To think that gen Z is completely disengaged in service industry

[Hocuspoc]

...and to just stop hoping I will get any value for my money.
No offense, generalisation is never good, but just this last week:

• Clarks, shopping for toddler shoes, usually there is this older lady there who knows exactly what are the bestsellers, what works for little ones depending on age size etc... anyway - nowhere to be found, the floor is cover by two youngsters. Neither approached to help, on their phones, I had to chase the girl around to notice us (empty shop) so I can get DS foot measured. She measured him 2 sizes up (took us some time to establish that) but long story short - every answer is 'I don't know' and shrugs. Started explaining school shoes - I reminded her he is 2. Didn't know what is discounted, what is in stock, one can only dream of some initiative like trying a similar style to confirm a size and than order...

Anyway - completely clueless, borderline rude and no indication that she cares or sees herself working there longer than a month.

Then, the other day... Entering a train station, my usual platform closed, I asked the young bloke operating the gates about it - he was literally shocked he is being asked anything, looked like I woke him up from daydreaming. Also glancing at his phone.

I will stop here, but same everywhere. No cutlery pre-set or brought with your food, rolling eyes for asking for a coffee in a proper mug because it is to stay in, I can go on forever.

Just rudeness everywhere, no professionalism, no taking pride in your work, just abysmal...

Or lie about waiting long. Had a customer who stood in an area which was not the queue. She was complaining about waiting 40 mins to get served. I only started my shift 10 mins earlier, entered work 5 mins before that. She wasn’t in. I said, I you weren’t there. She then went screaming at me.

Manager asked her to leave. A few minutes later, the manager said to look at the CCTV footage and said look at the time stamp between her entering and standing to her starting to raise her arms. 38 seconds. Yet claims to be there for 40 mins.

Presumably none of the human beings “screaming” at staff are happy go lucky individuals deciding for the fun of it to be rude and shitty. Presumably they are overloaded people who would benefit from well mannered service.

And the problem is people think that putting up with being treated like this, and apologising to the customer, giving them that and another drink free is what constitutes good customer service

People clearly don't know what it's like working in these places. I worked in a chain pub and if my manager found out I was giving free drinks to customers who ordered wrongly he would have kicked off. Either that or he would have taken it out of my (measly) tips.

Dd was a barista at David Lloyd and said the entitlement of some customers was unreal. Someone was being really rude to her once when she was busy serving someone else. Dd explained she’d deal with her once she’d finished with the other customer.

Rude woman ripped into her and called her useless and thick. Dd turned round and said “you’re being really fucking rude”

obviously went down badly. Dd did immediately apologise. Customer made a complaint. The manager was actually really nice to dd and said he knew dd wasn’t usually like this and that the customer must have been out of line initially.

I do think service staff should have an annual f bomb allowance to use against customers 😁. Because some deserve it.

Customer service staff aren't there to relieve the load of overloaded people, they're not the whipping boy of society for other people to load their frustrations at life onto so they then feel better.
People need to learn to deal with their own emotions and feelings rather than just see an opportunity to offload it onto someone who they think can't retaliate because they're in a service position.
Absolutely pathetic.

Men are the worst. They literally can’t see the wood for the trees.

Have you ever worked in menswear and seen the hissy fits when they try something on and it won’t go round their massive beer belly? They get really angry. Why doesn’t this fit. I’m a L, not XL. Your sizes are all wrong. They go beetroot red.

Have you tried maternity wear Sir? 😂

It’s all your fault it doesn’t fit, not the fact that they eat shit, drink loads of beer and look like Babapapa.

Honestly I think some people are just entitled fuckwits who think the world should revolve around them.

a lot of rudeness I’ve seen directed at staff relates to waiting. And the customer kicks off and screams at the 17yo on nmw. Who funnily enough has nothing to do with deciding staffing levels and is doing their best while the company has made cut backs 🤷🏻‍♀️

some people think they can talk to service staff like shit. They don’t generally rant and rave at the actual doctor or dentist (but will at the receptionist). And will rant at waiting and shop staff. They could control themselves but think so little of people they perceive to be beneath them that they don’t.

But elsewhere posters have said it's ok for staff to be crap, disinterested, unengaged etc because of all the surrounding factors so why is the same not true for customers? I'm it's not obviously, but if it's so unacceptable for customers to be abrupt, rude or impatient, why is it acceptable for staff?

People do need to learn to deal with their own stuff, yes. I agree. I think respect should be mutual, obviously.

I’ve not seen what you are describing. I’ve seen very very very very poor customer service many many times. I haven’t seen abusive customers.

I used to live in the Netherlands - I guarantee 100% that rude cunts of all ages exist there, too.

This is hilarious- you can have as many free online resources as the vast Internet allows but you're still not walking into a well paid corporate role at 16. Many of the young people working in retail will ALSO be studying and actively working towards a better paid career. Funnily enough because education is more expensive than previously even with all the free online information. People are also more wary of taking out significant student loans after watching the previous generation get burnt with interest rates.

Add into that the cost of housing and the cost of living crisis they're dealing with and the idea that they don't have to work if they don't want to, again is ridiculous. Many families on low incomes are now depending on their teens going into the workforce to keep things afloat. Previous generations did not have to deal with that in the same way and the salaries for what we're previously "good" jobs, are now not equivalent to the real living expense increase. So they're expected to do more, work harder, work for longer, and work for less while also dealing with all the challenges of public facing roles.

And we wonder why they're not jumping for joy in the aisles of Tesco?

Yes it is unacceptable for staff or customers to be abrupt, rude or impatient but that's not the same as disinterested, disengaged and crap. No ones expecting customers to be interested and engaged and not crap. Just civil would do, you know not rude, abrupt and impatient.

They're two different sets of behaviours that you're saying are the same, they're not.

And honestly quite often the abrupt, rude and impatient behaviour comes first, before the server has even had a chance to do or say anything to the customer at all. I'm really good at my job, but I have so many people come at me with an attitude before I've even had a chance to say or do anything, it can't be because I'm disinterested, disengaged and crap because I've not had the chance to be anything at all. But you're not going to get me falling over myself to serve you when you've treated me like that for no other reason than the job I do. You're going to get the bare minimum, delivered politely and not even an extra inch, never mind a mile.

If people are getting disinterested, disengaged and crap service on the regular then maybe they need to look at how they're behaving initially towards the people they expect to serve them. It's a power trip, nothing more, nothing less.

"I can treat you how I like and you still have to serve me and do anything I want" I just don't think the younger generation buy into this crap like my generation does, they're not willing to put up with it, and that's really not a bad thing.

There's a difference between being unengaged and and disinterested and outright rude, aggressive and abusive, and being one doesn't justify the other, and it's not going to help change things either.

They had so many resources available to study, which previous generations didn’t. Resources online for free, websites, Wikipedia, YouTube, free courses, if they have issues with minimum wage job, could have gone for higher skilled career

This is exactly the kind of attitude I used to get from people ALL the time. I did enjoy the look on one particularly snobby mans' face when I revealed I was working there to fund my Oxbridge degree. He was very embarrassed to have been so patronising and rude to someone who (shock) might actually be smarter than him.

I think you can tell a lot about a person as to how they treat waiting or shop staff Ten years on I still haven’t forgotten how rude a very wealthy acquaintance of mine was to a waiter at a chain restaurant. Yes the order had been messed up but it was a genuine mistake.

She then at the end of the meal told the waiter to take the service charge off the menu and told the ten of us not to leave a tip (I left a tip). she went so far down in my estimation. Wasn’t just what she said but how she said it.

LOL...this was exactly, word for word, what we said about ourselves in our 20s in the 1990s- Generation X. Talk about copycats.

Also I would like to inform customers that the staff you see in shops and eateries are NOT responsible for price increases, supply issues etc.

"YOU have put up the butter up by 10p again" moan customers. No I didn't.

About 7 years ago, there was a road accident on the entrance to the distribution centre, 35 miles from where the store is. No truck could leave the DC. Because of that our deliveries were late. Instead of arriving 5-6am, they arrived mid afternoon. Customers were asking why we haven't got X, Y or Z in. We explained that our deliveries are messed due to the above. "That's not good enough".

I remember very well back in the 60's and 70's exactly the same criticism being levelled at teenagers in shops, pubs, cinemas etc back then. In fact, if someone was trying to describe really bad service they'd tell you to imagine a "disinterested 17 year old shoe shop assistant" or "a 16 year old working on the knicker counter in Woolworths". These were well worn phrases at the time. Plus ca change!

I agree. One of the things I like most about my DH is the way he handles himself. He has this saying “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. He’s generally referring to the imbalance of power customer to server.

In the 31 years I’ve known him I’ve only ever seen him get cross with a place twice. We eat in some pretty decent places and his expectations are high. If there’s a problem he’ll be really assertive, yet calm. I’ve never ever seen him kick off at anyone.

If you rant at staff that says more about you than them. You are decidedly lacking in class.

Christ, you sound like a fucking delight. What age bracket do you reckon will be wiping your nasty arse when you're old and incapacitated?

I take it from your smug attitude neither you nor your DH claim the state pension and never will?

I think there is a spectrum to be honest. I take student placements. I've had one student who was bright, kind, funny, keen and really ready to put the work in. A little immature but that comes with age and experience and another who didn't understand why she needed to turn up on time, put minimum effort in with the learning. I think she thought that she would be able to just walk into a job with her degree alone. I failed her placement and she genuinely wondered why. She challenged me and I had to tell her that never in my 20 years in this role have I ever seen anyone less suited to this area of work. I had phone calls from her dad asking why I'd failed his "little dolly" ffs.

Great attitude 👍🏻

Most of us started off in jobs that wouldn’t allow us to get a mortgage, that’s normal. Doesn’t mean you should be rude and dismissive.

I wonder where they all come from given that all these posters' children are such bright eyed, eager, deferential yet intelligent examples of humanity 🤣

In the 45 years I’ve been alive, I’ve never once got “cross” or “really assertive” with a place.

Just a “Whoops! My order is wrong, could you help?.” Covers it nicely.

M&S Sale, I brought a couple of items (in Sale area) without tags to check price, at the till. Young one tells me they’re full price.

I left them with her. She then returns the items to the Sale area. Where her older colleague had been busy sorting all morning…