to start a thread for peoples' experiences of working in public facing roles

[ConcernedAuntie]

Reading earlier about a railway worker who was spat at by a traveller when asked to pull their mask up before getting on the train, got me thinking about when I used to work in local government housing and maintenance.

Personally, I think everyone should have at least 6 months in a role dealing with the general public. Until you have done it, you have no idea what it is like being on the receiving end of the entitlement and downright batshittery.

I could probably write a book but one story came to mind. Very long story short. Elderly lady moved into council bungalow. Asked me to get some shelves put up in the kitchen for her. I explained that we didn't do this type of work, only repairs and maintenance. She must have rung up every week for months. Anyway, winter rolls around and the carpenters had caught up with all the internal work and the dreadful weather was stopping all but essential external work. Following a chat with the works superintendent he decided to send a chippy round to put up some shelves on the understanding that she didn't tell everyone so we weren't inundated with similar requests and this was definitely a one off. Work gets done. Lady happy. Two weeks later I had a letter from her son asking for his mother to be compensated for the electricity said chippy had used while cutting wood and drilling holes in the wall for shelves. I swear this is true.

At the opposite end, I had a lovely tenant who lost her front door key about three times a month. I got locks changed, windows mended when neighbours had to break in for her. I got her a chain to hang round her neck with a key on - she lost it. In the end I had a supply in my drawer and when they nearly ran out I got more cut. Must have had dozens cut. Comes round to Christmas and and she very sweetly brings me in a tub of Quality Street because "I don't know what I would have done without you dear". Try to explain (loudly, because she was very deaf) that we are not allowed to accept gifts. She bursts into tears because I won't take them and I start getting hassle from others in reception wanting to know why I'm making an old lady cry. Eventually boss comes out of his office to see what all the commotion is and tells me to take the tin to keep the lady happy and when she has gone just put them on reception so everyone can help themselves. Great, wish I had thought of that. I go off to answer the phone and when I finish I think, right I'll have a couple of sweets. Get to the desk and some bastard has nicked the whole tin!

Come on Mumsnetters, there must be some great stories out there.

I've worked for many years in social housing and been sworn at, chased, threatened and had to dodge many flying objects but the encounter which stunned me the most was with an owner occupier.
She owned her own house in a rather posh village which had the usual one road of social housing in it. Someone had taken to letting their dog crap on her front garden every morning on their walk. Disgusting I know.
She rang me to complain as she was convinced it must be one of the social tenant's dogs though she had no evidence whatsoever. She would not listen to a word I said and after about half an hour of ranting, she said she was going to her MP unless I came and collected the poo and had it DNA tested to see if it was of my tenant's dogs

When I was a holiday rep back in the day, someone spat at me. Another threw a luggage trolley at a colleague.
All over a flight delay.

Ex Local government here. 20 years in customer service.
We had police in the same building and there was a gun amnesty. An old lady came in with a shopping trolley and got a shotgun out of it.
We used to deal with a lot of vulnerable people with addiction or severe mental health issues. It wasn't always easy but v rewarding.
I've been threatened too many times to count usually by abusive men trying to find out where their partners were living.
We had a one man protestor who pitched a tent outside the building. He was a lovely guy.
A woman that came in apoplectic with rage because the bailiff was taking her car at that very moment for non payment of council tax. She hadn't paid for about 10 years.
Give me all of that over some posh twat kicking off because their band H council tax pays my wages etc ad nauseam. Or how rude some of the arsehole local councillors were to the staff, demanding to jump the queue to be let in the building in front of the people who voted for them. Posh people were by far the worst.
We were a tough team and we had a very graveyard sense of humour. You either laugh or cry.

I work in housing.
Someone quite recently stabbed them self in front of me when told they were not eligible for a multiple bedroom TA property.

I used to work in a very exclusive hospitality venue and got offered £600 in cash to give oral sex in a toilet. I did not do it.

Don't know which situation has played on my mind more. Lots of other horrible situations in between.

Dentistry can be fun too
So many stories. The men who think it’s acceptable to lick my gloves because they like the rubber. The sex noises some men and one woman make

The man who rinsed out after his hygienist appointment and spat blood all over his white top - my fault apparently
Same man threatened to sue me because I asked him about his medical history- it’s a legal requirement so I told him to go ahead

Different man who refused to get out of my chair because he and the dentist fell out

The many people who are given a treatment plan agree to the cost until it’s time to pay then kick off at reception
The woman who called and asked for a specific day and time for her kids appointments- that day was fully booked Reception said no we can’t phone our five o’clock and cancel them que a big tantrum as her kids were ‘special’

And people wonder why I’m unshockable

I live in Northern Ireland and years ago I worked in the Child Support Agency dealing with part of eastern England. On one occasion I was speaking to an ex soldier who didn't like what I was telling him so he said that he wished he'd shot all of us "thick, fucking paddies" when he was on tour. That level of racism was sadly very common.

I previously worked in a very niche industry mostly serving people with plenty of money. Emotions could run high as it involved extremely valuable and easy to damage items (apologies for cloak and dagger but would be outing to say more).

The sense of entitlement was enormous, and I have had people be absolutely vile to me - shouting, swearing, complaining etc. The almost satisfying part was that there was no tantrum in the world that could affect the outcome if there was a problem - I would always do my utmost to resolve the situation but often it was in the lap of the gods.

It was amazing to me to see people, who were accustomed to solving a problem by throwing money at it, flounder when their money was no use and they had to rely on the experience and knowledge of someone (me) who barely earned in a year what they were spending on one item.

It was gruelling and I wouldn't go back to it!!

I have always worked in public facing roles mainly because I am a people person and like to try and help people. 15 years in housing and met some lovely tenants but also experienced such verbal abuse saying that I was useless or not helping them the worst ones were the ones that had purchased their own houses and look down on tenants and seem to forget they were once a tenant too. So much abuse and threats and I was always there to try and help but I couldn't produce houses out of nowhere to get people to move and I couldn't evict a family whose children were just being children and making normal domestic noise. Glad I left that role in the end.

@Fairyfalls
What did you go on to do?
I work in Housing (mostly TA) and would love to leave.

I worked in complaints for years for a supermarket and I could not believe the way people spoke to staff in the shops and thought it was OK.

The worse person I ever spoke to is hard to choose but there is one who sticks in my mind. The shops did newspaper deliveries and there was a hamlet a few miles away from the shop that had had these deliveries for years. The shop stopped them as it was too far for a teenage paper boy/girl to go and the road was very dangerous during winter and the adult who had been doing the round had a car accident. Other people in the hamlet had a little rota to go and get the papers and were happy to buy for this one woman he didn't want to go.

She called him going mad and when I explained that there had been the bad accident and there was a risk of a child hurting themselves she said 'I don't even care if a child dies getting my paper to me, as long as I get it. Why should I care?'

@housing101 ended up in a managers role for a while and structure was I had little to do with the public. Deal now with new house building and developments based within a solicitors.