubs, offices and always had a customer facing role - l treat everyone with respect and good manners- especially waiters & waitresses and totally agree Op, people seem to be so much more aggressive than they used to be.

Any Call centre work must be soul destroying as they can say what they like to you without any real come back. You must be able to let it wash over you , but some days it must be hard to do that if it's relentless nastiness each day.
At least as a cleaner I could keep away from the customers , mostly! You really are invisible.

Im a nurse. SOME of the general public never seem to astound me with their shocking behaviour. I often wonder why they behave like they do and if they're the same around friends/family, and their nearest and dearest just put up with it. Most are nice though.

Broken britain

Agree - but on desperate occasions I have been grateful for the kindness of strangers.

I'm so grateful to have been on maternity leave since March because the stuff my colleague have been dealing with is mad. Customers screaming abuse at them, being threatened and even physically assaulted on one occasion.
I blame the ridiculous saying that the customer is always right. No they're actually wrong about 99%of the time.
It seems to be acceptable to be a total cunt to any poor person that works with the public.
Even pre Covid customers were often nasty and I'm dreading going back to work mainly because I fear one day I'm likely to scream back and tell them to fuck off.
I'm not allowed to though even though they can do it to me.
I hate working in retail!

I've heard people kicking off and I hate it.
I really dislike bad manners or rudeness just because they can.
Retail must be a challenge lately. It is hard enough anyway without covid in the mix.

@the80sweregreat

Any Call centre work must be soul destroying as they can say what they like to you without any real come back. You must be able to let it wash over you , but some days it must be hard to do that if it's relentless nastiness each day. At least as a cleaner I could keep away from the customers , mostly! You really are invisible.

It's been a while since I was in a call centre, but the memories are still very vivid... some customers were just awful to us, and I think much worse than they would be in person.

I was called some awful, racist, sexist and just plain offensive names. Sometimes I felt like they'd practised the insults beforehand, obviously racism and abuse was not tolerated and I usually went with a 'please stop swearing at me. If you continue I will have to end this call' which was met a few times with an even worse tirade. I got out as soon as I could because it was destroying me.

Face to face service was awful too. Not because very customer was shitty, but one shitty person could ruin your whole day and that's what stays with you. You'll remember the person hurling abuse or attacking you over the dozens who had a simple transaction.

I wonder if this is something to do with not enough people to support customer services? Not excusing it though.

E.g on hold on phone for ever, outburst of anger when you finally ( if ever get to speak to someone)

So many queues in shops. Someone who lived in the US once told me that a queue is a sign of bad customer service over there.

The problem is entitlement and a country/society that doesn't encourage any personal responsibility whatsoever for behaviours.

Businesses need to start taking action against shitty customers and I don't just mean ones who are physically abusive or severely verbally abusing. I worked in a call centre for a major supermarket during my student days and the amount of people speaking to you like shit on the bottom of their shoes was unbelievable. The weren't swearing or shouting necessarily however they were bullish, condescending, pushy, demanding etc.. Basically the company didn't give a shit about the toll that it took on staff and only put in a token measure after I'd left of being about to terminate the call after three warnings about sweating and shouting. But it had to be extremely bad/abusive language.

Companies need to step up and get the point across that they won't stand for shitty attitudes from the public.

I work in healthcare, and it's just the same, except we're expected to tolerate rudeness/abuse as part of the job. A frightened, confused patient with dementia swearing at me? Understandable. A 50yr old man shouting at me because the Dr hasn't prescribed a medication I've already asked her to do twice - not OK.

On every single one of my last few shifts, I've had patients with Covid cough right in my face, when I'm literally inches away from them, not even attempting to put their hand in front of their mouth or even turn their head. Yes I'm wearing full PPE, but still, why would you do that?!

I don’t mind people, it’s knobs I can’t stand.

Buttons, appalling behavior isn't it? I feel so sorry for you. It's not on and your also putting your own life at risk as well :(
I agree that shops and call centres should make it unacceptable to have customers talking to anyone like this but I guess it's all ' the customer is always right' etc etc.

Having worked in shops, restaurants and call centres in the past I can confirm it's always been this way! If people aren't downright rude they're really odd.

Very rarely would I get a 'normal' customer who asked for something saying please, not make any bizarre requests, then say thank you at the end.

I don't where all the rude people or oddballs hang out. None of my colleagues or friends seem this way inclined. They just turn up in shops or at the end of phone lines.

I now work with prisoners and they are far more polite and friendly than the general public in shops and restaurants!

I think its disgusting retail staff are having to wear body cameras for their own safety.
Ide like to think I'm always polite to retail workers. I do remember one occasion I did blow up at a checkout worker. I'm my defence I was 7 days overdue, dealing with a screaming toddler and sweat was pissing out of me. I did go back a few weeks later to apologise and she accepted my apology and said she assumed I had just reached the end of my tether and she hadn't given it a second thought.

I remember once seeing a Muslim receptionist in the NHS getting it in the neck for her ethnicity from some racist twat.

I apologised for him.

I once took great pleasure in saying "stop being such a massive CUNT to the shop assistant" in a posh lingerie shop up town

We were the only two people in the shop and she very clearly was not going to lamp me - she just stood there with her mouth hanging open for a moment before scuttling out

I wouldn't have done it in Aldi

Laurie, good for you!

I completely agree, OP.

Have you seen the filming of a Co-op customer who after being asked to follow the one way system pulled bottles of wine of the shelves?

I used to work in B&Q, I was only late teens, but never received any customer backlash. It’s so much worse now, I respect anyone working in those front line roles.

I simply couldn’t do it.

I'm always nice to retail/hospitality staff regardless of how I am feeling. Always smile, ask how their day is and try not to cause a fuss when something isn't right. But you aren't going to remember me. I assume most customers aren't shouting or threatening staff. It is a shame it happens but it really isn't the general public, it's a minority. I have no idea what the solution is.