If you work with the public - are you finding things are getting scarier?

[CurdinHenry]

More aggression, more delusions to a fairly extreme degree?

As a front line hospital nurse definitely yes. I don’t mean people complaining due to the waiting times, I’d happily let people vent to me if it helps them in the moment as it’s not personal to me. However I refuse to be shouted at especially for things not related to the environment they are in such as the lack of car parking, arriving at the wrong dept thus making them late when they have a letter with clear directions on…..

it seems to some people that even going out of your way to help isn’t enough. I’ve also noticed since the pandemic especially that people are just generally more selfish and have no idea about personal space and manners. Sad really.

This is exactly the problem - no responsibility for their own actions - "you made me behave badly"

I was about to say I had one saying they'd slit my throat. It was weird as I couldn't even work out what they wanted?! They phone up, claimed they were calling 'from the finance department', but wouldn't elaborate further or give their name. When I was unable to work out what they wanted and what company they were from (if any) they called me a pussyclart and said they were coming to slit my throat right now. I have to admit I chuckled sending an email with their abuse verbatim to the MD, FD and IT manager. It was obviously protocol as it was a 'death threat' but I found it pathetic really!

Yup, work in a GP's, one receptionist quit recently due to being reduced to tears by a guy shouting at her for no reason and another is off with stress due to similar. It's mostly middle aged men as well. So much anger. There is just a general feeling of unease, and as a mixed race person I'm really concerned about racist attacks when I'm out and about as well.

I've worked in customer service for over twenty years and it's been bad for a while. I've been insulted and threatened by people since I was a teenager so I don't think its anything new. I wasn't doing anything wrong either, just not allowing people to get their own way and break the law in one case!

One stand out moment was when I working in retail a few years ago and a customer treated me like dirt. Something inside me snapped and I refused to serve her- called her out and told her she was being incredibly rude.
She left the shop, but a few days later I was called into the office as she'd made a complaint- How dare I not take her abuse!
I told my manager I was not sorry and would do exactly the same should the circumstance arise again. I also told him I wasn't paid enough to take that.

Not trying to play devil's advocate but I think conflicting information is often given before events. I've had multiple situations where instructions/directions have changed before an event with no alert sent to attendees. I've also had situations where up to three different web pages were provided for instructions and they said entirely different things (probably some just stopped being updated). I am not one to be rude or aggressive to staff (it's not their fault) but I very frequently find them rude and hostile to me.
"You should have looked at the website".

One woman accused me of AI editing a screenshot of a webpage to make a false complaint.

No it’s not but they are representing the company which is why people get frustrated with them. It is ultimately the employers fault, they’re providing substandard services and are equally creating an unhealthy workplace for their employees.

Try to reduce your news consumption. Put down your phone. Go for walks in nature.
You'll find the world is a wonderful beautiful place, not scary at all ❤

Have you

Have you read the thread

Well, over the course of two and a half hours at a retail park yesterday I, as a middle aged man, experienced the following:

In Smyths, a member of staff was sending a remote controlled car between customers feet at the (packed) customer service desk. When I stepped back to let someone out, I accidentally trod on it and he got arsey with me.

In Asda, no manned check outs were open. At the basket self-serve area the member of staff directed me to a particular till and as I was getting my first item out someone else came up, pushed me aside, and started scanning. When I turned to the member of staff he just shrugged his shoulders and said "he won't be long". This bloke was buying one bottle of whisky and he was drunk, at 11.30am. The staff member still authorised it, all while I'm standing there twiddling my thumbs.

In McDonalds, it was absolutely packed. No manned tills available - screen ordering only. The display screen showing which orders were ready wasn't working, so they were shouting order numbers out instead - the place was utter chaos. It took over ten minutes for my order to be prepared and by the time I made my way to the front, my order had been given to someone else despite the fact I had the numbered receipt for it.

Normally I'm a fairly chilled kind of person but I was ready to explode by this stage. Service staff get treated appallingly because, in my experience, they provide appallingly crap service.

I'm so sorry to those of you working in public-facing roles, I can't imagine how hard it is. As a young adult in the 1970s I had a few jobs like that and vowed to avoid them if possible, which luckily I've managed to do. People have always been arseholes, but now have more of a support framework for doing it. I used to get the impression that the worst are those at the bottom of the food chain in their own lives, so they like to make you feel shit to give themselves the illusion of power. I wish there was a magic button you could press to dissolve them into thin air.

Thankfully I don't now but have in the past over many years and would say there were always rude unreasonable and unhinged people even 40 odd years ago. What has changed I think is the lack of support for victims and consequences for perpetrator. Eg retail workers can't stop shop lifters, transport workers can't prevent fare dodging and so on. I don't have experience in health or social work settings but imagine that is even worse.

My DH has spent hours per week on the phone for several months now to HMRC trying to pay his VAT. He is stuck in a doom loop where each operator has a script and he’s passed from pillar to post with no hope of a resolution. It’s quite unbelievable. Yet if he doesn’t pay his VAT he will be chased by another part of the org. So I agree with others that people should not be aggressive, abusive or racist but I can understand the increased frustration when caught in systems that simply don’t work and try to punish you at the same time.

Actually, what's different to 40 years ago is that a much greater proportion of our lives is now in the hands of the service industries whereas in the past, we did it ourselves or not at all. And, as we become enmeshed in it, corporations are devising new ways both to entrench that dependency and to extract more money from us. If you are continually paying more for less, something will give somewhere.

Yes and this was not in person but by email and phone. After 8 years I couldn’t take it anymore and left for another job. I did enjoy that job at the beginning but being abused in your own home (post covid WFH) was awful.

I did enjoy the fundamentals of the job but logging on to abuse or picking up the phone not knowing what a side I was going to receive made me dread it. Management were supportive to an extent but not enough IMO. I was only reduced to tears once and colleagues were lovely. I refused to deal with that individual again!

I've read most of the thread but not all but fwiw - I run a food bank in a deprived area and no, I don't find things scarier now than when we started six years ago. More need - absolutely. The occasional arse, usually down to drunkenness of an attempt at machismo - maybe every three months or so. The people who were always grateful are grateful, the people who are indifferent likewise. Odd, given that we are about as frontline as it gets without being A&E - open to all, no referrals etc, hundreds of people through the door a week.

My family own a small independent funeral directors and have had a panic alarm installed for the first time in the 12 years of running it
Twice this year thugs have burst in and attempted to intimidate and force their way into the donation safe

My teen son is a student and has a part time job in a coffee shop, he often tells me about men aggressively shouting at him, or women talking down to him. People cannot accept it when he tells them the shop is closed for the day so cannot take any more orders, customers then start threatening him. He was told to smile the other day and when he apologised and the said he was concentrating, he was mocked- why do you need to concentrate just to make coffee. Some adults obviously get a kick out of being arseholes to young workers.

I lasted 2 days and 1 hour in my last job dealing with the public.

Mental illness, not mental health.

I disagree.
Companies are making it harder and harder for customers. And then when people get angry, they suddenly jumped to ‘behaving badly’ just like you’ve done.

My wheelchair got destroyed by an airline. I sent all the info but they still managed to just close my complaint. I never managed to get further than that. Never mind the fact I was stranded during the whole of holiday and it costed me £3k to replace it.
And yet when I complained through SM, because that’s the ONLY way to contact them, I git told off for pushing too much for an answer (aka asking several times) ….

But somehow being angry isn’t ok?? Come on.

There is no excuse for being nasty and rude to employees. But it must be acknowledged that many of the computer systems that make us jump through endless loops are completely inadequate. Someone up thread said that people are going to the ombudsman for no reason. I had very good reason for eventually going to the financial services ombudsman, who found in my favour and awarded me compensation. However, I do not feel that the compensation was adequate in view of the hours of uncertainty and angst that I experienced being passed from one section of the organisation to another without any hope that my complaint would be resolved.

This does strike of, now don’t be angry, you’ll look like an unhinged woman. You have every right to be angry tbh. Companies really do treat people horribly. I’m sorry that happened to you.

Right up until you walk back in the door and need to do life admin.

Because they’ve no space in prisons. They’re releasing criminals before they’ve finished their sentence. Watched the news last week where they interviewed guys coming out of the prison on early release due to no space in prisons. One guy said he was released but he was “just in for robbery”. News reporter asked if the prison was busy or full, he answered “as busy as I’ve ever seen prisons”. Repeat offender back out without serving his sentence. Just looked at him and thought, yeah he’ll probably be robbing my home soon.