to have complained about the disabled worker in Tesco?

[twigtree]

There's a long-standing staff member at my local Tesco Express who has difficulty walking and is usually on the till. While I appreciate he has mobility issues, his customer service has been consistently bad for years. He regularly sighs and seems annoyed by basic requests like a receipt or pointing out a wrong price. He also shouts if I don't hear him the first time.

I generally use the self-service to avoid him, but the other day I had an issue where the till kept erroring (someone else's bag was briefly on the scales). He was the one assisting, and despite my explaining the situation, he just stood there and shouted at me to remove the item, even after I had. I had to tell him firmly not to speak to me like that.

I've now complained to head office about this pattern of rude behaviour. AIBU?

Without any due respect, I think your behaviour is awful on so many levels.

OK, how?

His disability is an issue if Tesco management are tippy toeing around him because of it. You were right to complain and I hope Tesco take your complaint on board and address it.

I do believe that many people would hesitate to complain about someone with a visible disability. It’s partly empathy. You can see with your own eyes that the person struggles with certain aspects of their life and you put your own spin on how that might cause them to be generally irritable. But it’s also fear that any attempt to address the complaint will somehow end up focussing on the disability and not on the person’s poor behaviour. But really, the staff member should be held to account just like any other apparently non disabled person.

I don’t think it’s relevant that he’s disabled. He’s just rude.

I have cashiers in supermarkets shouting because of the noise, and ppl cannot always hear each other. And I don't report them because I don't like being shouted at.

It’s entirely relavent that he is disabled because it will absolutely influence how any complaint is received and acted upon. Management will likely go above and beyond to avoid any perception of negative bias which unfortunately means there is an increased chance the complaint won’t be taken forward in the same way it would be for an able bodied person.
Of course the majority on here will seize the opportunity for a pile on to OP.
OP you are right to complain.

I've noticed that a lot of retail workers are worshipping one of the SM (fake) retail workers where the character is a dick to customers very funny. Something that started as fantasy venting has turned into egging others on. Rude (in retail and generally) and leaning into bullying, rudeness and mosning about work is normalised.

@twigtree It's really not, poster is talking shit. Being disabled doesn't give you a right to be rude.

I wouldn't ever "report" any shop assistant for anything that wasn't actually illegal or dangerous. I'd just tell them to go fuck themselves if I thuoght they were being rude enough. Handle things like this yourself instead of getting their employer involved.

His disability is irrelevant. If he’s being a knob he needs disciplining.

It's never unreasonable to complain about consistantly rude staff. I'd've done the same.

What is with Mumsnet and people having personal vendettas with shop workers? It's nuts

I voted you YABU because there was no need to label a rude person as also being disabled. If he was rude, he was rude. Just like able-bodied rude people. No need to mention disability.

Being disabled has nothing to do with you being rude or not. OP is somehow connecting the two - at least thought it was worth mentioning his disability in this thread. That Is awful. Why is his disability relevant at all? Lots of rude people have jobs.

It sounds like this man has an intellectual disability- my relative with an ID speaks loudly and without intonation. If they raised their voice it probably would sound like shouting. The sighing and apparent impatience would also be flags - as well as his visible physical disability.

You have seen him struggling.
You see that Tesco accommodate him with a stool.
I agree with @Hwi yabvu.
And I don't think you'd ask if you didn't feel some guilt.

Interesting to see a few of these type of threads recently. There was one about a childcare worker too. Another about a co worker with MH issues taking too long to do tasks etc.

People need to develop more patience and empathy because it seems everyone wants those with disabilities in work but then complain when it’s at their workplace …..

Maybe he should give up and go on benefits and then you can post about him again. Also you sound weirdly fixated with him. People are dickheads, report him or don’t.

Unless they pushed me or called me an offensive name or something very serious, I just don’t think I could bring myself to complain about a retail or hospitality worker, rightly or wrongly. It’s a stressful job, they deal with the general public all day (who can be pretty awful), often on low pay, no job security, zero hours contracts etc. I just couldn’t do it.

There's a lady on the tills at local tesco that comments on everything you buying...I just avoid her till. Could you do similar

I moved onto self scan so I could avoid him but then there was an issue and he had to come and help so impossible to avoid.

So it is fine for a retail worker to behave how they want because they have poor working conditions?

Maybe he could just not shout and be rude to people?

The OP has mentioned his disability because we live in a world where sensitivity and being offended takes precedence over treating people with fairness and kindness. You just never knows nowadays when you are overstepping the mark and need to cut someone some slack for whatever reason. There is also potentially a notion that being disabled absolves you from behaving in a respectful manner, can you imagine the headlines… Tesco fires disabled employee for bad customer service. Probably something most corporates would avoid.

The OP is right to question and gather opinion because you just never know anymore!

If he's unloading his frustration onto customers, he's in the wrong job.